We made it to the dry side!

We are now in Kailua-Kona for the next week, or best part thereof. Here on the 'dry' side of the island, the leeward side on the other side of the mountain range, and therefore immune to rain. Mostly! It seems like in Hawaii though, most of the rain just hangs about up in the mountains in the middle, and the coast is mostly sunny!

The day started off with a short visit to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. That turned into a long visit... nearly 3 hours later we trekked off! There was a whole bunch of stuff to see though. Plants. And waterfalls. And ocean views. And... well you get the general idea:

Plant-free photos from the gardens

Of course there is a range of plants, from those that (apparently) we have at our garden at home, to wacky plants that looked more like Transformers:

Plants from the gardens

And what's a botanical garden without a parrot cage?

Complete with parrot cage!

After dragging ourselves back up the long hill and into the car, we gratefully turned the AC dial up and headed towards Waipio Valley Lookout. A rather well-known spot, judging from the distance the car had to be parked from the lookout. A short walk from the car park takes you to the lookout, where you can hike down to the beach and nearby waterfall:

Waipio Valley Lookout

Declining the hike because (a) not enough time and (b) can't be arsed, we headed past a couple of towns on our way towards Kona. First up was Honoka'a, the closest town to the lookout:

Honoka'a old town

To Waimea, a spread-out, nice town in the mountains, where we had a Starbucks stop for refreshment and wifi - the busiest Starbucks we've seen so far and the staff were almost a blur they were working so fast - very impressive!

Waimea

Fast-forward nearly an hour, to Kona where the sun was just starting to set. Cue a few lightning-fast photos out of the car window of the sunset:

Sunset from the car window

Not that the 25mph speed limit was any barrier to taking photos. The speed limits here are just weird in some places.

So next few days will combine some time to chill out, ready for Kauai, with some must-see attractions that will take up the rest of the time. See ya!

Felicity says:

A long driving day but it was great to see the beautiful scenery. The only other time I have done this drive it poured with rain so I had to give the gardens and the lookout a miss. I've really noticed the heat this trip, usually when I visit at this time of year it is quite pleasant. But the Nissan has a "Max Aircon" button - you just hit it when the car starts - awesome. 

Comparatively civil, excluding the golf

Today had far less on the agenda than the last two days. With most of the to-do list completed, there was a third and final visit to Liliuokalani Gardens, where at high tide most of the gardens is impassable due to the influx of seawater:

Final visit to flooded Liliuokalani

OK, maybe I lie, I did slip in a quick 9 holes! For every guest at our hotel, they offered 9 holes of golf plus club and accessory hire. Took me a while to get back into the swing of things, but managed to not do tooooo badly! Got some video footage of golfing, didn't take the camera with me so nothing in the way of photos.

Following was an afternoon visit to downtown Hilo. Self-proclaimed as a town, not a city, the area has several attractive period buildings, along with some that have been rebuilt after several tsunamis in the middle of last century:

Architecture of Hilo

The waterfront area of Hilo has been deliberately left as green space, in the wake of the tsunamis. Where there once was buildings, there is now an expanse of green, covered with palm trees, banyan trees and various sporting fields:

Waterfront of Hilo

Then back to the hotel! Tomorrow we embark on a decent road trip to Kona, where we will spend the best part of a week, mostly relaxing in preparation before the hectic 2 weeks of our schedule in Kauai. More from Kona!

Felicity says:

Oh goodie ... golf. Pass on that, I'll be in the hotel room reading a book and packing our suitcases ready for the road trip. And going to the second hand bookstore (there are 2 awesome "sister" stores on the Big Island, one in Hilo and one in Kona), and playing in Target/Walmart/KMart. 

Kaboom!

... goes Mum's blood pressure. Wait. What?

Today's task was to visit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, one of the most stunning active volcano complexes left in the world.

But first up, a few sunrise photos from Liliuokalani Gardens, on a nice moody morning. Funnily enough, Mum didn't accompany me on a sunrise shoot!

Liliuokalani Gardens in morning light

The mid-morning departure to the national park was made that much more depressing by the rain rolling in. Fortunately we decided to continue on anyway, which was a good choice because the weather in the park was very kind to us for most of the day. Further from Hilo means less rain I guess.

First up was a viewpoint of Halema'uma'u Crater, a still-active plume of smoke billowing from a newly created hole. Due to the fumes most of the drive of the rim was impassable, as was the entire hiking track that is normally open to hikers along the crater floor:

Smoke billowing from the crater

Next up was a drive down to the ocean, along Chain of Craters Road. Here you pass so many different types of landscapes. It's so surreal. From massive holes in the ground, to enormous fields of lava covered in dead trees, to fields where plants are trying to grow in a seriously inhospitable environment:

The park's varied landscapes

Sadly the only way to see active lava, we found out, was to go on a helicopter tour. Even the ocean does not provide lava views at the present time.

At the foot of the park, on the ocean, is the Holei Sea Arch. Here the waves pound continuously against the lava, according to a couple of locals who were there the sea was as rough as they had seen for a long time:

Holei Sea Arch

Next was a hike. HIKE, Mum! It was in essence a flat path though, called Devastation Trail. We got exactly the right weather for it too - the surreal light rain that we had gave the barren landscape an almost alien nature:

Devastation Trail

After waiting a while at a lookout for the cloud to lift, we headed back to the car and towards one final stop: Thurston Lava Tube. After the rain, there was a fair bit of standing water in the tube, which sort of gives you an idea about what the inside of a volcano is supposed to look like:

Inside an extinct lava tube

Then a drive home, in the dark, and the rain. Mum was so excited for that part!

Tomorrow we probably won't do much, given we've seen all that needs to be seen. Maybe some of downtown Hilo. Aloha!

Felicity says:

I have been before but on a bus tour, which limits the stops you can make. Driving opens up a whole new range of scenery, especially going down to the sea. While I waited (and waited and waited) there for the photographer I talked to a volunteer ranger who had lots of interesting stories to tell. There are so many different shapes and colours of lava flows, I'm sure the geologist husband could have explained it but it would have been interesting to know what causes each one.

Water all round!

Today was reasonably sunny, which I'm told is a rare occurrence in this part of the world. Our plan was to visit a couple of waterfalls in the morning. Waterfalls are one of the benefits of being in one of the wettest places on the planet - spectacular formations are everywhere!

First up was Akaka Falls State Park. The star attraction of a short round-trip walk, Akaka Falls is a massive waterfall. The rest of the walk is pretty nice as well, with several really nice stops for mini-waterfalls, moss-covered tree trunks and massive banyan trees:

Akaka Falls State Park

Next up was Rainbow Falls. It does what it says on the tin: depending on the angle of the sun, a rainbow is thrown up by the water tumbling into the river underneath the falls. While it wasn't quite at the right angle, there was a rainbow while we were there. Behind the lookout there's a massive collection of banyan trees where you can hide in the shade for a while, and go further out onto the rocks above the falls:

The fantastic Rainbow Falls

Got back and chilled for a while, before deciding the day was not yet over and heading out again. We headed for a couple of beach parks, but ran away pretty quickly as there was not much to either of them. I then amused myself walking around first Coconut Island, a small outlook island jutting into the bay:

Coconut Island: an accurate description

And then Liliuokalani Gardens, a large Japanese garden in the middle of the town, with some nice bridges and shady places to sit back and watch the world go by:

The picturesque Liliuokalani Gardens

So a pretty full day, all things considered! Tomorrow if the weather holds up we will head off to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the other must-do day trip from Hilo. Until then!

Felicity says:

We were indeed lucky with the weather, the only other time I have been here it was unpleasantly damp. I only yelled at him once to get a move on and stop taking so many photos of the same thing. I thought I was very patient really. Mainly because the $5 entry fee only gave us 2 hours of parking at the Akaka Falls area and we just made it back to the car in time - and we were lucky we went early because on our return we found that people had had to park a long way up the road and walk in.