Lazy Day

We had planned to head up Mauna Kea mountain to the secluded Hakalau Forest and Bird Sanctuary. It's the last refuge of native Hawai'i Island species and is aggressively protected. After phoning the National Wildlife Reserve in Hilo, giving them all our personal information, getting the combination of the lock on the gate and hearing all problems in driving two hours along the gravel roads to the 5,000 foot level, the restrictions on use of the area, and how to stay out of the way of hunters on the adjacent land, we still decided it would be worth the drive up. Well, we were wrong.

After an hour of driving on the infamous, but now very much improved, Saddle Road, we turned up the Mauna Kea access road but drove right past the gravel path that turned out to be the road we were looking for. After asking the other solitary person on this desolate stretch of road we headed back and took that "road" towards the refuge. When we travelled two miles on this washed out bumpy cattle path of a "road" we knew we could not drive the total 16 miles in and 16 miles back out. We were almost on "top of the world" in a most deserted uninhabited open area - we headed back down, past some guys setting up to "para-glide" off the hills,

We came back to town, loaded up with groceries for the week and had our picnic lunch outside in the back yard on the lanai. Sue will spend the afternoon happily tending to Betty's garden. So much for our Bird Refuge adventure.

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