Back to Hawaii...Day 7...

Today was a wonderful day to go flying. And that is exactly what Dean and I did, while Billy and Anna stayed in town and caught up on some much needed rest. We got up early and headed to the airport to catch a tour plane that would fly us over nearly the entire island. It was an amazing flight!

We started out flying south, over coffee bean fields, huge lava flows, and amazing views of the southwest coastline. We were seeing from the air what we drove over on the ground just a few days earlier. What a beautiful sight. We got to see Hualalai, the northernmost volcano and the oldest one that sits to the east of Kailua-Kona. It's interesting because there are always clouds surrounding the mountains -- they create their own weather.

As we neared the southern tip of Hawaii, we could see a great view of Mauna Loa, or "Long Mountain." Then, as we rounded the southern tip and headed east, the steam pouring out of Kilauea volcano became visible and looking toward the coast, we could see the steam coming from the fissures in the earth and then a huge amount of steam where lava was meeting the ocean. We couldn't see the red lava flow like we had from the boat at dawn on Saturday morning, but it was impressive none-the-less.



We then headed north to the northern part of the island. We sort of by-passed Hilo, as it seems to always be under clouds and rains there a lot. As we continued north, we could see Mauna Kea and the huge telescopes up on top. Quite a different view from the one we had there on Friday.

Flying further north, the huge Parker Cattle ranch came into view and the "fingers" of rain forest that stretched toward the ocean. It was in stark contrast to the gray and black of the old lava flows that dominate the western side of the island. It was beautiful. There were many, many waterfalls in this area and some of the country was so remote that the only way in and out was by back country backpacking. Our pilot flew us over a waterfall that he had hiked to to go swimming in the pool at the bottom of the fall. It was breathtaking.


We flew over the relatively new town of Waimea, and Dean made a mental note to drive back there later. This part of the island isn't that far from where we are staying. Continuing our flight west now, we approached the north-western shoreline and then continued south to the Kona airport. Our pilot pointed out several of the big hotels complexes that line the north-western shore. He also pointed out some beautiful white sand beaches.


Back on land, we had a chance to reflect on what we had just seen and decided to take a nice, quiet walk on the Temple grounds back in Kona. It didn't take a very long time to find it, as the nice girl at the "Del Sol" shop in town told us how to get there! She was LDS and she and her husband were runnning the shop, which is a Sandy, Utah company. Small World.


The Temple grounds were beautiful. It was closed, as they were doing some work on the inside of it. There was lumber everywhere near the front entrance. We walked, sat down on a nice bench and just filled our spirits with the sacredness of these grounds. Visiting Temples is my favorite thing to do. It took me back to our honeymoon trip to New Zealand, when Dean talked our driver into taking a side trip to visit the New Zeland Temple near Aukland. I will never forget that act of kindness.


After visiting the Temple, we drove back to pick up the kids and headed north to the beautiful white sand beaches we had heard about. On the way, we stopped at a wonderful shopping center to purchase lots and lots of fun gifts to bring home. The beach was beautiful. We stayed there for about an hour, soaking up the sun, and cooling off in the wonderful water -- until -- Dean got stung by jelly fish! Then, they closed the beach to swimming! What a bummer.
We packed up then, and continued our journey north to visit the Pu'ukahola Heiau National Historic Site. There is a huge rock structure there, built by slaves for King Kamehameha as a "Temple". All of those rocks were hauled by hand and handed up the hill via a line of workers handing them one rock at a time along the line and placed at the top. I cannot imagine such a feat! Much like the Pyramids in Egypt, I suppose!

After we left the site, we drove to Waimea and toured around the little town. Dean wants to come back some day and stay there. It doesn't have so much tourist traffic. Driving home, we caught some beautiful sunsets.

Ah! The perfect ending to a perfect day. Tomorrow, we fly home! It will be a sad day.