nearing the end of a glorious trip

vince says:

hey all sorry for not been updating for quite some time. The truth of the matter is that I was simply too lazy or too tired to update, but here I am now! Sorry to my fans.

The first day I reached Hawaii from Singapore about a month plus back I bought a blue book called Hawaii The Big Island Revealed, The ULTIMATE Guidebook. So obviously for someone to call it the ULTIMATE guidebook it had to be something right? And on hindsight, it was. Hence, the latter was to be the starting point for many of the things that we did in the past 2 weeks.

I have been consistently reading this book to look up new and exciting places to explore, and it has been just amazing. As of today I have been to all four corners of the island... and more.

Four days ago we went to a place called Waipi'o Valley, which is this really beautiful picturesque location. Unfortunately, the valley road was SO steep it took us about an hour just to get down and another hour to get up. It had been raining pretty badly these days, so the rainforest ground was muddy and wet - which really was not a problem for my Timberlands, but Ian and his cousin Sandra were complaining a lot, because tennis shoes don't keep em dry. But it was not a failed trip. We saw another black sand beach and clambered over rocks to search for an elusive waterfall (which we didn't find, because the waterfall had dried up).

So that was four days ago. The next day we did something I would remember for the rest of my life. Cliff jumping was one of them, but this was something else altogether. My guidebook pointed out that a new lava tube cave (a lava tube cave is how lava or molten rock travels underground, through long caves beneath the surface of the ground) was found off the 23rd highway mile marker on Highway 11. With these few directions, Sandra rented a car (thanks Sandra) and we zoomed off in search of the new cave.

When we reached the spot it was raining. I got out and tried to find the trail which I was supposed to find, which really wasn't much. Remember in the army when you had to bash through a rainforest and walk on trodden grass the guy in front of you had trod on before? It was THAT kind of trail. No joke mate. For the first time in two months I was again reminded of that sinking feeling you get when you were walking through the jungles of Singapore. On a side note I really got to thank 3Guards for putting me through shit beforehand because honestly this was nothing compared to the stuff our unit had put us through. Anyways. With the other two trailing behind me I tried to find a way through the thick undergrowth. It was drizzling all these while. The ground was SUPER squished and talls ferns licked us from the side of the trail. I thought I had lost my way a few times but I kept on going. But when I finally saw it, it made everything worth it.

You know that scene in The Descent where the women lowered themselves off a fallen cave opening and into the blackness below? Same thing here. Where the cave ceiling had fallen through and the only way to enter was from the top. It looked like nothing you had seen on Earth. Well technically, this was below the Earth. We scrambled down the fallen rocks and entered a hole in the Earth.

It was beautiful, stunning for words. The floor of the cave was a mess of rubble from fallen lava stalactites and where the roof had fallen through, extremely rocky. The ceiling was agog with formations the likes I have never seen before. Zillions of portruding nipples from where the water above had percolated through to the cave below, now hung from each and every stalactite. The sides however, took the cake. Solid rock walls on each side of the lava tube had horizontal lines cut into the rock, where you can imagine a hundred or so years ago, molten rock had flowed through this cave, cutting the sides as it gushed out in a fury of hellfire and brimstone. We tried taking photographs and videos, but it was so dark it was just not possible. It was very lucky we bought the Mag-lite (extremely powerful flashlight).

The tube stretched for about one and a half miles (a mile is about 1.6km) We only walked a part of it, and I'll tell you why. At certain points of the tube the ceiling had dipped so low that there was no way of proceeding without taking everything off our backs and crawling through the crawlspace. It was no joke, and I'm not kidding when I say that the ceiling and the floor at some of these points were the height of my knees. Plus the fact that the surfaces of the tube was so rough and sharp, all of us suffered some form of scratches on our limbs. Sandra who was pint-size (private joke: you're no jug hahahahahaha!) usually went ahead first, to see whether the tube would open up, and when that was confirmed we went on. Ian kept grumbling though, because he wasn't so amused by the cave as I was, and fallen rocks made him a little nervous.

When the cave opened up, it was at least 20 feet high, and comfortable to walk. We had treked for at least two hours in the darkness of the cave, before we finally headed back. This was definitely the highlight of my time here, this and the cliff jump.

That night I had an interesting conversation with Uncle Paul and Fred. Apparently the day before there was an earthquake of 5.0 magnitude which was felt all around the island. For some reason over at Kailua-Kona (which is the town we were residing in, but don't get fooled we were in no town, but the Four Seasons resort) we did not feel it. Uncle Paul then asked: What do you think would happen if we were in the tube when the earthquake had occurred? It then dawned on me how dangerous today's spelunking trip really was. The cave we saw today was the result of many year's earthquakes and tremors. What we saw today could not be seen by anyone else tomorrow. It might not even be accessible tomorrow if the cave ceiling had fallen through and closed up the tube. As we were off the grid and not in any national park or classified lava tube, being such a new cave, no one would be able to find us if we were trapped inside the tube. Uncle Paul and Aunt Yen Yee don't even know about the tube we were exploring that day - they've never even heard of it! On hindsight hence, it was an extremely dangerous activity which gives me the shivers just thinking about it. But I love it. I love it so much that I ever return back to Hawaii's Big Island, you can bet your ass I'm running over to this tube and the next to explore.