Greetings from Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park

I spent the second half of 1999, driving around the US camping and hiking in national parks, watching baseball games with friends and listening to accounting tapes. I took the test for my last CPA section in November of 1999. Then stayed in San Diego with a friend and worked a temp job while I awaited the test results, which finally came on Feb 1, 2000 – SUCCESS!! Exactly one month later I left on a three-month backpacking trip of the South Pacific: Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and Tonga. With my final stop being Hawaii, where I got a five-island hopper pass.

I know Hawaii seems very exotic compared to the rest of the US, and it is indeed beautiful and different, but it sure felt like coming home to America to this weary backpacker. I’ll never forget listening to Bob Edwards report the news on NPR or watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN (granted it was early afternoon). In New Zealand, when my camera broke on a Saturday afternoon, I had to wait until Monday to get a replacement because shops weren’t open on Sundays. But I knew I was back in America – the land of convenience (for good and bad) – when I was able to go to a to Walmart for a kid-size (cheaper : ) sleeping bag (see below).

After an overnight in an Oahu hostel, I flew to the Big Island and another hostel, where there were lots of young people from all over the world (I’m not sure many Americans back then realized the US even had hostels). I decided to get a rental car, so was very popular at the hostel and my fellow backpackers and I drove to waterfalls that our guidebooks said offered “must-do” jumping opportunities. Although, I recall signing an agreement NOT to drive up to the Mauna Kea Observatory, this was before tracking device in rental cars … so we drove up there one night and the number of stars we saw (even before we looked in the telescope) was amazing.

I toured Volcanos NP on my own. While there, I saw active lava flows, but only enough to give context to the field of black rock stretching to the Pacific Ocean, the flows were in no way harrowing. I have since seen TV coverage of the massive eruptions of Kilauea and Mauna Loa that caused much destruction and road closures in the park. It is awe inspiring to see the contours of the park in a continual state of flux because of lava flows and to realize the whole chain of islands was created by volcanos.

On my flight to Kawaii, I met three large rugby playing blokes from England who agreed to take me to my lodgings. I was amazed to hear that they were planning to sleep in their rental car (a Dodge Neon, no less!); obviously I took this as a sign that I needed to buy a new sleeping bag. Since it was the end of my trip, I was more than happy to save some money sleeping in my rental car on a beach in Maui and in a parking area at the top of the cliffs above Kalaupapa National Historical Park on Molokai.

The cliff face down to the former leper colony is one of the steepest in the world. My guide noted that although a permit was required to enter the park, the view from halfway down the cliffs was spectacular. As I walked down, I heard much faster footsteps coming up behind me. I was surprised to turn and see a young guy in his park ranger uniform with a cup of coffee, making his commute to work. I explained that I would hike back up after my photo op. But he was SO nice! He said I could walk with him and he’d give me a tour of the park. I felt like I won the jackpot, with my private tour of this very special place.

Sincerely,
Tracy