IFFR
FLY AWAY
by Joe
Kiefer, event chair
Thirty-one Rotarians, spouses and family members assembled at Honolulu International Airport (PHNL) early Sunday morning, May 30, 2004 to begin nine days of flying in the Hawaiian Islands. We were met by perfect flying weather for the first leg of the flight. This turned out to be a good omen because the good weather – sunshine, blue skies, scattered clouds, northeast trade winds and temperatures in the 80s (F) – and a lot of other good luck followed us for the entire Fly Away.
Our fleet of two Piper Arrows, a Piper Saratoga, four Cessna 172’s and a chartered Piper Chieftain departed VFR to the southeast on a 140 NM flight to the Kona Airport on the Island of Hawaii. The flight took us over the Islands of Lanai and Kahoolawe (kah ho oh lav e). Lanai is owned by Dole Food Company and was formerly a large pineapple plantation. Two large resort hotels now provide employment to its 1500 residents. Kahoolawe is uninhabited and was used by the United States Navy as a target island until the 1980’s. The US Government just finished a $500 million clean up of the island and is restoring the land to its former condition,
The locals call the Island of Hawaii the “Big Island” since it is over twice a big as all the other Hawaiian Islands combined. We soon learned it is getting bigger every day. The Hawaiian Islands are volcanic, formed as the Pacific tectonic plate moves northwest over a hot spot in the earth’s mantel. Five volcanoes form the Big Island. Two, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, are over 13,000 feet above sea level. One, Kilauea, is currently over the hot spot and very much active.
On arrival we checked in to the King Kamehameha Hotel located on the ocean in the town of Kailua-Kona. This was our headquarters for the next three days on the Big Island.
Our first event turned out to be a great way to start the adventure. IFFR member Steve Bobko-Hillenaar and his wife Joanna, along with the Rotary Club of Kona, Hawaii, hosted a spectacular Welcome Dinner for us at their oceanfront home. We arrive after a short walk from the hotel to be greeted by Hawaiian music, flower leis and a generous helping of Aloha.
“Aloha” (ah low ha) is a Hawaiian concept that we were to experience over and over again. On one level the word means both hello and good-bye. On a deeper level, aloha is a spirit of love, friendliness, cooperation and empathy that makes us all members of a family. It is the glue that holds Hawaiian society together and makes these Islands a very special and beautiful place.
Dinner with Steve and Joanna started with refreshments on their lanai overlooking a white sand beach and ocean swimming pools formed by old lava rock. We watched the sun go down over the Pacific Ocean before turning our attention to the good food and more fellowship with the Kona Rotarians and IFFR member Eliot Merk and his wife Cheryl who flew their Mooney over from Hilo, on the other side of the Big Island, to join us for dinner.
Day two of the adventure was a ground tour of the Big Island. Our first stop was a coffee plantation where we tasted some of the world famous Kona brand coffee.
Our second stop was a place of more historic significance – the City of Refuge on Kealakakua (kay allah kah coo ah) Bay. In Hawaiian society, a person who had broken one of the numerous laws (kapus) could escape punishment (usually death) by entering this place of refuge. All they had to do was slip past the guards and scale a ten-foot high lava rock wall. The Bay itself is significant as the place where Captain James Cooke, the western discoverer of the Hawaiian Islands, was killed. A monument marks the spot.
The tour continued south along the shoreline alternatively passing through lush vegetation and black cinder areas of recent (this century) lava flows. We stopped to visit two green sea turtles resting on a black sand beach at Punalu’u. The black sand is formed when a lava flow reaches the cold ocean water and explodes into fine sand.
Our first long stop was at the museum and restaurant of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park located just above the caldera of Kilauea Volcano. The scenery is rugged, stark and moon like. The lava flows are so recent that little vegetation has had any chance to take hold. We had a chance to hike to the edge of the caldera for a VERY close view and to walk through an old lava tube, formed when the surface of a lava flow cools and solidifies while the underlying lava flows away. Quite an adventure!
Twenty miles past Kilauea we were in a completely different climate. From the town of Hilo north along the entire windward (east) coast of the Big Island there is little but small towns, lush green vegetation, countless waterfalls and grand views of the Pacific Ocean. Hawaii is in the northeast trade wind belt and the trade winds bring abundant rain to the north and east sides of all the Hawaiian Islands. You don’t know what tropical means until you experience the lush greenery this produces.
Our stops along this stretch of the road were mainly to visit water falls and for refreshments - ice cream and the Portuguese equivalent of a donut, a “Malasada”, which are about 700 calories of sugar and dough each.
At the small town of Honoka’a we turned inland and climbed to 3000 feet to pass through the town of Waimea and the Parker Ranch, one of the largest cattle ranches in the United States. Our scenery turned from lush tropical green to pasture land and then to dry, black lava flows and rocks as we started down the leeward (west) side of the Big Island. Our day ended as we drove under a double rainbow entering the town of Kailua-Kona.
Day three was a free day with the group scattering to go scuba diving, snorkeling, shopping, sun bathing, local flying, and a fair amount of sitting around the hotel and relaxing.
Day four was our day to change islands. The group, augmented by Eliot Merk’s Mooney, departed Kailua-Kona Airport at 0900 for a flight to Kahalui airport (PHOG) on the Island of Maui. It is a short flight if you go direct but we opted for the 240nm scenic route counterclockwise around the Big Island. This gave us the opportunity to see from the air what we had seen from the ground two days before, and then some. We flew over South Point, which is the southern most point of both Hawaii and the United States. Next in order was a flyover of the spot where the active lava from Kilauea Volcano is entering the ocean.
As we passed Hilo we went over or under a ten mile stretch of the only clouds we encountered on the trip. After that it was smooth flying in blue skies up the windward coast of the Big Island for an aerial view of the beautiful waterfalls and green valleys and cliffs of the Hamakua Coast. We then crossed the Alenuihaha (allah new e ha ha) Channel between the Big Island and Maui and flew up the windward coast of Maui to the airport. This took us over the remote town of Hana and the virtually unsettled fifty miles of coastline between Hana and the population centers of Maui. Maui is one of the few places in Hawaii that still grows pineapple. Mike Graves made our wait for the bus at the airport a lot easier by carving a ripe, freshly picked and incredibly sweet pineapple for us
We checked into the Maui Coast Hotel in Kihei on the leeward (south) shore of Maui. After a couple of hours to rest and refresh we were off to the evening’s entertainment – a Hawaiian luau in the historic whaling town of Lahaina. This was our first introduction to real Hawaiian food, including pig cooked in an imu (an underground oven) and it was delicious. The luau was outdoors on the beach offering another great view of the sunset before the start of the food and entertainment. The entertainment was Hawaiian and Tahitian dancing (hula) and music, telling the story of Hawaii from the Polynesian’s initial 2,000nm migration from Tahiti in open canoes in the seventh century to the present day.
Day five saw our group split into two. The more adventuresome opted for a all day tour clockwise around the 10,000 foot Haleakala Volcano with stops in Hana and at the grave of Charles Lindbergh in the small community of Kipahulu where his family maintained a home for many years before his death. The less adventuresome (known locally as the wimps) opted for a half-day tour to Haleakala National Park at the summit of Haleakala Volcano and a lunch and shopping stop on the way down at the former cowboy (and now shops and art galleries) town of Makawao (maw ka wow) in “Up Country” Maui.
Day six was our three-island day. We departed Maui at 0930 heading for Cape Halawa on the northeast tip of the Island of Molokai. From Cape Halawa it is a ten-mile flight to Kalaupapa (kah lau papa), our first destination for the day. These are, however, probably the most spectacular ten miles of flying you can find. The north shore of Molokai consists of 2000-foot sea cliffs (you may have seen them in the movie Jurassic Park) interspersed with deep green valleys and too many waterfalls to count. A morning flight along this coast at 1000 to 1500 feet is truly a trip to remember.
Kalaupapa is located on a low peninsula jutting out from the Molokai north shore sea cliffs that, except for a mule and hiking trail that climbs 1800 feet with 26 switchbacks, isolate it from the rest Molokai. The isolation was the primary factor leading to the establishment of Kalaupapa as a Hansen’s Disease (formally known as leprosy) settlement in the 1860’s. We arrived at the 2,700-foot airstrip located on the tip of the peninsula to be met by our tour guide, Richard Marks, one of the former patients who is also the sheriff of the settlement.
Kalaupapa is a place of beauty and sadness. From the 1860’s to the 1950’s over 7,000 patients (mostly Hawaiians who were particularly susceptible to the disease) were brought here to die. Most are buried in the numerous graveyards. In the early days they were simply tossed off the transport ships and left to swim ashore and fend for themselves. A Belgium priest, Father Damien, and other Catholic priests and nuns brought better care and treatment of the patients starting in the 1880’s.
The Territory of Hawaii stopped sending patients to Kalaupapa in the 1950’s when newly developed drugs brought the disease under control. The settlement today consist of about 40 former patients who have elected to live out their lives there and about an equal number of staff. When the former patients are gone, the settlement will become a national monument, a transition that is already in progress.
Our school bus ride across the peninsula gave us a chance to visit the site of the original hospital that was torn down decades ago and the church that was built by Father Damien, the last remaining building of the original settlement. We also got some spectacular views down the north shore sea cliffs and islands. The highlight of the trip, however, was listening to Richard Marks talk about the history and life of the settlement.
We departed Kalaupapa around 1400 for the 53nm flight to Honolulu on the Island of Oahu. Most of us flew around Oahu before approaching Honolulu International Airport (PHNL) from the north. This gave us a chance to see the famous north shore surfing beaches and to flight directly over Pearl Harbor on our approach to the airport. Our day ended with a bus ride to the Princess Kaiulani Hotel in Waikiki, our home for the remainder of the Fly Away.
Day seven was our swimming and snorkeling day. We took a boat tour on Kaneohe Bay on the windward side of Oahu. Kaneohe Bay is protected by a barrier reef so the water is smooth and great for diving. We also were blessed with blue skies and gentle trade winds making it a perfect day for swimming. The boat first anchored on a sand bar in warm water to let us practice snorkeling and for a barbecued hamburger lunch. We then shifted anchorage to a patch of coral and had the chance to swim with reef fishes over the shallow coral. It was a great experience.
Day eight found most of us back in the air again for an optional day flight to the Island of Kauai, the northwest most inhabited Hawaiian island. This was our longest flight over water, some 90nm one way. Most of us flew into the Lihue Airport (PHLI) on the southeast shore. Our charter Piper chieftain, however, had a left strut problem, got a late start out of Honolulu and opted to fly to Princeville Airport on the northwest shore. We all got together again in Hanalei, a town on the northwest coast of Kauai where the movie South Pacific was filmed. The scenery is spectacular.
After lunch we return by van to Lihue airport. A few of us flew around Kauai before returning to Honolulu. We missed some great views of the coast because of clouds and rain but did get bragging rights to say we flew completely around all of the major islands of Hawaii.
Our final day was on Oahu and started with visit to the USS Arizona Memorial at. The USS Arizona was sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. This marked America’s entry into World War II. The memorial is a white arch build over the hull of the ship where the bodies of the 1,117 men who died in the attack are entombed. It is a very moving place.
We next visited the battleship USS Missouri, moored next to the USS Arizona memorial. The Japanese surrender was signed on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. The two ships, side by side, thus mark the beginning and end of World War II for America.
Our final event of the day and of the Fly Away was a farewell dinner that evening at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel. The fellowship was as good as the food and wine, the speeches were short and we all were left with the warm feeling you have when you have just had a really good time with really good friends.