The Big Island: Kayaking in Hilo

Tuesday, August 23rd

Larry rose early this morning, and spent his day in Hilo on a crater and waterfall tour and hike. The hike sounded like more than the girls and I wanted to undertake; we had plans of our own. And those plans started out with sleeping in!

After a leisurely morning, we gathered our belongings and headed out for a kayaking adventure. The two-person kayaks left our party of three with an odd-person out. Thus, I was paired up with a friendly, outgoing woman named Brenda. This was my first experience kayaking, although I have certainly put in plenty of canoe experience over the years. So, the general concept was there. After some discussion between me and my partner, I took the front position, with Brenda steering in the rear.

We set out from a black-sand beach with an overlooking monkey pod tree, and took off paddling across Hilo Bay.

  

We could see our destination beneath a bridge 1 1/2 miles across open water. Seemed straightforward enough; but straightforward was not on our kayak's agenda. For some reason, all the other kayaks were paddling in a nice, straight line. Ours zigzagged all over the place! At first we tried to blame it on current, but none of the other kayaks seemed to be having our problem. Was it my bum right shoulder? (We were listing to the right.) Or poor steering from the rear component? Some combination of the above? With no answers, we continued our "scenic route" across the bay.

    

Oops! Just before the bridge, one of the other kayaks went over! Thankful it wasn't us, we meandered over to the bridge where we entered the Wailuku River, joined the other three kayaks, and waited for the water-drenched pair to be uprighted.  While we waited, we paddled around idly, giving our tired arms a rest.

     

The river was lined with banyan trees with their prison-bar like trunks and trailing air roots. We paused for awhile beneath one, admiring the surrounding flora, including wild ginger, and looked for sea turtles rumored to live in these waters - which sadly, we never found.

    

Before long, we arrived at the prize, and discovered why this river's name translates to "water of destruction". A grouping of half a dozen waterfalls greeted us at the end of our route, cascading down lava-formed cliffs to the river below. So beautiful and such power!

    

One of our guides climbed up to the top of one cliff and dove into the water below.



None of us was that adventurous, but we did kayak beneath one of the falls. Pretty cool!

This video, compliments of Brenda, shows Sarah and Emily taking a dunk beneath one of the falls...



The trip back was tougher due to choppier water. Brenda and I continued to zigzag - now listing to the left! - but, having learned how to correct our course, kept a steady pace. We chatted along the way, and I was surprised to learn that she was the hypnotist on board, hired to do hypnotist shows for entertainment, as well as seminars throughout the week. What fun! (Sarah and Emily told me later they knew it all along, as they'd attended one of her performances earlier in the week.) Too bad she couldn't have hypnotized us into paddling in a straight line!

Despite our crooked course, we were the first to arrive back at the take-out point, thankful that we stayed upright the entire time. We greeted the other kayakers as they made their way back, and enjoyed splashing around at the end of the trip was a welcome way to cool off and reward ourselves for a job well-done.

  

We had read before our cruise that the evening's trip from Hilo to Kona passed spectacular views of lava flowing into the sea, making a breathtaking show that was not to be missed. Strangely, there was no mention of this in our daily cruise ship's newsletter. We later heard that the tsunami from Japan's earthquake earlier in the year had interrupted that event. Disappointing, but you can't argue with Mother Nature...