David & Fawn's Getaways: Hawaii Adventure - Day 5

9 am - We went to Wal-Mart to get a t-shirt for Fawn and ‘retainers’ for our glasses before we left for our zipline adventure. We probably over-prepared, but losing our glasses into the forest 100 feet below didn't sound very fun. When we got to the parking lot, we had a pretty impressive view of the ocean and surrounding area.

10:20 am - We made our lunches to eat on the way and traveled up the coast to start our adventure. On the way we stopped to take a photo above our resort complex. The buildings with the red roofs are the Kona Coast Resort where we were staying. There is a shopping center across from the complex.

Our Resort on the Kona Coast

We also stopped at the entrance to a state park. To get to the beach portion of the park, you have to drive through a lava flow. Here are some photos of the park. The forces of nature are pretty amazing when you see the aftermath of these eruptions. This one happened in 1984.

We also passed areas of the Hawaiians’ particular form of graffiti. The use white rocks to form words and symbols on the areas of black lava rock. We saw it for several miles on both sides of the road along the coast. Most of the white rock seems to be white lava, but there was some cement and even some white coral.

When we reached the town where the zipline company has their office, we were just a bit early, so we traveled to the next little town where there is a statue of the first Hawaiian king, Kamehameha I. He was the one who united all the islands into one kingdom in the 1700’s.

King Kamehameha I

According to our guide, the statue is one that was lost when a ship sank on its voyage over from Europe. Another was made and is in Honolulu, but the sunken ship was later found, the statue repaired and brought to the place of the king’s birth.

We went on the Kohala Zipline Tour in the afternoon when the weather was perfect and the guides were the best. This is the Web site for the tour company: http://www.kohalazipline.com/

Here are the photos from the adventure:

Fawn, just after being helped on with our gear

Same for me

The course included 9 ziplines, 4 bridges and 2 rappels. I had the camera most of the time on the course except when we were on the bridge. Kaelani, one of our guides, took that photo.

This is one of the longest ziplines--about 1100 feet. If you look carefully, you can see a little pink speck in the middle of the photo. That's Fawn on her way.

Now the speck is getting closer and you can start to tell that she has on blue pants.

Here she is just before getting to the tower.

Fawn on her way again! The steps you see in the foreground are what we stepped up on to be connected to the zipline.

This is one of the bridges. Notice that it takes some coordination to get across. We were always hooked to a safety line, although it's hard to tell in this photo.

This is the view from one of the platforms. We were in and on top of the trees!

This was the final descent before going back to the zipline office.

For me the entire trip was totally exhilarating--I loved it! On our way back to the condo, Fawn said several times that she still couldn't believe she did all that. It was very special to me that she would do it so we could be together. It is something I will remember for a very long time.

4:30 pm - We traveled on a scenic drive that took us to an overlook of a beautiful valley in the Kohala area. The valley extends right down into the ocean.