Friday, November 12, 2010

Hawaii

Last weekend it was finally time for my best birthday gift so far: a long weekend trip to Hawaii. It just happened to be right the weekend after our 13th anniversary - which gave us even more reasons to indulge and celebrate.
Some of you might not be fully aware of just how "in the middle of nowhere" Hawaii is: it's a 5 hour flight from LAX, that's how far out there it is!
We decided to visit the Big Island, and stayed just north of Kona. We arrived at night time, so we woke up the next day to all the amazingness of Hawaii: palm trees, breakfast right next to the ocean and the pool. We spent our days exploring the island and being lazy - a great combo.
The Big Island is divided very clearly into to landscapes and climates. One side (where our hotel was at) is completely covered by black rough looking lava, the sun shines 99% of the time and there are some amazing beaches. The other side is lush and green, very tropical and rainy.
To give you an idea how crazy the weather changes can be I'll tell you what we did just on the first day.  We had breakfast in the sun by the beach, at noon we were walking through tropical plants, getting completely drenched to see an amazing waterfall. Later on that day we visited the active (yesss! active!) volcano in windy cold conditions, stopped at a warm black sand beach just before sunset and headed to the hot tub right next to the ocean after dinner!
The great thing is that the weather in Hawaii stays pretty much the same all year round, so it's the perfect destination if you can travel while nobody else is on vacation.
Frangipani (Plumeria) Trees everywhere 
Hotel Beach


Turtles taking a nap at the hotel beach




Snorkeling with turtles


Banyan Trees
Akaka Falls

Natural hot steam vents
The active volcano! 
Rainbow
Valley covered by lava

Black sand beach
Better run if a tsunami comes
Landscapes

Waipi'o Valley
Sunset

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