Living on the Big Island - Information

[davephan]

Originally Posted by Irish Eyes_Mrs. Z

The voggiest part of the Big Island we experienced was right up at Kilauea crater, both times we visited (once by day, once by night). Both days, the measuring devices up there said that the area we were in was in the high/unhealthy SO2 area. You could see it, and even vaguely smell it, but despite all that, it didn't bother my eyes, lungs or head(ache) at all. I found that curious, considering how bad my allergies are here at home. I may be wrong, because my experiences all come from a 2 week visit to the BI last February, but one would think that, if you want to know how Vog affects you, that visiting Hawaii Volcanoes Nat'l Park and heading over to the lookout where you can see Kilauea's smoking crater would be the place to go. The whole place was grey with Vog on the days we visited. It costs to get into the park, but the pass is good for an entire week. If you get a good air day one visit, you could always try a couple of more visits on different days. Sooner or later, I'll bet you'd find yourself among the Vog up there.

We did stop at the Hawaii Volcanoes Nat'l Park and saw the VOG rising from the volcano, but didn't have any effect. I don't recall smelling it either. When we stopped by, there was a nasty cold east wind which blowing all the VOG away from us at the time. We didn't stay very long because the weather was kind of nasty cold at the time. My wife and sister in law hunkered in the car to keep warm. I listened to the ranger talk about the volcano with the crowd of people, dressed in my shorts and t-shirt. But I smelled, felt, and was impacted by the VOG more than once when driving through the Captain Cook area.

We quickly learned after that event to be prepared when driving around the island. You should bring along several sets of clothes. Shorts and a t-shirt for along the coastline in the warm areas, swimming suits, towels, and an umbrella, plus long pants and a wind breaker for the higher elevations around the Volcano area of the island. We didn't do the trip to the summit. A winter jacket would be needed up there. We tried not to seek out the colder areas since we have to put up with too much cold weather, much colder than that in Minnesota. In mid-June, the weather is very nice in Minnesota, but it's only going to last a few months at the most, before the weather turns rotten again.

We were driving around a lot around the Big Island and tended not to stay long at any given area. Since we stayed in Waikoloa Village and Honokaa on two different one week visits, it's harder to spend much time visiting the areas on the south side of the island because of all the driving time. We might stay somewhere in the south next time, maybe somewhere around HPP. We really liked that area south of Hilo, it's a beautiful environment even though there were a lot of downed large trees along some of the roads the last time we visited, but the talk about all the criminal activity in that area is disturbing.

[Irish Eyes_Mrs. Z]

We must have got lucky while staying in the Puna District in regards to crime. Of course, we stayed in a gated community, but we spent far more time away from the little rental than we did in the area. We saw a lot of neo-hippy types (my mother was a REAL hippy :-) ). They were obviously not well-heeled, but they all seemed to be nice enough. Of course, we never picked up any of those who we saw hitchhiking, and we never left anything of value in the rented Nissan Altima, so perhaps that's why. Living there, outside of a gated community, is probably a different kind of situation, I'd guess.

Because we were staying at Kapoho Beach Lots, about as far from anyplace west-side that you can think of, we only went to that side of the island twice, and then only as far south as Kailua-Kona. On the east side, we got to Naalehu (sp?), and of course we drove the red road all the way to where the lava took over the road. So we never made it to Capt'n Cook. We never saw Vog over anything on the west side. I'm guessing it's because it was windy while we were there (they held the Eddie during our second week, there). I'm guessing that wind blew Vog somewhere else.

We explored just about everything else except as far up as you can go in the direction of the observatories. Some places were cooler than others, of course, but I never had to use the warm fleece jacket I brought with me. We took carry-ons, only (came home with a used suitcase full of souvenirs, though, that was checked, and a Ukulele that I took as a carry-on along with the 2 carry-ons we were allowed, and that jacket, which just got in the way). Whether it was simply because the weather was amenable everywhere we went while we were there, or because, living on the central Oregon coast, I'm used to cold, bone-chilling, winds in the Winter so that I'm not bothered by that kind of thing, I have no clue. I will say, though, that when ONLY packing carry-ons, there's a limit to what one can pack. A mini umbrella was attached to my carry-on camera bag, but no long pants (I always wear skirts) made it into the bag. Nor did shoes, "several sets of clothes", towels, etc. Z took a spare pair of shoes, wearing the heavy ones on the plane, and packing the "slippahs" into his carry-on. I only own 3 identical pairs of "slippahs"/sandals with covered toes, so I made do with just taking the one pair I wore on my feet :-). Next time we go (planning on February next year, again), I'll probably ditch the heavy fleece and purchase a lightweight windbreaker to pack along, instead. Not sure where we'll stay, next time. Maybe the north coast, since, along with the raw jungle on the southeast side of the island, we liked the north coast areas the best. Wherever we stay, it will be near the ocean, and since that's where we spent most of our time when we weren't driving around, I'm sure most of the wardrobe will be geared towards that climate. Socks, a windbreaker, and a warm cap will probably be the only "cold weather" clothes we'll bring along. All of my warm weather shirts had long sleeves for protection from the sun and mosquitoes, so a windbreaker should be sufficient, I think. Like you, we didn't go seeking cold and/or snowy places. Winter in Oregon is something we wanted to get away from, so being warm and in the sun was our goal!

It sounds like you really LOVE Hawaii and know it well. Are you planning on buying a place there at some time? I'm sure looking forward to the day when we can! I'd give up having 4 seasons for Paradise, any day :-).