Tales & Trails of a Traveling Wiseguy

New Zealand Travelog #31
Rotorua, NZ - Wed, 17 Apr 2024, 6pm

Today was another busy day, combining getting from point A to point B with several hiking treks. A and B were respectively, leaving the small motor lodge with natural hot spring pools and checking in to a nice hotel in Rotorua with views over Lake Rotorua.

In between those and with a route of 180km— which, at this point, is one of our easier days of driving— we did several things:

• We hiked at Huka Falls, a park in the town of Taupo where the Waikato River draining Lake Taupo plunges over a small drop. What's impressive here isn't the height of the waterfall but the enormous amount of water pouring through it. The flow averages 200,000 liters per second.


• We also drove through Taupo, a resort town on the lake. It was very... resort-y. I looked at staying there when I was planning bookings for this trip, but the cheapest hotels were 2x what we spent on the old time-y, middle-of-nowhere one with hot springs.


• We visited Okere Falls, near the town of the same name. This park is home to not one but several waterfalls. We hiked a walking track that visited two of them then drove a short distance to a short hike for a third.


• Te Puia, on the edge of Rotorua, is both a geothermal park and a Maori cultural center. We walked around for a few hours, first with a guided tour group, then on our own, seeing the geothermal features and learning about Maori culture and history. We managed to time a viewing of the park's biggest geysers erupting as a pair late in the afternoon— and with literally nobody else around at the time!


• In terms of learning about Maori culture, we confirmed a wild notion we'd had since last week, "Hey, these Maori place-names read kind of like Hawaiian place names... they're both Polynesian; are they from the same people?" Yes! The Maori who settled in New Zealand, which they named Aotearoa in the 12th and 13th centuries CE, were seafaring people who explored from Taiwan to the Easter Islands to Hawaii to as far as South America before arriving here.

As with yesterday's busy day, I will followup with additional blog entries later to expand on these activities and share photos.

I have a slightly dirty little secret. We planned our trip to Hawaii a month ago around a timeshare presentation. The pitch to go out there for the presentation came when we were planning, and re-planning, and re-re-planning our December Hawaii trip. One of the timeshare locations was on the Big Island of Hawaii, on the dry side, a destination we knew we wanted to visit. The deal was 5 nights in a small condo at a reduced rate, in exchange for spending 2 hours of our time sitting through a sales pitch. We then bolstered the trip with an additional 4 nights in Honolulu, bought plane tickets, and planned a week off from work.

The timeshare company failed to put a good foot forward when we arrived in Hawaii. The resort was comfortable but felt like it might as well be a golf resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, rather than a beach resort in Hawaii. I felt bait-and-switched. And when I visited the resort I expected to be accommodated at, that difference was so shocking that I was incensed. Any shot the company had at selling me a timeshare burned to ashes right then, right there. And that's where the real dirty little secret comes in: I wasn't going to buy, anyway.

Well, I wasn't going to buy new, at least. New timeshares are sold at significant markup. The same properties can be bought a year or two later on the resale market for generally no more than half their original price. Buyers who shop carefully, particularly in times of economic downturn, can pick up a timeshare from distressed sellers for as little as 5-10% of the original price. I've read accounts of people even buying a timeshare "for free", paying only for the annual maintenance and fees.

So, yeah, no way was I going to pay 2x or more the prevailing market price for a timeshare. Especially one effectively half an hour from the beach and lacking many services one expects in a resort.

Related: When buying a timeshare makes sense

Now that I've caught up on blogging about our trip to Hawaii this month— I posted the final entry earlier today— it's time for a retrospective about the trip. Yes, I'm had plenty of time to reflect on the trip already. Even though I just finished blogging about it, we finished the actual trip six days ago. (This kind of backlog is typical. 😅) Here are Five Things:

1) We packed accurately. I've written before about the pitfalls of overpacking. Travel magazines say that the average vacationer overpacks by 5 changes of clothes. Times even just 2 people that's like an extra suitcase, yikes! I wore every shirt and pair of shorts I packed, nothing wasted nothing wanting. We probably could have saved carrying several articles of clothing each if I'd remembered our timeshare in Waikoloa had a washing machine in the apartment. I don't think that would've made the difference of carrying one less suitcase, but we sure could have downsized one of our medium bags to a small bag.

2) We planned the right amount of time. This trip we spent 4 nights on Oahu, 5 on the big island of Hawaii. While hopping around does tend to be our style, the downside to it can be not spending enough time in any one place to see enough of the great things it has to offer. These were the right amounts of time... because we've visited both islands before. We had 5 nights on Oahu back in December, and we had a short visit to Hawaii a few years ago. If we hadn't been there before, a solid week on one island would've been the right amount of time.

3) Fine-tuning what to look for in a hotel. There are certain things we routinely look for in a hotel. We always scrutinize location, of course. We look for a decent hot tub because we enjoy soaking in hot tubs to relax. We check for whether a refrigerator and microwave are standard in the room. These all checked out fine when we chose the Holiday Inn Express in Waikiki.... But one thing we really missed was a balcony. For most trips a balcony is purely a nice-to-have. For resort-y vacation trips it's a lot more important.

4) Having a one-bedroom apartment rocked. In the past I've been take-it-or-leave-it about having the greater space that (usually) comes with a vacation rental vs. a typical hotel room. This trip, the one-bedroom apartment we had in a timeshare in Waikoloa was awesome. The full kitchen with full-size fridge made it easy to shop for and prepare meals in the room; the breakfast table was both a comfortable place to eat and a comfortable place to use our computers; and the sofa in the living room was great to stretch out on, with or without something playing on the big TV. The location a mile from the beach was still a major disappointment, but the suite was nice. And it had a balcony we used every day.

5) Taking the earlier flight home was right. I mentioned in the last few blogs that our flight home on Sunday required getting up at 6am to dress, eat breakfast, drive to the airport, etc. We seriously considered taking a flight 3 hours later; it would have let us take it easier our last day in Hawaii. But leaving 3 hours earlier left us 3 hours more to take it easy once we got home. We ate dinner in our own dining room, unpacked our suitcases, started a load of laundry, unwound from 9 days of travel, and got to bed at a reasonable hour. That helped us beat the 3 hour time zone change to get up early Monday morning ready for a full workweek. When we've rocketed home late at night on other trips we've been left feeling we're behind the next several days. I remember at least one time we got home late on a Sunday night and didn't unpack our suitcases until Thursday!

The success with coming home earlier this time validates the plan I have for a week-long trip in July to come home a full day early. We'll rocket home with a late night flight; but it will be Saturday night. We'll have all day Sunday to relax, unpack, clean up, and get back into the groove for work the following week.

Hawaii April Travelog #32
Waikoloa - Sat, 16 Apr, 2022, 3pm

This afternoon we were supposed to sit for our timeshare sales presentation. That sales effort was nominally the reason we're on this 5-night stay in Waikoloa on the Big Island. But it fizzled. We escaped without them even trying to sell us.

We planned our day around the 1:30 meeting that could've taken up to 2 hours. We took it easy in the morning, swimming in the pool next to our building instead of going out further afield. Of course, with gloomy weather today and rain in the forecast we were okay keeping close to home base. We even ate lunch in our condo instead of going out somewhere. That wasn't because of the weather, though. That was because, simple, the food here sucks. Add that to our (long) list of reasons why we wouldn't buy a timeshare. 😅

We went over to the main office right in time for our 1:30 appointment. One of the sales people welcomed us in to the sale suite and... Hawk had an allergic reaction right away. Literally, an allergic reaction. There was some kind of diffuser that was putting mint in the air, and she's allergic to mint. I could smell it clear as day— that's how strong it was— and Hawk started choking up. A coordinator led us to a safe place outside. The manager visited us to make sure we were okay.

The sales manager returned 10 minutes later and gave us the good news. They were overbooked with clients, she said. Nobody was actually available to pitch to us. She'd give us our door prizes— some Hilton Honors points and a $200 discount voucher for a night at a Hilton within the next 6 months— and cut us loose.

It was a great solution for us because we totally weren't going to buy anyway. It saved us the hassle of explaining all the reasons. Though a small part of me did want an opportunity to unload about how the timeshare company bait-and-switched us. I wonder if they had a spy microphone pointed at us out in the courtyard as Hawk and I discussed our talking points and decided, "Yeesh, we're not going to waste our time with that." 🤣

So now we're back at the room. We'll finish up bingeing some so-bad-it's-good TV then go out to a nearby beach late in the afternoon. We'll catch some more sunset action like we did last night!

Hawaii April Travelog #30
Puakō - Fri, 15 Apr, 2022, 5:30pm

We took it easy around the resort in the morning and the afternoon today in exchange for going out later. Our first plan was to visit Puakō Beach, recommended by semi-local friend, Dave. Then we saw on the map a petroglyphs reserve and decided to visit that first. So the beach would be our second plan. Well, first plan, second act. 😅 Anyway....

The petroglyphs area was near a beach parking lot. At first we wondered, "Is this really the right place?" as all we could see facing away from the beach was The Floor Is Lava.



This is part of what I described as my first impression upon landing in Kona-Kailua earlier in the week. The floor is lava. Here at least it's only a small patch of lava. There are also trees around the edge of it.

A gravel path wound through the piles of lava rock. It all looked... a little too manicured. There were a few stones with etchings on them tilted up on display. An informational sign openly cast doubt on whether these were genuine artifacts or... modern reproductions. I thought about giving up on this park as being hokum— it was clearly a concession created by a high-dollar resort nearby in exchange for permission to build— but then the trail turned sharply and narrowed as it ducked into a thicket of trees.



When I say these trees were thick, I mean they were thick like the stunted trees of the Blight in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time. Their trunks and branches twisted around in crazy patterns. We had to duck and dodge in many places, and even with many of the trees being scorched by fire and mostly bare, the canopy overhead was so thick we sometimes couldn't tell what color the sky was.

Suddenly the thick stand of stunted trees gave way to a volcanic clearing.



Here the lava rocks were oddly smooth and all tilted in the same direction. Petroglyphs were carved into most of the "tiles" separated by surface cracks. And they all seem oriented toward the Kohala volcano.

What do the sigils mean? The signs say we don't know. That's really sad because it's not like the Hawaiian people disappeared 800 ago. Hawaiians still live in Hawaii. And even the last Hawaiian royal, Queen Lili'uokalani, lived until 1917. Coudln't we, uh, ask Hawaiian people what these Hawaiian symbols mean? Well, we can, but that's where the sad part comes in: they don't really know, either. Through the 19th and 20th centuries foreign powers (Britain, US, and Japan) sought to control Hawaii. One form of control was to replace their education with colonial schools. Even Lili'uokalani learned in a school run by Christian missionaries who sought to suppress her cultural heritage as being primitive and ungodly. Now we're all poorer for it.

Hawaii April Travelog #28
Mauna Kea Visitors Center - Thu, 14 Apr, 2022, 8pm

Mauna Kea. A dormant volcano. The highest peak on Hawaii, at 13,803' (4,207.3 m) above sea level. Argued by many to be the tallest mountain in the world counting the fact that it starts almost 20,000' deep in the Pacific Ocean. And there's a hiking trail at the top— what a perfect place for us to visit!

...Or so we thought. It turns out we couldn't go all the way to the top. The park says you need a 4x4 vehicle, with low-range gearing (so no "cute 'utes" allowed), to traverse the last 8 miles of road. Rangers had a roadblock at the visitors center at 9,000' and were strict about stopping people from driving onward. This trip, like most trips where we fly and rent a vehicle, we didn't have a serious 4x4. Oh, well.

Since we couldn't drive to the top we had an extra hour or two before sunset. Our plan was to get all the way up, hike around the top just before sunset, then watch the stars come from from next to the famous Keck Observatory up there. Instead we rested in the car (it's cold outside at 9,000'!) and waited until close to sunset to hike up a ridge near the visitors center.



From atop this nearby ridge at 9,200' we enjoyed the sunset. A ranger at the station told us they expected the cloud cover to lift just before sunset. It did... kind of. The clouds lifted above us but not below us. That created the weird "above the clouds" effect you see in the photo above.

I lugged my nice camera and tripod— minus, of course, the lens that was stolen— up the hill. I was surprised overall how easily I handled the ~200' of ascent considering a) the high altitude with next to no acclimation and b) my legs still being mostly wrecked from the Koko Head Tramway trail earlier in the week.



Anyway, with those tools in hand I was able to capture some fun pictures in the dusk light. The photo above shows the view up to the summit of Mauna Kea. In the midground are two small craters.

What happens, BTW, when you turn the exposure compensation knob on your camera to +2 stops? It makes sunset look kind of like a nuclear explosion!



...But in a good way. Clearly nobody here's being nuked. 🤣

People started filtering down from the ridge after the sun set. We stayed on, waiting to see stars come out. It was cold, though; about 40° vs. a high of 84° down in Waikoloa earlier in the day (4.5° C vs. 29° C). Our part-year-resident friend Dave quipped when we told him where we were going, "I don't even have a long pants on the island." We'd packed long pants and a few light jackets just so we'd be ready for things like this.



In this last photo (above) the moon is rising. I'm not sure what that other photographer is shooting. The moon and stars are up there, bub.

We headed back down the ridge in the total darkness. I had a bunch of small flashlights in my pack so I lent one to Hawk— whose backpack was stolen, remember? But it turned out our iPhones provided way better light via their flashlight tool. So we picked our way down the dark mountain, phones in hand. In beauty we walk... with the ghost of Steve Jobs.

Hawaii April Travelog #26
Hakalau - Thu, 14 Apr, 2022, 11:30am

I am still feeling wrecked from hiking the Koko Head Tramline Trail... and that was three days ago. Today at least I'm feeling a little less wrecked than yesterday and the day before, plus I'm pretty tired of hanging around the resort (it just pisses me off anyway). Time to get out! But on short hikes, because I'm still mostly wrecked.

For today's adventure we picked a drive around to the wet side of the island. The "Big Island" of Hawaii, which is named Hawaii, is dry in the west and wet in the east. It's related to how the winds blow moisture in from the ocean. Around Hawaii the prevailing winds circle around in a weird loop. Here the trade winds actually blow east to west. Anyway, our plan for the day is to drive around the north toward Hilo, stopping at Akaka Falls on the way, have lunch in Hilo, then drive back west across the middle of the island, visiting the top of Mauna Kea— at over 13,000' elevation— before returning home after dark.

As we drove northeast from Waikoloa we soon passed from the sunny warm skies of the dry side into the gloom and drizzle of the wet side. We were prepared for that; when we visited the Island of Hawaii several years ago we stayed near Hilo. It... had pluses and minuses. The minus was it didn't feel like a Hawaii vacation is supposed to feel. It was rainy and cloudy and there were no sandy beaches. In that sense it was kind of a fail. But the one redeeming quality of the wet side is that there are waterfalls over there. We love waterfalls.

On the wet side of the island we found a serendipity. Bonus waterfalls!



This falls is one of several we spotted from the side of the road on Highway 19 northwest of Hilo. Most of the falls we passed so quickly there wasn't time to stop. And many were small. But this one was so big, upstream in a gorge from a bridge we crossed, that I had time to hit the brakes, pull over to the side of the road, and (safely) back up to a parking space near the bridge. Thankfully the rain slowed to a drizzle for a few minutes as we donned our rain ponchos and walked out halfway across the bridge, cameras in hand.

As we walked out onto the bridge another waterfall came into view, dropping down the cliff next to us.



Waterfalls are so plentiful on the wet side of the island that these aren't deemed special. There's no park here to facilitate people seeing them or to collect money. They're not even marked with a sign.

Update: I determined later, from studying a map, that these falls are on Umauma Creek and Hanapueo Creek, respectively. There is a private park called Umauma with waterfalls in it, but those falls are farther upstream. We visited "The Umauma Experience" on our trip in 2016/2017 and were turned off by the mercantilism, though we at least saw some falls way upstream. It's cool that these two falls are free. But don't blink or you'll miss them!

Hawaii April Travelog #25
Waikoloa - Wed, 13 Apr, 2022, 9pm

Wearing masks really isn't a thing in Hawaii. Over the past few days in Honolulu and now in Kailua-Kona and Waikoloa I've seen voluntary mask wearing in public indoors spaces such as grocery stores and hotel common areas is only about 5%. Back home  voluntary masking is still at about 90% in the grocery stores I frequent in Sunnyvale and Mountain View.

The lax attitude toward public health out here doesn't shift our plans too much. Most of the activities we're here for are outdoors anyway. We're eating few meals at restaurants, and when we do we favor sitting outside anyway. When we shop at grocery stores we wear our masks for the amount they protect us. Really masks are about protecting others from you... but sadly in the modern up-is-down, black-is-white politics of the US, the common understanding has become that masks are to protect yourself, if you're scared. 🙄

Hawaii April Travelog #23
Waikoloa - Wed, 13 Apr, 2022, 2pm

I woke up this morning still feeling wrecked from hiking the Koko Head Tramline trail on Monday. My legs are sore, particularly the quads and IT bands. I wobble when I walk even on level surfaces. Thus we decided instead of going on a driving and hiking trip on the Big Island today we'll stay around the resort. After all, it's a resort. Huge pools! The beach (even though it's a mile away)! So many activities!

We started the morning easy. There's a smaller pool and hut tub complex right next to our condo building. We relaxed there for an hour or 90 minutes after breakfast, enjoying the slower pace, lack of crowds, and not having to travel anywhere.

Around lunch time we drove over to the main Hilton hotel/timeshare complex. The one we were supposed to be in. As we entered the compound all the frustration I felt yesterday about being shunted off to an inferior property, the frustration I'd just barely gotten past, came back again. The main complex was freaking amazing.



There was a lagoon with people riding stand-up paddle boards and floating tricycles. There was a pool with dolphins people could pet. There were ocean views galore. And I was stuck commuting in from... frankly, a place that looks like resort-hotels I've stayed at in Phoenix.

Alas, all was not perfect out here at the oceanfront. There was still a lot of walking, which hurt my legs enormously. And all those fun looking activities like paddleboats and floating tricycles? Not in my current condition. 😢 Plus, having come out here for lunch, I found that it's basically the same shitty kids-menu-for-everybody food as back at the Phoenix annex.



I didn't spend the whole day being angry, though. It's not in my character. After I swallowed my renewed frustration at the bait-and-switch, swallowed the eye-watering prices for cruddy food, and swallowed (literally) the barely edible food, I found a lounge chair overlooking the ocean to lay out on. Actually, Hawk found the chair. I wasn't in lounge chair hunting mode since it hurt too much to walk around. I relaxed here for at least an hour while she splashed in the pools. I think I even managed a short nap with my hat pulled down over my eyes.