Guest Post by: HNLhulagirl

While the mega resorts are clustered near beaches of the South Kohala coastline where the dark lava flows and straw colored brush contrast with the gorgeous cerulean waters of the Pacific and the white sands of some of the most beautiful beaches in the world. As gorgeous as it all is, there is more to Kohala, Hawaii, lots more. Divided into two parts, South Kohala has the beautiful beaches, Hawaii’s North Kohala is untouched and scenic. Both have enormous historic importance.

A 4WD is not necessary, a convertible would certainly be nice, but a small SUV or compact car will do just fine. Allow an afternoon or a morning, no less than 3 hours from Waikoloa and 4.5 from Kailua-Kona to insure enough time to wander, picture take, soak up the fresh air and vistas. Combine it with a visit to Spencer Beach for a full day of Big Island fun.

Begin by taking the Queen Kaahumau Highway north, turn right at Kawaihae and head to Waimea then left onto Kohala Mountain Road to Kapaau then right and onward to the end of the road.

To return, head back to Kapaau and continue onward along Akoni Pule Highway to Kawaihae and south toward Queen Kaahumanu Highway. The drive is scenic and easy. Be on the lookout for wild goats and turkeys along the road. Views of the summit of Haleakala on Maui and whales along the coastline in the winter are abundant.

Here are some points of interest along the way:

Pololu Valley
End of Akoni Pule Highway
Niulii HI
Wonderful vistas, optional steep and strenuous hiking trail, small free parking lot.

Statue of King Kamehameha the Great
54-3900 Akoni Pule Highway
Kapa’au HI 96755
Quick stop for photos at this iconic statue. This statue is the original, copies are located on Oahu and in Hilo.

Bond Memorial Public Library
54-3903 Akoni Pule Highway
Kapa’au HI 96755
Located across the street from the statue, the books were moved to the new library down the street in late 2010, but the building still retains charm and interest.

Hawi
Located just 3 miles from Kapaau, this former plantation town is now a collection of galleries, boutiques and eateries. It’s a great place to have lunch, browse the shops and stretch.

Puukohola Heiau
The largest archeological site in Hawaii, this historic site was the war temple of King Kamehameha the Great. A visit is a wonderful experience in ancient Hawaiian culture and history. Not to be missed.

Spencer Beach
Located next door to the Puukohola Heiau, this beach is one of the more popular spots to swim and sun. Bring lots of sunscreen and water.

Normally one associates Jet Lag with a loss of sleep from traveling across many time zones usually in a East to West or West to East direction in a short number of days. One of the things about being a pilot and Jet Lag is not only the traversing of many time zones but also working or being up on the back side of the clock.

This week has been a good example of Jet Lag from my view as a pilot. The week started out normal with my commute up to New York from Orlando. I had been given a 5 day trip to Sao Paulo Brazil; departure time was scheduled for 9:35pm Friday night from New York, with a 9 hour 50 min flight time and a 1 hour time difference we were to arrive in Sao Paulo at 8:30 Saturday morning. So this flight would be on what we call the back side of the clock, we would be flying all night. Since the flight is over 8 hours, according to FAA regulations we have to have three pilots, one Captain and two First Officers. With 9:50 minutes of flying time and the extra pilot we would get almost a 3 hour break during the flight. Am I confusing you yet?

FAA requires three pilots when the flight is over 8 hours, but it still only takes two pilots to fly the plane, thus giving the extra pilot a chance to take a break. So if you divide the 9:50 minutes into three and allow for a time when all there pilots are in the cockpit for takeoff and landing, required by the FAA, you can then break the rest periods into 3 equal time periods, this night it worked out to 2:55 minutes.

Ok , so on this particular flight , New York to Sao Paulo, we will be flying all night, we will get a almost 3 hour break, now I am lucky, on the Boeing 777 we have our choice of a rest seat in 1st Class or our choice of a bunk bed behind the Cockpit. Flight attendants have a bunk bed in a room between Business Class and Coach. Now with a choice to pick a place for my break, I chose the bunk. Now one of the problems for me is winding down enough to get some sleep, one of the problems we tend to find is when flying the plane your adrenaline goes up, your mind is doing a lot of thinking, so for me it is not easy to just fall asleep, usually when getting in the bunk it takes me about 20 to 30 minutes of reading a book to wind me down. So now we take 30 minutes away from the 2:55 minute break and I am down to a 2:25 nap. Ok, but again this turns out to be not a deep sleep, because being in charge of the plane your mind is working in the background thinking about the flight.

We arrive Saturday morning to rainy weather in Sao Paulo; we shot the landing approach to minimums thus really getting the adrenaline working overtime again. Arrive in Sao Paulo at 8:30am, long bus ride into the city and by the time we check in and get to the room it is almost 10 in the morning. Ok most travelers would think ok 8 hours in bed and I will be good to go. Problem with this thinking if I were to sleep 8 hours now, get up a 6pm, I would not be able to fall asleep until very late into Saturday night and maybe early Sunday morning. This will not work since we have an 8: am pickup Sunday morning to fly from Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro’.

To be rested for Sundays flight, the best thing is to only take a 2 or 3 hour nap Saturday morning, force yourself up, get out and about have a nice dinner and then get to bed at decent hour like 9 or 10pm so you will get a good 8 hour sleep before the next day’s flight.

Sound good so far? Ok, a 2:30 rest break on the flight down, 2 to 3 hour nap Saturday morning you are still short 4 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours and the 2 naps were not quality sleep time. Sunday morning we do the trip over to Rio de Janeiro and back to Sao Paulo Sunday night. Sunday night we get a normal sleep, but Monday we do the trip in reverse to New York.

We leave Sao Paulo at 9:15 pm Monday night to arrive in New York at 6am. Arrive in New York at 6 am and catch a flight back to Orlando and in the house about 10:30am. Same scenario as Sao Paulo, if you sleep for 8 hours it will be early evening Monday when you get up with the consequences being unable to sleep Monday night. So once again you limit your sleep to a couple of hours.

It’s been 5 days of traveling in a North to South direction, only moving 1 time zone yet I lost in reality 2 good sleep days out of 5, a deficit on sleep. Usually you will make it up in the next day or so, but this week it would not happen.

Monday, the day I just got home from flying up from Sao Paulo via New York to Orlando (home), I get the call that I will be needed for the 11:30 pm trip to London on Tuesday night, tomorrow night. Ok , not so bad, who is going to turn down a trip to London.

Tuesday comes, after getting good nights sleep Monday night I head up to New York early so as I will be in position and try to get a nap in since I know it is going to be a sleepless night again. The 11:30pm to London gets delayed till 1am for delayed inbound aircraft. All said and done we end up leaving New York at 1:45am, which is now Wednesday morning. A 7 hour flight from New York to London at this time of the night gets us a 3 man crew. With 3 crew members the break works out to about 1:50 mins, again not enough time to relax and get quality sleep.

The big difference now on the Jet Lag comes that we are traveling west to east, changing 5 time zones. Leaving New York at 1:45 in the morning, it is within a hour to 1 1/2 hours that we could see the first signs of dawn on the horizon, it is going to be a long day or should I say a very short night.

Arriving in London at 1:45pm Wednesday, it is 3 o’clock before we get to the hotel. Same thing as before if we sleep 8 hours now we will be up all night, so again it is a short nap, force yourself up, have a nice dinner then get a full night’s sleep like the rest of the world to be ready to fly the return flight on Thursday back to New York.

Thursday comes, 6:30pm departure from London for a arrival in New York at 9:30pm, Now the Jet Lag in reverse, 5 time zones going from east to west. All said and done, 8 days on the road I figured I lost 4 good days of sleep, it took me about 2 full days to fully recover from the sleep loss and get back on a normal sleep schedule. Is it doable? Yes, is it worth it? Well 4 great cities in eight days, good company, if you know how to manage the Jet Lag it is worth it.

Last month I had a smile on my face as I headed to the airport, it is the simple things in life that can make one smile. This day it was knowing that I would need one less tray as I went through the x-ray machine, my netbook was going to stay in the bag.

How was this going to happen? well the TSA had just posted on their blog, yes they really have a blog, http://blog.tsa.gov/ the statement
“E-readers, Net Books and other small gadgets are becoming more and more popular for travelers to bring along in their carry-ons. (iPads, Kindles™, Neos, Nooks™, Sony® Readers™ etc.)” “Electronic items smaller than the standard sized laptop should not need to be removed from your bag or their cases. It’s that simple”.

One less tray, I figure a minute to open my bag pull out the netbook, zip the bag back up in the event they want to flip my bag so nothing will come out, then unzip it again when it comes out of xray place netbook back in and rezip. Wow, this done several hundred times a year, we are talking a savings of several hours, this was worth a smile.

All has gone well for the last month and half, when yesterday coming through Orlando International Airport it came to a stop. In the crew and airport worker line we are about 50 deep this day, my turn comes, same MO as the past month and half, and my bag gets stopped in the x-ray. The TSA lady looks at me and says “is your laptop in your bag” my answer was “no but my netbook is”. She then proceeds to tell me I should know better, all electronic devices need to come out of the bag and that I should know this. I ask, is this a one time thing or have the rules changed? No, this is how had has always been, I am informed.

I tell her about the statement on the TSA blog, next I have a supervisor telling me all electronics need to come out of the bag. Ok, I don’t want to be confrontational so I pull out my netbook and let them scan it. I step away from the screening area, pull out my Iphone, look up the TSA blog, find the statement. Head back over to the supervisor, show her their blog statement, now I am in uniform, you might not get the same results. Supervisor then calls a manager, I hear same story from the manager, then proceed to show them once again their statement. Manager claims they were not aware of this change. You would think they all get the same memo.

All was OK going through security in New York JFK Airport, the world was back in sync, thus my smile returned.