Hilo, Hawaii April 14, 2012

Hilo is the "wet" side of the Big Island with over 200 inches of rainfall per year. Where Kona has a lot of volcanic rock, Hilo is a lush rainforest. We arrived at 7:00 am and the highs today will be in the upper 70's. Although it has threatened rain on our visit to the islands, we never actually had any rain.

Our journey today will be to Volcanoes National Park. We drove through a tropical rainforest and ascended to 4300 feet above sea level to view Kilauea Volcano - home of Pele, the legendary Goddess of Fire.

Part of today's adventure was to drive along the crater rim to see the volcano from more than one perspective but the rim road was partially closed due to recent volcanic activity. A lot of VOG - Volcanic Ash Smog.

Since we couldn't do the rim drive, our guide took us to an another section of the park where there are fields of volcanic rock.

We had the opportunity to walk around and explore the volcanic rock.










After this stop we went to the Thurston Lava Tube and walked through it and the rainforest that surrounds it.

Rusty in Lava Tube

Sheryl at Lava Tube

Walking through Rain Forest

Again Rusty and I would have loved a little more time to hike and explore but we saw some huge craters.  The volcanic craters are miles wide and very deep.

When we left VNP we stopped at the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory and gift shop. They had some beautiful gardens here. We then made a brief stop at a Zoo before we headed into town and had lunch near an ocean side park.

Ocean side park

We drove through downtown Hilo and made a left turn and drove up this hill. Right at the top, still in town, we came across Rainbow Falls. Really quite impressive when you consider it is in town.

All in all we were very pleased with our adventures in Hawaii. The vegetation and flowers are spectacular with hundreds of varieties. The people of Hawaii were very friendly. It was everything we hoped it would be.

Kailua Kona April 13, 2012

We watched the sunrise over Kona as we arrived at 7:00 am. Beautiful. The highs today were again in the mid 70's. Seas are calm, we are both excited about our waterfall adventure.

For Kona we opted to do the Kohala Waterfalls Adventure. Our tour guide Stephanie picked us up in a van for the drive to the remote north end of the island. There were only 5 couples in our group. Unfortunately, there was one couple that were a pair of sourpusses and complained most of the time. Stephanie provided us with a very informative narrative about the rich natural and cultural heritage of the island. Kona is on one side of the Big Island and only receives about 20 inches of rainfall per year so you see a lot of the volcanic rock along the drive. You have mountains on one side and the Pacific on the other, quite an impressive drive.

Mountain in distance with volcanic rock

We arrived in the small town of Kapaau in North Kohala which is the birthplace of King Kamehameha and where his original statue resides in front of the Civic Center.

In Kapaau we made a brief stop to use the facilities and to change vehicles. We will continue on to the falls in a rugged Pinzgauer. It was quite a bumpy ride but we saw some beautiful scenery. The further north we got the more the scenery changes from the volcanic rock to rich vegetation. Once we arrive at our destination, Stephanie leads us on a 1.5 mile hike with an abundance of waterfalls, some bridges and idyllic streams. We saw some traditional Hawaiian taro terraces and irrigation flumes.

Taro Terrace

We saw some truly spectacular waterfalls. The area was rich and lush with foliage and vegetation. At one waterfall we even had the opportunity to swim. Rusty was the only adventurous soul as the water was ice cold.

As Rusty and I both love waterfalls, this was a wonderful choice for us. We could have spent more times there exploring and hiking.

 

After the waterfalls we took the German truck to a picnic area to have our lunch. What views of the Pacific we had from this spot.

The Kohala waterfalls were truly spectacular.







We departed Kona at 6:00 pm. We were scheduled to be around the Mount Kilauea Volcano around midnight to see if we could see activity on the volcano. Unfortunately we were unable to view Kilauea as it was just too overcast. We continued on our way to Hilo.

Lahaina, Maui April 12, 2012

Arrived in Lahaina at 8:00 am to overcast skies. The high was in the mid 70's. We tendered in to the port. A lot of interesting shops along the pier with beautiful mountain scenery all around.

Celebrity Century in port

We boarded our bus for the trip to the crater. The highway followed along the ocean with spectacular scenery and beautiful foliage. Along the way we passed through the town of Hana - where a lot of celebrities have homes.

The shore excursion we opted to take was the Haleakala Crater - House of the Rising Sun. The crater is the highest point on Maui at 10,032 feet above sea level. All of Manhattan Island with room to spare and the Empire State Building could be vertically stacked four times in the crater without reaching the top.

Park Diagram

Since the crater is so high up the mountain you never know if you will be able to see anything or whether the clouds will move in and block your view. We were very fortunate.

Haleakala Crater

When we reached the peak it was a clear beautiful day. However, as we began to make our descent, the clouds moved in and you could no longer see the crater.

Clouds move in as we ascend

Clouds begin to cover the Crater

 

Haleakala Crater and National Park and the island of Maui were spectacular.

Rusty sitting on ocean wall near the pier

Honolulu April 11, 2012

We arrived in Honolulu at 9:00 am. Beautiful blue skies, in the low 80's.

Aloha Honolulu

Honolulu from bow of ship

We opted to do the Arizona Memorial & Sightseeing Tour. We boarded our bus at the Harbor and proceeded to downtown Honolulu where we saw a tour of the city, the King's Palace and various State, Federal and County buildings. We had the opportunity to get off the bus and explore the area. Some of the side streets were blocked off and closed as they were going to be doing some filming for Hawaii Five-O. Got a good picture of the Headquarters, some crew and the car from the show.

King Kamehameha

Eternal Flame

Hawaii Five-O crew member

From downtown we continued on our tour to the Punchbowl Crater. This is the National Cemetery for the Pacific Fleet. All the remains that were found from Pearl Harbor are buried at this Crater as well as any others that die from the Pacific Fleet. It is an impressive site with beautiful views of downtown.

National Cemetery of Pacific Fleet

Flag flies at half mast

Memorial

Honolulu view from Punchbowl Crater

From the Punchbowl we continued our journey to Pearl Harbor. The whole experience was very impressive and awe inspiring. We saw very moving and touching footage of the actual attack on Pearl Harbor. From this short footage we proceeded to board a boat to take us to the USS Arizona Memorial. Words can't describe how you feel standing on the Memorial. When we returned to the mainland, we explored Pearl Harbor. It is very impressive. If you ever have the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbor, I would highly recommend.

Entrance to Pearl Harbor Memorial

View as we approach in boat

View as we get off boat to walk on USS Arizona

Flag on USS Arizona

Parts of USS Arizona still above water

Rusty on USS Arizona

Memorial Wall on USS Arizona

From Pearl Harbor we returned to Honolulu Harbor. Since we still had time in Honolulu, we took the Metro Bus (only cost us $2.50 including our return transfer) to Waikiki Beach. While waiting for our bus, we met a homeless man who claimed to be God - an interesting experience. Loved the Waikiki Beach area. All kinds of restaurants, shops, hotels, etc. Great place for people watching. From the Beach, we had a nice view of Diamond Head.  In order to get our return bus to Honolulu Harbor, we had to wander through the International Market Place - a very unique place. We later saw an episode of Hawaii Five-O that was shot in the Market Place - very cool to know we had been there.

Sheryl - Waikiki Beach (Diamond Head in background)

Waikiki Beach - Diamond Head

After we returned to Honolulu Harbor we just explored the area on foot. Had a wonderful day in Honolulu.

Rusty with Hula Girl statue in Harbor area