Frugal Bastard's Hawaii Trip 2007 - 25/5/07

This morning we needed to go to the supermarket. There were three shopping centres nearby on the map but I asked a delivery guy for directions and he showed me how to get to SackNSave. Drove around town a bit before finding it. The bill for three days groceries came to US$80 and that included US$13 of savings for picking up a makai'i card (type of loyalty card) which offered significant savings.

I tried to pay with travellers cheques and the checkout machine wouldn't input the cheque number. This created a wait for close to 15 minutes for the transaction to take place before receiving my receipt.

We had a large turkey and ham roll for lunch and it was nearly all meat. Can't believe what people will eat in this country. Miky wanted to stay in the hotel so Yu-Jin and I took the car to the volcano.

Weird banyan tree in Hilo


We visited the steam vents (very hot), the Jaggar Museum, a few craters (Yu-Jin almost lost his hat down one and had to crawl under a fence to retrieve it), Thurston Lava Tube and Kilauea Iki before driving another 20-25 miles down the coast to see the lava. From the car park it was about a four mile hike and we didn't have a torch or enough water so didn't attempt it.

Steam vents

Steam vents sign

Kilauea Caldera

The Steaming bluff (Akanikolea) at Kilauea Caldera looks like it's on fire

Earthquake reading from Hilo yesterday

Kilauea Caldera is desolate - the spot where Yu-Jin nearly lost his hat

Thurston Lava Tube - big, cool and wet

Kilauea Iki

Lava flow from in the 1970s - just missed my car

Active lava flow - this bit is dead though

Pahoehoe lava - very much like rope



Surreal lava


It was 8 o'clock before I got back to the visitor centre and I rang Miky to tell her that we would be late. Arrived home at 9pm after stopping at Taco Bell for some tacos, of all things.

As we left Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park we were greeted with a road block. The ranger asked me if I had been visiting the park and told me that they were checking for drink-drivers. Had I been drinking tonight? No. I even mentioned that, "I don't even drink," and the ranger said bewilderedly, "Don't even drink?"

Miky had cooked tuna as part of tea and it was delicious. Can't buy tuna like that back home.