We finally made it over to the other side of the island. Basically, we drove around the whole island while staying in Hilo. The Hamakua coast is different from the Kona coast, more cliffs bursting with jungles hanging over the sea. We stopped at Akaka falls, it tumbles around 420 feet off a cliff surrounded by a flowery scented rainforest. We were lucky with the weather, even Hilo was clear(though every place you go to has an umbrella stand so you know this is a rainy place). We stayed at the Hilo Hawaiian and had a nice view of Hilo bay and the tiny Coconut Island. We spent a day wandering around Hawaii's Volcanoes National Park at Kilauea volcano. This park is great and the day passes quickly because there is tons of stuff to see and do. We started at the crater to view it from above, walked around lava flows younger than us, winded down past primitive landscapes with steam rising from cracks at our feet and finally winded down through dense new tropical rainforests to a lava tube. Anyone can walk through Thurston Lava Tube because it has lights, but you need your own flashlight to go the last 1000feet. I had a bike light with almost dead batteries and felt feeble and disoriented but made it to the end of the tube. On the way home we stopped at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. Black sand has a interesting feel to it because it's lava that shattered when it hit the sea and became grinded into tiny, black, glass beads. Like a lot of big island beaches there was plenty of Hawaiian sea turtles. We also made the drive down to South Point(The southern most point in the US) past the creepy sounds from the giant propellers at the Kamoa Wind Farm. The trip around our island was a good time indeed. Sure you could do it one day like some crazy freaked out tourists but our aimless, meandering routes give us plenty of time to breath the fresh air of the tropics, listen to the sounds of birds and plenty of time to stare at some truly amazing sights.

Pics

Back