Long weekend in Hawaii

I know that going to Hawaii for 3 days does not make much sense but I had to take the advantage of the fact that I am in LA. You probably cannot get any closer to Hawaii that that. Because making such a trip from Europe would be at least 20hours and definitely not for $5.

It was definitely fun, with both pluses and minuses.

Minuses:
- I am sure that I would enjoy it more if I went alone. I went with the same guy whose food and water I had to carry in Yosemite. This time I sent him an email to get his own backpack. Apparently he did not read it because during our first hike on Friday he stopped and said he would like a drink. I was like: Well, have you brought something with you??? So not only he expected me to carry his water and food, he also expected me to pack it for him!
And I had to pack the tent myself every single day. He saw me doing it, he would came over and ask me whether I took his things out of small side pockets and when I said yes he would just leave and let me continue packing without helping.

- I did not swim in waterfall. I wanted to but then when I got there there was noone there and I was not sure whether that's the waterfall you can swim in. And I did not want to risk being sucked into some underground current where my corpse will never be found since noone knew where I was.
Technically I swam in the stream leaving from the waterfall but it was one mile down the stream and I was fully dressed and had my backpack on while swimming:) Which leads to the third minus:

- I drowned my camera :( Thankfully the memory card survived. It was a very low-quality camera so I do not really regret it especially since Black Friday sale is next week so I can get a new one pretty cheap.

Pluses:

Arriving to Kona



This is the coolest airport ever. It is not even a building!



Smoking Kilauea volcano!



Waipio Lookout
I did a hike from Waipio to Waimanu. I read everywhere not to attempt it in one day since it is 19 miles round trip but such an advice is for regular people:) Not only did I manage to do it in one day, I also managed to get in a short 30s accelerations workout in the morning and even do a short hike to a waterfall while in Waimanu valley. 22 miles total with waterfall hike and perfectly doable in one day. Of course my hiking pace is like some people's running pace:)



I ate way too many passion fruits on my way there:)



It was all worth it for these views





My camera's doom (no more pictures:(( )
There were two large streams to cross. One at the Waipio valley at the beginning and then this one at the end. First one was ok, water up to my hips. I expected the same for this one. I am walking and walking and suddenly no ground and I am swimming in a full gear. Fun times. Since I was totally soaked I did not care that I had to swim through it again on my way back.