The flight from O'ahu to Hilo was really simple and really quick, almost like getting a bus. Before we knew it, we were picking up our car and planning how to spend our day.
First, we headed to Rainbow Falls which was located in the town of Hilo. It was super easy to get to and the car park was a short walk to the look out. The falls cascade 80ft over a lava cave that according to legend, is home to the ancient Hawaiian goddess Hina, the goddess of the moon. She wasn't in when we visited.
We then headed north on the Māmalahoa Highway, a scenic road which circles the entire island. This took us to ʻAkaka Falls State Park. Here we paid $20 total ($10 parking, $5/person entrance fee) to hike the 0.4-mile round trip through lush rainforest, to see two more waterfalls. First was the 100-foot Kahuna Falls and then the 442-foot ʻAkaka Falls. The cost was definitely worth it although after the steps from the previous day, my legs weren't impressed with the number of stairs.
We then hopped back onto the highway and continued north. The road wiggled around gorges and often we saw waterfalls, although I never seemed to have my camera ready! We headed down a side road which took us down a gorge to Laupahoehoe Beach Park. This was a rock beach, with lots of lava and massive pieces of concrete for sea defences. Still, there were families sunbathing on the concrete and kids playing in the pools. This beach actually has a very sad story and we learnt about it through an infographic next to a monument detailing the names and ages of those who had perished. In 1946, an earthquake in Alaska caused a tsunami on Big Island, 159 people were killed including 21 schoolchildren and three teachers in Laupahoehoe, only 2 children and 1 teacher from the school survived.
We continued north, we were aiming for the Waipi'o Valley lookout. The Waipi'o Valley is a mile across and over five-miles deep, and surrounded by cliffs up to 2000-feet high. It's inaccessible by car and can only be viewed from this lookout, by hiking, helicopter or by boat. Unfortunately the road to the lookout was closed so one to come back for in the future!
We got over our disappointment with a beer at the Big Island Brewhaus in Waimea. Then we headed onto Saddle Road which would take us back to Hilo.
Saddle Road is a bit special. It cuts between the two volcanos Mauna Kea (dormant) and Mauna Loa (recently exploded!) for 54 miles and during that time, it gives you everything - rainforest, desert, pastures, lava flows, and you get to see every type of weather - wind, rain, sun, fog. It is a surreal experience seeing so many different terrains and weathers in just one journey. Our videos is mostly driving from this point as we didn't get out and hike and aside from pulling over and taking pictures, it is a very remote landscape.
One fact we found out when we visited Volcano's Nationwide park (more on this in our next post), the Mauna Loa 2022 November - December eruption caused lava to come within a mile of this road. There were so many people wanting to see the lava flow, the Nationwide Parks service created a road which would allow people to safely get a view. Unfortunately Mauna Loa had blown herself out by the time we visited so all we could see were the lava fields.
Once back in Hilo, we checked into our B&B, the Hilo Honu Inn, where Gay and Koa took great care of us and shared with us the history of their house, and some interesting stories and facts about the town of Hilo and the islands. We learnt a lot about the impact of invasive species on the birds of Hawaii and how the noisy Coqui Frogs were accidently introduced to Hilo in the late 1980's from Puerto Rico on imported nursery plants. Without natural predators and despite the locals best efforts, they grew in numbers quickly and are now keeping everyone up at night.
The town centre was a 10 minute walk from the B&B and there were plenty of bars and restaurants to keep us busy for a night. We had a lovely meal in Pineapple's Island, which was a cool place to sit and watch the torrential downpour that started just as our dinner arrived. Apparently this is quite common for Hilo and explains why all the parks in the area are like rainforests. The rain stopped by the time we had finished dinner and after checking out a few bars, we headed back to the B&B for a good nights sleep.
some great footage of the landing and the music worked really well. I have to say, I expected a bit more from Rainbow falls, relatively small and not sure what gave them their name, not too much colour about them. The next set of falls made up for it though with some great and slightly alien looking rainforest.
Mum would have been worried the speed you were driving out to the point :-) Some lovely views and the sea had a beautiful clear blue colour, very nice. I was expecting (hoping) Lee would get drenched by some of the waves as he sat on the rock though ;-)
Jeeeeeeez, I get the mickey taken for my wonky glasses but check out the photo from the big island Brewhaus - LOL
As you say, a very remote and diverse landscape between the volcanos and eerie to see the lava fields too.
Hilo looked quite small and quaint but with noisy frogs! and then to finish off, a post-credit scene - yay!!
We left Volcano National Park and headed west towards the Kona side of the island. On our way we stopped off at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, which was beautiful. We enjoyed splashing around in the warm clear water looking at endangered Hawksbill turtles who were happy to swim around your feet while we tried to keep a safe distance from them. A little further down the road, we took a turning on the recommendation of one of our friends on Facebook to Ka Lae, the southernmost point in both the Hawaiian Islands and the United States. From here we had planned to hike to Papakōlea beach, also known as Green Sand Beach. A bit of googling on route showed that it was going to be a 2-3 hour hike from the parking lot to get to the beach and we had arrived at the hottest part of the day. We decided to miss it out this time Our next stop was Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. This turned out to be one of our favourite places during the trip. Until the ...
I try not to get Sam too involved in my obsession with astronomy, but tonight I was staying up until 2.30am and Sam, busy binge-watching Warrior Nun, inadvertently came along for the ride. Recent predictions of naked-eye comets - i.e. those you can see without even binoculars - had left backyard astronomers frustrated, as time after time they failed to deliver. It had been over 20 years since I last saw a naked-eye comet (Hale-Bopp in 1997), so I was naturally cautious about optimistic reports of C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) - or Comet Neowise . After a miserable run of weather, tonight was forecast to be clear. So, after a hard day measuring and cutting up sheets of polycarbonate roofing, I cracked open several beers and waited for the early hours. This would be when Neowise was just about high enough in the sky for me to glimpse, without being drowned out by the approaching daylight. WHOA!!!! Naked eye comet not half?!! Its nucleus and tail were clearly visible to the naked eye. Grab a pair o...
One good thing to come out of 2020 is that a combination of being at home more and not spending all our money on travelling, led to us finally, after 9 years, replace our kitchen! Our junk room dining room is no more. We finally have a livable space in the kitchen with enough work surface and modern gadgets to accommodate a small restaurant. TwoGuys looked after us from the outset when we met Heather who designed the space, Mags and Tony who coordinated the different trades and materials. And finally Bruce, the kitchen fitter who was.... well..... a little like Lee. For those who know Lee, know exactly what I meaningtons. Shout out Jack the sparky, Brendan and Dave the plumbers and Nada our painter who were all amazing. Here is the video of our journey to the new kitchen:
some great footage of the landing and the music worked really well. I have to say, I expected a bit more from Rainbow falls, relatively small and not sure what gave them their name, not too much colour about them. The next set of falls made up for it though with some great and slightly alien looking rainforest.
ReplyDeleteMum would have been worried the speed you were driving out to the point :-) Some lovely views and the sea had a beautiful clear blue colour, very nice. I was expecting (hoping) Lee would get drenched by some of the waves as he sat on the rock though ;-)
Jeeeeeeez, I get the mickey taken for my wonky glasses but check out the photo from the big island Brewhaus - LOL
As you say, a very remote and diverse landscape between the volcanos and eerie to see the lava fields too.
Hilo looked quite small and quaint but with noisy frogs! and then to finish off, a post-credit scene - yay!!