November 1988 in Hawaii

November 1988 in Hawaii

This was the first academic conference I ever went to (and I presented my paper on the first session of the first day, without ever seeing any other paper presented), and an awesome vacation in the beautiful Hawaiian islands, and my first ever travel journal. Because it's handwritten, I was using a choppy and abbreviated style of writing, and I've left it that way for now. I've included small sketches that I made in the margins.

Cast of characters

Sunday, 13 November 1988

Arrive without major incident. Bus to Waikiki driven by Don Ho wannabe who wanted to party! Hotel OK. Dinner at Japanese cafe (only gaijin in the place, no English signs). Fried rice, good. Fell asleep before I could call Abeer re Kauai trip, so she called me.

Monday, 14 November -- Kauai day trip

Up at 5:30 to go to Kauai. Took a while to get out of Lihue (Abeer had to have breakfast at McDonald's). Drove through tree tunnel to Poipu. We wanted snorkeling, so drove up and down. Went to Spouting Horn and took pix. A resort along the way afforded good snorkeling. I followed Poipu Road to the best (unmarked) beach ever: some boogie boards, and I got pummeled in surf. Fantastic body-surfing.

a botanical carden run wild
Abeer drove us along 50 to Waimea Canyon. Spectacular is the only word. Kauai is a like botanical garden run wild -- I never stopped seeing brand new flowers and plants and grass (except for sugar cane). Stopped at several lookouts, one over main canyon and one at Kalalau -- 4000 feet down to sea !!!
Goddard radome station at top. Went hiking down Black Pipe trail -- 3 miles altogether but took 2 hours because of steepness. Incredible arrays of flowers, vines, white branches, crags. Poor Abeer.

Drove down Waimea Canyon Road for more incredible views. Saw Menehune Ditch -- unimpressive but moving. Back to Lihue, dinner at saimin shack, very good, all local. Dropped off rental car, girls don't believe I can navigate. Hookers all over Kalakaua at night, this place is so friggin capitalistic.

Tuesday, 15 November -- Conference day 1, and my poster

Breakfast at hotel. I'm first to preregister and first to mount poster. Great session -- people keep asking questions, I got pulled back. Afternoon on beach with Abeer, Laura, Sharon. Walking in park under Diamond Head. Seaweed soup at cafe. Helicopters nonstop. Japanese tourists just love the ocean, like sandpipers. Most Americans I can do without.

Afternoon, went snorkeling on Waikiki. Otherworldly and eerie: low tide, very little clearance, can't pretend I'm watching Cousteau. Angelfish, sea urchins, corals, a pipefish, all pretty cool. (Spooky.) Watched sunset (rays of blue!), walked beach under torches. Buffet at conference, met Bob B. went to dinner at Suntori. Fried smoked eel, green tea, sake. Very nice time. Even the moon lies down at night here. :)

Wednesday, 16 November -- Conference day 2, and Diamond Head

Up early, write postcards on beach. Dudes setting up surfboards, board and canoe surfing in sunrise. AM: papers. Noon: catch bus to Diamond Head, hike up with Abeer, Sharon, and Dave from UCLA. A hot day. Intense climb up steep stairs, tunnel, spiral staircase, and bunkers on top. A big bowl!

Going down, met aloha dude (new on the job!) running restrooms, gave us a ride to bus stop. Students at college waiting there, finally walked back. PM: papers (these people use tiny lettering!)

Watched sunset from the beach with Lori, Laura, Abeer, Sharon. (Green Flash!) Mai tais in Rigger bar: cute server. Evening: Meeting of tech committee. Only the hookers smile at me.

Thursday, 17 November -- Conference day 3, and scientist party

AM: papers (didn't go to Hanauma). At lunchtime, went snorkeling on Waikiki. Neat coral canyons, puffer fish, wild bikinis. PM: posters. Met Maggie (UT), Brad, Bev, & John and walked with them past zoo to Queen's Garden. Beautiful flowers and bowers, 180 degree rainbow over mountains and Diamond Head. Storks and cranes, banyans in zoo. Viewed sunset from jetty. Walked back along beach, very pleasant. Evening: took bus to Kaneohe (what a hassle!) to Inouye's party. Great time with Richard Ladefoged, Ian Maddieson, Sid & Sue Inouye, Patti Price, Bruce from Yale, and MIT-ites. Neat drive home through tunnels. More hookers in Waikiki.

Friday, 18 November -- Last day of conference

First rainy day (aside from liquid sunshine). Got tix to Big Island squared away. AM: talks by recognition groups from various countries (skipped out of middle parts). For lunch, went to Ala Moana shopping center: incredible food court, had unpronounceable Filipino lunch, very good, and slush yogurt. Fun to watch Japanese carp in restaurant pool.

PM papers: Jim Glass, Mike P & Kai-Fu Lee. Met Laura & Lori by pool, had drinks in Esprit (Bob Berkovitz researched hula dancers). Took Laura back to hotel, went to airport and rented Mustang convertible. Nice car! Drove to the most harrowing parking garage I have ever encountered, worse than San Francisco mountain roads, got some nachos at California punk club. Cute waitress, said she loves Wellfleet (I was wearing the shirt). Drove Lori to airport. Home again.

Saturday, 19 November -- If I'm dreaming, don't wake me!

Up early trying to get orange french toast, but no go. Check out and drive Laura to airport uneventfully. Got wet coming back, and learned how to put the convertible top up on the highway. Puttered along to Hanauma Bay (8:00) in off-n-on showers, "liquid sunshine". I spent at least 3 hours snorkeling.

FISH! Pipefish with transparent fins, a variant eel with shoehorn nose, one sea robin, black guys with orange tail spines (also in white with blue), little puffer guys, big spiny puffers with pouty faces. Chased a parrotfish (dog sized, fat with little tail, dayglo orange and fluorescent green & blue) until he showed me his teeth! Floated in a school of panfish (400-500 at first, later at least 1000) all nibbling at coral and making sound like rain in forest. One black fish with electric blue fins, dorsal and rectal. The coral is like Dr Seuss on acid: undescribable caverns, boulders, canyons, holes. It can be claustrophobic (clearance usually about 2 feet) and spooky when it gets deep or visibility goes away (waves churning or sun behind cloud).

Walked along ledge through lava formations (like petrified sponge) to Toilet Bowl. Had fun jumping, sliding, and bobbing with Anglo and Japanese there. Swam the Keyhole after a few panic attacks, it turns out to be completely cool (3 times).


Back on the road, drove by Makapu but didn't swim there. Cruised the coast with the top down. Shave ice at a roadside shack. Amazing "curtain" mountains along the coast, cap clouds. Stopped at Chinaman's Hat and stretched out under a palm, napped to the rustling rattle of palm leaves. Quasi fiddler crabs on beach. Filipino team flying kites (2 string) in precision formation. Drove further along coast, looking for Laie Point but didn't find it. Returned through tunnel, rental car, back, flew to Hilo, got new car & checked in to Waiahea Villa. College crowd having very loud and energetic party there!

Sunday, 20 November -- Volcanoes day 1

Woke up in Hilo and checked out of villa after swimming awhile in pool. Breakfast at Dick's Coffee Shop. Picked up flashlight & bandaids for coral cuts, then cruised Banyan Drive. Lovely walk through Japanese garden: bamboo, mud crabs, torii & tea house, shrines, lions.

Lilting bagpipes in the air. Walked over to Coconut Island, saw nature family. Talked with Vince Sayer, the piper, for awhile. Very pleasant time.

Drove along to Lava Tree Park: fascinating formations, spooky tubes & tunnels, incredibly lush foliage. "Earth cracks" of unknown depth. Continue through Kohola, a "lava farm" area of amazing desolation. This is Deliverance country, miles of bumpy single-lane road through solid jungle. Passed black sand beaches along cliff: all natural. Tried to descend stairway in cliff, but bottom part was gone. Movie views. The main black sand beach is disappointing: no sand! Continued through Puna, and met some of the nicest, friendliest people ever in Kalapana Store. Sorry to leave; they're wealthy at heart.

Drove up to Volcano Park and got cabin, excellent. Wandered around "savannah" outside caldera. Steam vents and earth cracks. Movie about formation of Mauna Ulu in Volcano House. Had a beer with a guy who thought I was "Steve". A ranger. I'm now writing and sleeping on top of one of the most active volcanos in the world.

Monday, 21 November -- I have entered another world.

Woke up to rain: damn. Motored over to Park headquarters to look at updated maps showing lava flows. Mounted pig in front of house. Watched video, slide show, movie showing eruptions, underwater lava flows, tectonics and origins of islands. Very good. Then popped over to Volcano to pick up sandwich, soda & fruit for day. Nice little town.

Typical landscapes in Volcanoes National Park.
Drove to Devastation Trail and poked around: still rainy, so drove down Chain of Craters Road. Many neat craters and stark lava flows around here. Pix of Mauna Ulu.

Hillside showing fresh lava flows in black.
Drove down cliffs and along oceanside to Wahaula. There saw remains of ancient temples, walked on 6 month old lava flow (molten 12 feet down) and viewed steam cloud from lava striking the sea.

Steam plumes where fresh molten lava is flowing into the sea.
Talked with old menehune guy about masonry using pahoehoe chunks: he walked off into danger zone. Black sand on bluff, pillows and blankets of lava. Path back through groves of mini-vines like green and orange Silly String, huge earth cracks with water holes at bottom.

Ocean fierceness
Ate lunch on drive back, stopped at sea arches to watch the fierceness. Weather was a mix of sunshine, showers, and liquid sunshine. Further on, hiked to petroglyphs in laval on plains. Human figures and umbilical holes mostly.

Petroglyphs in lava rock
Here I could imagine myself a Polynesian explorer. I kissed the rock to share the good mana, feeling very close to Pele. Cairns mark the path amid trackless plains. Here I learned to enjoy liquid sunshine, incredibly vivid rainbows keeping me company.

Drove along Hilina Pali road, 9 miles through alternating grassland and desert, tree groves, and lava fields. Rested awhile at little house at its end, with sweeping majestic views of volcano slopes, shore plains, and ocean. Here the weather is hot, dry, with high winds (50 mph?) and I was dry quickly.

Back along the one lane bumpy road, to Chain of Craters. Moseyed up to Lava Tube: a wonderfully lush forest of ferns (15-20 feet hight), liquid and syncopated bird calls, orchids in light rain. The tube itself is neato and a little spooky. Low ceilings, up to 15 feet or so, maybe 100 yards long and twisty. Earth cracks, fallen palm trunks, "gecko ferns" and a bridge over stream. The tourists looked so unhappy in the wet, I told them about the dry places on the other side of the crater.


Took the Kilauea Iki trail down into Kilauea crater -- I saw it in the morning but nothing prepared me for hiking into it. Switchback trail down through fern forest, very prehistoric and lush. Paradise Lost! At bottom I was immediately in Hell: a broken floor of black stone, almost like iron, with steam plumes rising from cracks. I almost burned my hands on some, very sulfurous. Drilling team on crater floor. (Met a jogger !?!)

View in Kilauea crater
After this Purgatory, I was stroking the grass and kissing the flowers on the other side. The hike back was along the crater rim (18 inches from a 1000 foot drop) and through more fern forest, expecting to see Dimetrodon and Triceratops in glades. Met the jogger coming back. Made it to car just at nightfall, returned to cabin to dry off. What a tripping day!

Tuesday, 22 November -- Volcanoes day 3

Up early on a sunny morning, cleaned out cabin. Got food & gas in Volcano, mailed lavatube postcard to Ashdown. Checked out of cabin. First, went back to Kilauea Iki to get pictures of Paradise and Hell, meditated on crater floor, "potato chip" splatter formations. Drove along Rim road, stopping at crater overlooks, to Halemaumau. SULPHUR STINKS! Hard to breathe sometimes, many incrustations. Hiked to overlook of Pele's home, hellish, and continued over new (1982) flow not on maps. Stood inside lava bubble with "dripping" stalactites inside walls.

Caldera view
The caldera floor is magnificent desolation: square miles of Devil's pavement. Lots of steam and sulphur vents (almost burned my hand; I don't think the hankerchief will hold the smell). Fern forest on other side: again I kissed the plants. Fed on opoiu berries, very tasty (like pink-red blueberries). Sandalwood trail through gorge, lush growth around vents. Sandalwood has furry leaves, like a peach. Ate lunch after passing Steaming Bluffs with huge gaping cracks, dangled legs over 1000 foot drop. Uwekahuna Bluff so much like Cape Cod National Seashore it's amazing. Observatory and museum good but thronged with rubberneck tourists: I hurried on.

Kua Desert very stark, drizzling so I shortcut on road back to Halemaumau. Wet enough, I drove down west side of Kilauea on route 11 to Pahala, cash advance for hotel, then to black sand beach at Punaluu. It's like a mini resort area. Dozed under clacking coconut palms, tried some swimming but too rocky.


Me, on black sand beach
Duck pond, cute girl drooling on me. Golden ferrets with bushy tails around garbage can, only animals I've seen besides geckos. Drove to Na'alehu and checked into Shirakawa's place. Rex, the Doberman, barks at first but is OK. Pretty little Japanese garden with shrine and riots of flowers. The most southerly hotel in the US.

Drove to Kalue (South Point) to see sunset. Places like this share a unique lonely grandeur: a single lighthouse, sweeping winds, monster waves pounding in slow motion. Awesome sunset with boulder clouds rolling in, full moon. Unexpected bonus: windmill farm. Three dozen Mitsubishi 3 blade windmills wailing and moaning in the middle of boundless plains. 50 ft diameter? Magnificent between dying sunset and ghostly moonlight.

Return to Naalehu for dinner at coffee shop: fishburger, guava juice and macademia ice cream. Also got lei and shells. Home at last to pretty little motel; good night.

Wednesday, 23 November -- Homeward bound

Checked out of Shirakawa-san's in early morning -- she went to play golf. Had a nice talk with friendly Abyssinian cat and Dobermans. Lovely garden. Motored past overlook over the south shore (snack of macademia nuts) and returned to Punahu'u for roasting in sun. Found limpet and sea glass. A great sendoff. Drove back to Hilo with a circuit of volcano crater in sunlight. Nice & rainy in Hilo. Stuffed myself at hole-in-wall Japanese place, tempura & chicken tetsu, tsorimura rice & tea. Played tourist in Hilo Hattie's gift shop -- Christmas gifts for all! Back to airport for flight home. Aloha Hawaii!

This page maintained by Wil Howitt
Last updated 22 February 2009