HAWAII 2022
After many attempts (this trip was originally planned for early 2020, right at the start of the Covid pandemic), I finally made it back to Hawaii (you can see the 2008 trip details also on this site). This time I was accompanied by my two sisters, their husbands and my best friend and his wife. We were actually going to have 3 other ‘hiking’ companions but with all the trip delays, they weren’t able to join us.
I would like to acknowledge the hotels and the company who was helping me with the reservations and tours. They were very flexible and understanding. Even the airlines allowed multiple re-bookings at no charge other than adjustment for ticket prices as needed.
I did learn that airlines can be ridiculous with their rules for routing changes (even when their changes broke connection timings). The nice thing is that Air Canada and United did give free re-booking during the pandemic and I had bought travel insurance so was able to get a refund for the three cancelations. But when United broke our layovers due to their major schedule change as to the time they flew from California into Kona on the main island, they would not allow us to change the destination airport to Hilo on the same island (much nearer to our hotel). Instead we had to fly into Kona very late at night and then drive for 2.5 hours in the evening after a full day’s travel (versus 30 minutes from the Hilo airport). Again, this was despite the fact that their major route/schedule changes had broken the original itinerary.
As to my other friends having to cancel, Ronny and Courtney had their first baby (nature and babies don’t care about other plans!). For my hiking buddy from Toronto, he hit delays in his VISA tourist application to the States due to a US policy change that now required an in-person interview (a few years back his tourist VISA application was automatic and quick). Of course with the pandemic there was a shortage of staff and interview slots so my friend could not get the interview until after the trip was over. Travel lesson: never assume anything but instead double and triple check all the details and allow extra time just in case).
It was sad that they could not join us but the trip was still great as we did visit two islands with tons of activities in our short week there.
Hardware
- Nikon Z 6 II mirrorless camera
- Nikkor Z 24-70mm 1:4 S lens
- Nikkor AF-S DX ED 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G lens
- Nikkor FTZ II lens adapter
- iPhone 12 Pro
Software
- Apple Photos v7.0
- Pixelmator Pro v3.0.1
- Topaz Sharpen AI v4.1.0
- Topaz DeNoise AI v3.7.0
- Topaz Gigapixel AI v6.2.0
VIEWING HELP
To close this window, click the X in the upper right hand corner. Or click anywhere outside of this window's area.
Photos from each day are shown in thumbnail (small) form. Panoramas are either wide or tall images, while normal photos are small rectangles. All photos shown in the PHOTO SHOWCASE section can be enlarged for better viewing. Photos will enlarge to fit your browser window width. Therefore, to view them at larger sizes simply make your browser window wider.
If there is any issue or the need to inquire/comment about an image, please refer to the Image ID label (see below) of the specific image along with the trip name found at the top of the browser window.
Video Clips
Depending on the browser, you may or may not see the play symbol in the middle of the image along with the lower left hand corner. Regardless, clicking anywhere in the image will start or stop the playback. Also, the progress bar along the bottom can be clicked on to skip or replay the video.
The Image ID label is found just below the thumbnail image on the left side.
Panoramas
Clicking anywhere on a panorama thumbnail will cause the image to expand to fill the browser width. Clicking again anywhere in the browser window or scrolling the browser window will cause the expanded image to shrink back to its smaller thumbnail size.
The Image ID label is found just below the thumbnail image on the left side.
Individual Photographs
If you click on any photo thumbnail, it will open a larger viewer which can be used to walk through all of the standard photos on the page. Once open, to go forward click on the > on the right side of the enlarged image. To scan backwards, click on the < on the left side. To close the larger images either click on the X in the upper right hand corner of the browser window or anywhere outside of the enlarged image.
The Image ID label can be found by hovering a cursor over the image briefly (may not be available on some tablets/phones) or, once enlarged, from the lower left hand side just under the image.
Additionally, in the same area as the Image ID a count showing the current image number versus the total number of images available for viewing.
Links:
JOIN ME ON MY SECOND VISIT TO THE BEAUTIFUL AND DRAMATIC HAWAIIAN ISLANDS
We started on the Big Island and then hopped over to Maui, the opposite of my 2008 trip. I choose the hotels this time to accommodate my fellow travelers desires and to give them a better variety and flavor to the trip. The activities were different from my prior trip. We were able to give a good sampling of the islands for everyone while still allowing me a bit of hiking time on the side.
For a quick snapshot of some of our activities, we kayaked and snorkeled, explored black sand beaches and rainbows over lava fields, watched the sunset and viewed distant galaxies from the highest mountain in the world, enjoyed a beach resort, viewed a active live crater in Volcanoes National Park, got a big parking ticket (no trip is perfect), walked through a lava tube, and ate quite well.
Unfortunately the lava was not flowing into the ocean as it was in 2008 so we did not get to see that. We ended up skipping some other things as there is simply too much to do! If you haven’t explored my Hawaii 2008 trip, it might be worth your while to take a look there along with this 2022 trip.
Before starting the day-by-day write-ups, I did want to introduce my travel companions and where they came in from…
Sandy and Rob [Grand Junction, CO] (my little sister and her husband)
Janet and Rudy [Pueblo, CO] (my medium sister and her husband)
Charles and Adele [Auburn, NE] (my best friend/adopted brother and his wife)
As you can see we came in from a wide variety of locations (myself flying in from Toronto). I was able to group people together as they headed to the west coast,. at which point we all flew on the same flight into Hawaii. It was late by the time we landed and then we had the long drive over the island to get to our hotel. But everyone was a good sport (or slept through the drive)
