In the interest of future visitors I will tell you not to get your rental car through Budget. The lady we dealt with was a big liar and pretty much bullied us into an upgrade. Her sales pitch for the upgrade is that 3 out of the 4 top “attractions” on the island require a 4x4 vehicle and that our vacation will just be OK with a regular vehicle. We said we would be hiking 2 of the 3 and she said they are extremely long difficult hikes, “I’m a strong, avid hiker and I would never even attempt those hikes. By the time you make it one way you’ll be so exhausted that you’ll have to beg for a ride back!” Liar, liar, pants on fire. Anyway, the other employee agreed with her and we asked for a price. $330 USD for the upgrade (not including tax, insurance, etc,) we said no. She then swiped her mouse, pressed one key on her computer and said since we flew with WestJet it would only be $180 for the upgrade. Long story short, we decided we would go with the Jeep.
I’m not going to pretend I didn’t enjoy our time in the Jeep, but I have a few more thoughts to share. Firstly, a 2-door Jeep is a highly impractical vehicle if you have any kind of luggage. Secondly, we absolutely, 100% could have done those hikes and I bet you could too. We saw average people, seniors, small children, people in sandals, hard-core hikers, teenagers… everyone.
Moving along now.
We got on the road, drove the 30 minutes to our hostel in the pitch blackness and promptly passed out. Because we were travelling West, I was up by 5:30am and I loved it! Being a morning person on vacation is so pleasing, especially in a place that gets dark so early in the day, it really allows for more time to enjoy.
Our first stop was breakfast and I opted for a donut since I had already had a nutritional shake. Let me just tell you, I love donuts, pretty much all donuts, but this one was disgusting. The donut is actually a Malasada, a Portuguese treat similar to a donut but with no hole. I’m not sure if they are all like the one I had or if I just picked a bad place to try it. I was planning to try another one but it just didn’t appeal after the first one. It was the wettest, oiliest donut ever; I could literally wring the oil out of it.
I realize this post is pretty negative so far, I promise it’ll get better!
Our very first destination of the trip was to the green sand beach, Papakolea, on the southern tip of Hawaii and coincidentally also the southernmost part of the USA. This is one of the places that we allegedly needed the Jeep for and wouldn’t be able to hike, so we hiked.
The trail, which is more of a maze of different dirt tracks, is about 4.5KM each way. The way there took over an hour because we didn’t know where we were going and because I needed to stop often to take photos and enjoy the sea breeze.
Our eventual arrival at the beach was a much welcomed break from walking in the sun. I very much enjoyed taking my shoes off and feeling the ocean for the first time in months while enjoying our beautiful surroundings.
I should tell you, the green sand is not very green. If you are expecting bright green or even obviously green sand you will be disappointed. Maybe in just the right lighting with your eyes squinted it’ll be what you thought, but don’t trust what Instagram shows you. Not to discourage you from visiting though! It was a nice hike to a picturesque beach and that should be enough.
The way back felt much longer and hotter but was met with two and a half hours of air conditioned driving to check into our Yurt. Despite being in Hawaii, I didn’t expect to get burnt on my first day, but I underestimated the sun again. I was too distracted by the cool breeze to realize it was happening.
From South Point we drove back to Captain Cook to buy groceries for the week. Eating from the grocery store instead of restaurants is a huge factor in keeping my vacations from being too expensive. We knew we had a kitchen but weren’t sure what appliances we’d have beyond a microwave and mini fridge. We stuck to quick, simple foods that would be easy to make, fill us up and didn’t cost much.
While shopping we made the last minute decision to drive to the top of Mauna Kea, the world’s tallest mountain, for sunset. Unfortunately, that timing meant we had about 20 minutes to check in, change, kick out the resident yurt cat and get back on the road for another 2 hour journey.
Road trips in Hawaii can be intimidating. I hit an animal for the first time in my life but I’m pretty sure it was fine… (I will continue to tell myself that!) My ears popped constantly from the elevation changes. I drove 14,000 feet up in 2 hours. Just letting you know.
We stopped at the visitor centre, as recommended, to acclimatize to the altitude. The centre is just over 9000 ft elevation and is a good place to check the weather at the top, prepare your body to climb further and read the signs telling you how to get back down once you get up.
From 9000 to 14,000 feet was certainly the scariest and also the most thrilling drive I’ve ever done. Most of the way is gravel, there are no guardrails along the way, it is fairly steep and very bumpy. I laughed like mad the whole way up to keep myself from screaming every time I got near an edge and considered how far down it is.
I was instantly blown away when we reached the top. The view up there is truly one of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen and would recommend a visit to anyone who can handle it, just keep in mind the health risks and temperature. It wasn’t half as cold as people make it out to be, but maybe I’m also just a tough Canadian coming out of a long winter..
I could do little more than stare at the world in front of me while we were up there and I would have been happy to watch the clouds for hours. Unfortunately, the sun set pretty soon after we got there and visitors are only allowed to stay at the summit for 30 minutes after sunset. And trust me when I say, photos do not do this place justice.
The road back down to the visitor centre seemed a lot longer in this direction but wasn't scary at all. If I'm going to go over the side of the mountain at least I didn't see it coming in the pitch black night... You have to drive in low gear to get down and I'm not going to pretend we didn't have to Google this before attempting. We put the Jeep in 4-low and neutral and rode the break all the way back to the paved road.
It was a long way home in the darkness but so worth it. I had a pretty awesome first day despite driving for nearly 10 hours!
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