Oahu

We arrived at Honolulu airport in the morning and directly picked up our rental car to drive to our accommodation, both tired from the flight and only wanting to take a (long) nap. We booked an AirBnB for the whole time we’d spent on Oahu as we thought it would just be nice to have a base after travelling through New Zealand. Oahu is small enough to explore all the areas without having to move between different accommodations all the time. You might think we’d go for Honolulu, but instead we chose Kailua as our base as it was much quiter and had a beach in walking distance, though we wouldn’t need that really as the weather wasn’t good to us. But there were still a few opportunities to take a dip into the ocean during our stay on this very diverse and beautiful island.

We basically planned our days with visits to the different areas of the island. One day we’d go to Honolulu and hike up to Diamond Head, which is an easy hike with breathtaking views of Honolulu and the ocean. The other day we’d drive up Northshore with some nice beaches like Sunset Beach or Turtle Bay, see turtles at Laniakea Beach and have dinner in a nice restaurant with sunset views such as Haleiwa Beach House.

We also booked an ATV tour at the Kualoa Ranch to see some movie sites of films and shows like Jurassic Parc, Godzilla or Lost. You wouldn’t know if there were no signs, but as a movie fan it’s a nice tour and it’s definitely fun to drive around in your own ATV in this beautiful place.

But one of my or even the personal highlight was one of the most easy hikes (if you can even call it that) on the island: the Makapu’u Lighthouse Trail. We did this hike when we were exploring the southeastern part of the islands and I didn’t expect these views. The hike is really easy, it’s just following a paved road for a while going up a little, but you’ll be rewarded with amazing views. There is also a Lighthouse as the name of the trail would suggest, but that’s rather irrelevant compared to the ocean views you get at the end of the trail. Also, if you’re lucky to be at the right place at the right time, you might see whales while walking the trail. I wasn’t really able to capture one while we were able to see them, but Caroline saw some whales and I made photos of the waves after they were going under the water again. At least I’ve got some pictures of a swimming turtle in the ocean. Good Luck if you’re going!

We also visited the Pearl Harbour Memorial to learn something about US history, including the USS Arizona Memorial. This was such a different experience, of course, but in my view it’s important to take that in as well when visiting other countries, to learn about history and culture.

These five and a half days on this island felt very relaxing (having Acai Bowls on a daily basis definitely helped to relax) even though we’d done and see a lot during these days. The weather wasn’t always nice, there was more rain than expected and the temperatures weren’t over 25 degrees celsius a lot, but I’m glad we started on this very diverse island, considering we’d almost throw it out of our itinerary for Kauai and only left it in because we’d go there anyway because of the airport.

Maui

There is not many ways to go from island to island, anymore. Actually, in 2018 there was only one airline that we found providing flights between them, so we booked one with them (Hawaiian Airlines) to go to our next destination. We again booked an AirBnB for the whole time of 6 days. Unfortunately, we didn’t know that Kula wouldn’t be the perfect place to stay. The AirBnB was great, for sure. There was a nice pool, the room was good and comfortable and they provided snorkelling gear to take with you to the beach. The only problem was that it appeared to be always cloudy in that part of the island (I guess the only one to blame for that is Haleakalā National Park). We’d only drive 10 minutes in any direction and the sun was shining again. Apart from that it was a good location to go to the different places we wanted to visit.

We planned three whole days in advance: The western part of the island including Lahiana, Haleakalā National Park and the Road to Hana.

The day on the western part was more for going to beaches, explore the coast in general and stroll through Lahaina and its shops a little. We had also booked a Luau, a cultural experience of food, drinks, stories of the culture and history as well as dancing. Definitely a great experience, a little expensive, but there’s an open bar which a lot of other people took a little too seriously.

Haleakalā National Park was very different to that, of course. This park is named after the volcano Haleakalā that takes up 75% of the island of Maui. It’s summit is at 3055 meters and you an actually drive up to that point with your car. Its a paved road and easy to drive, just watch out for mountain bikers who love to drive that road downwards. We decided to go to the park for two reasons: We wanted to hike into the crater, because how often can you actually hike into a crater of a volcano? We went for the Sliding Sands Trail (Keonehe`ehe`e). There’s actually two ways to hike that trail. First, just go down for a while and back up again, depending on your available time and fitness. Second, hike down, change to the Halemau`u Trail and get a ride up (or down if you want) to the parking lot again. We went for the first option as we didn’t want to gamble if there’s someone taking us up again. Also, you can adjust it to your needs, as the other option takes you about five to six hours in total. Also, be aware that there is no shop at the top (for food and drinks, for example), and there is no gas station in the park. But back to the hike: So we hike down and gave ourselves a time limit when to go back up again to be in time for sunset. Of course we calculated the way back taking us longer, because it’s going up and - as they say - it’s getting more exhausting the more you hike down. The hike itself felt as if you were hiking on the moon. The weather, again, wasn’t really helping with sending all these clouds blocking the supposably breathtaking (they were anyway) views into the crater. It wasn’t getting better the more we hiked, so eventually we went back up a little earlier than we thought and to have some time to get a parking lot at the summit for sunset. There is actually two parking lots, one for the hiking trail we did (and others) and one at the summit for sunrise and sunset views. We were good in time, so we drove up and explored the area a little in terms of where to set up a tripod for example, however it wasn’t as busy as expected. Anyway, watching a sunset at 3055 meters above the clouds and at the summit of a volcano on the island of Maui - that experience is truly something special! Don't forget to bring some warm clothes and a blanket to either warm you additionally or to sit on while watching the sunset. We had Zero degrees Celcius up there at sunset.

The third day trip we planned was the Road to Hana. It’s basically really a road leading to the town of Hana on the eastern part of the island. It starts in Paia, is a 104 kilometer long road and follows the coastline. What’s so special about it is the nature you’ll encounter on the way. There are lots of waterfalls, bays and beaches, hiking opportunities in the rain forest and little shops offering fruit, ice cream or smoothies. From a photography perspective it wasn’t my favourite place as I’m usually struggling with trees and forests, and there’s a lot of that, but from a tourist and nature perspective it was truly amazing. Just make sure that you go early (we started in Paia around 8 am) because the road is very popular and it’s windy roads don’t let you overtake over vehicles. There’s also not many parking lots, actually, so sometimes it’s tricky to even get the opportunity to get to a hike or a waterfall. People then get creative and park on the street or wherever they like, making it even harder to navigate along the road. Also, many of those beautiful spots along the way don’t have a sign, so you have to watch the miles you’ve driven to not pass by. It still happened to us, even though we were tracking our route. We did this as a day trip but you can also book a night in Hana itself, though we’ve been told it’s quite expensive and its manageable to it in one day. Just make sure you’re going back in time as it gets dark early and you have to plan at least two hours for the drive without stopping (also there is no gas station, so make sure you won’t stop because your out of fuel), especially when there’s a lot of traffic in the evening with all the tourists ending their day trip as well. You could go back along a street through Haleakala National Park, too, but this one wasn’t paved and you would have needed a 4x4 for this which we didn’t have. Our most favourite spots were Twin Falls (Mile 2.5), the Waikamoi Nature Trail (9.5), Haipua‘ena Falls (11.5), Upper Waikani Falls (aka O‘ Three Bears Waterfalls, 19.5), Pua‘a Kaa State Wayside Park (22), Glen‘s Coconut Ice Cream (27.5), Wainapapana Black Sand Beach (32.2) and the Wailua Waterfall which is actually located behind the town of Hana at Mile 45.

Apart from these day trips, of course we made some time to relax at the beach, do some snorkelling and we went on a whale watching trip to see some male humpback whales fight over a female.

Big Island

I directly voted for Big Island when we decided to go to Hawaii during our four month break because of the Volcano National Park. I’ve never seen actual lava before, so that’s what I was looking for and I’m happy to tell that I did! We spent the first half of our stay on the island near Hilo to explore that side of the island and especially the Volcano National Park. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain almost the whole 3 days. We weren’t able to go to the summit of Mauna Kea due to the bad visibility, so we went to the Volcano park instead, to Thomas A. Jaggar Museum to be exact. You’ll get great views of the Halemaʻumaʻu crater of Kīlauea volcano when it’s getting dark as the lava shows off really. We had also planned a full day of hiking in the National Park the next day, and we went and hiked a little, but the weather was so bad that you couldn’t see much and it wasn’t too much fun, either. We still tried a couple of places, but it just shouldn’t be. At the end of the road, when you’ll get to the coast almost at sea level, the weather turned around, but if you don’t want to walk to the coast where you sometimes can see lava going into the ocean (the hike itself can actually be dangerous), then there’s not much to see there beside Hōlei Sea Arch. Fortunately, my helicopter flight which got postponed could take off on our last day in the area and it was amazing. I booked a door off flight, so I could really feel the heat when we were able to fly above the Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater for a few seconds. We also saw some lava streams along the flight and I could capture some nice photos of them as well. Not a cheap experience, of course, but so worth it!

The second half on the island we spent in Kailua-Kona, which is so different from Hilo, not only weatherwise! Especially after that much rain it felt like paradise. We enjoyed the sun, the beaches, the sunsets. I specifically remember Kailua Bay and Honaunau Bay which were great for snorkelling, and you can also see turtles at Honaunau Bay or Punaluʻu Beach (Black Sand Beach). All in all, a great place to end your stay on the island and Hawaii in general!