December
19, Wednesday
They are actually using the “Pride of America” life boats to get us to shore; kind of neat.
Pride of America outside the harbour
My instructions tell me to exit the pier area and locate the huge banyan tree with a bench under it for the pick-up location. I’m the only one there when a guy shows up with a sign indicating “Waterfalls and Rainforest Tour”. I introduce myself and Grady tells me that I’m his only customer today; I’m getting a private tour!
LOVE IT.Grady, my driver and tour guide for the day goes to get the SUV and we head out on highway 19 and 190 up the northwestern coast of the island.To my surprise, I find out that we are actually returning to the Hilo side of the island, which is where the rainforest is located.I tell him what I saw the day before on my tour and he confirms that we are going to see different sites today, some of which are on private lands when no other tour company has access. It’s so nice to be in the front seat and be able to take as many photos as I want. Plus, Grady is willing to stop whenever I want (and it’s safe to do so), and you know how I love to take photos.
Driving out of Kona
I can see Mauna Loa in the distance
and we are driving right below Mauna Kea
Cinder Cones as big as mountains dot the area
We then reach the northern coast and continue on towards Hilo. .
We have almost reached Hilo when we stop at Kolekole Beach Park, in a rainforest gulch.
A cave in the cliff face and a small waterfall tumbling down into Kolekole Stream
Walking along the trail we come across a huge bamboo that has fallen over the trail. It is the biggest bamboo I've ever seen. Bigger around than Grady's thigh. Everything was so big that I felt like a small bug wandering through this area.
The trail is well maintained and it starts raining. Good thing I have my umbrella.
We reached the lookout and I got some great pictures of the falls. Akaka Falls 442 feet (135 m) tall waterfall, highest freefalling waterfall in Hawai’i (Twice the height of Niagara Falls, but Angel Falls in Venezuela is the tallest in the world at 3,212 feet.)
Walking
trees…. “want to play Tarzan?”
the town of Honumu
Check out the sign! Someone borrowed the Indo-China expression for their shop.
Zooming in on the falls. I haven`t seen it, but if there`s a scene with a waterfall in it, this is the one!
This little cove was just beautiful.
We drive into Hilo, and I get to take photos that I was not able to take yesterday from the bus.
The streets of Hilo
Statue of King Kamehameha
Tulip Trees are in full bloom
Hilo waterfront
Liliuokalani Japanese Gardens
As I'm taking photos of the gardens a catch movement at the edge of my vision on the left side
Mongoose ! ! ! They are vicious little critters and I'm told by the grounds caretaker that this is just a young one.
Must be the wrong time of year because the creek at the bottom of the gorge had some small rapids in it, but no boiling pots that I could see.
Well, maybe with the zoom, in kind of looks like a pot of boiling water.
Down some steep steps to get to the entrance of the cave
And there is another cave entrance on the right side as well. We don't enter the lava tunnel this time since Grady doesn't have a flash light and there is mud in the cave.
Back near the parking area I notice the lava flows that are underfoot.
Amazing to see it everywhere around us.
We picked up one of Grady`s brothers here as well as his sister, who were returning home to Kona. It was now pouring rain and Grady`s older brother quizzed him on what he had told me during our drive. He added other information about our drive along the central Highway 200, which was taking us from the eastern side of Hawaii to the western side.
The scenery along this highway is spectacular, passing through hardened lava flows that date as far back as 1855, but as recently as 1984. SCARY !
Look at how high the lava is past those tall trees!
It's so impressive; lava lava everywhere
Mauna Loa is finalling peeking out above the clouds. It is the largest volcano on earth (4170 m / 13,681 ft above sea level) it rises almost 9 km (29,568 feet) above the sea floor; the weight of the massive mountain has depressed the oceanic crust down by about 8 kilometers. In mass, it is the largest mountain in the world.
As we were making our way to highway 190 we see a huge dust devil that my “tour family” called a tornado! I turned around to Grady and said: ”You didn`t tell me this was going to be a tornado chasing tour.” We all had a good laugh.
Our highest elevation on this route was 6,632 ft.
We've had all sorts of weather today. A cloud of fog will soon envelop the car.
Coming down to Highway 190
The landscape keeps changing all along our route. The Big Island of Hawaii is simply amazing.
We got back to Kona at around 2:30 pm where the sun was shining again and I was back onboard after taking the tender back to the cruise ship.
Back in Kona, I catch the tender back to the ship. Some little kids spotted some dolphins playing in the water, but I was too far away from that side of the boat to take photos.
There's a little elephant on my bed to welcome me back aboard ship
Lifting the tender back onto the ship. Someone's in the Christmas spirit.
It had been a long day. After watching them getting the tender boats back on board, I decided to just eat at the buffet area instead of the dining room.
Good bye Kona, Good bye Big Island
Sunset aboard ship, on our way to Kauai
We arrived in Kona this morning, the sunnier side of the
“Big Island” of Hawai’i. I have my 2nd excursion on this island
today with a different company: The “C Big Island Tours”. The ship is not moored to a dock and we need
to take “tenders” to get from the Cruise Ship to the pier.
Pride of America outside the harbour
My instructions tell me to exit the pier area and locate the huge banyan tree with a bench under it for the pick-up location. I’m the only one there when a guy shows up with a sign indicating “Waterfalls and Rainforest Tour”. I introduce myself and Grady tells me that I’m his only customer today; I’m getting a private tour!
LOVE IT.Grady, my driver and tour guide for the day goes to get the SUV and we head out on highway 19 and 190 up the northwestern coast of the island.To my surprise, I find out that we are actually returning to the Hilo side of the island, which is where the rainforest is located.I tell him what I saw the day before on my tour and he confirms that we are going to see different sites today, some of which are on private lands when no other tour company has access. It’s so nice to be in the front seat and be able to take as many photos as I want. Plus, Grady is willing to stop whenever I want (and it’s safe to do so), and you know how I love to take photos.
Driving out of Kona
The first part of the drive is through arid country where
there is only scrub land and remnants of old lava flows.
and we are driving right below Mauna Kea
Cinder Cones as big as mountains dot the area
We are now getting into the rain forest area
We have almost reached Hilo when we stop at Kolekole Beach Park, in a rainforest gulch.
A cave in the cliff face and a small waterfall tumbling down into Kolekole Stream
We drive upstream for about 11 miles and reach Akaka
Falls. There is a nice looping trail
here that takes you through a rain forest.
The Kolekole Stream begins on the
upper slopes of Mauna Kea, winds its way past Akaka Falls and reaches the sea
at Kolekole Beach Park.
The trail is well maintained and it starts raining. Good thing I have my umbrella.
We reached the lookout and I got some great pictures of the falls. Akaka Falls 442 feet (135 m) tall waterfall, highest freefalling waterfall in Hawai’i (Twice the height of Niagara Falls, but Angel Falls in Venezuela is the tallest in the world at 3,212 feet.)
We finish the loop back to the parking lot and continue on our way.
We retrace our route back to Hwy 19 passing through the
town of Honumu, where two GIANT banyan trees are a major tourist
attraction. The town is very quaint and the storefronts look like your driving through a western town.
Check out the sign! Someone borrowed the Indo-China expression for their shop.
two GIANT banyan trees
We leave highway 19 and drive on to a private property
owned by one of Grady’s uncles. One of
the scenes from “Predators” was filmed here.
Zooming in on the falls. I haven`t seen it, but if there`s a scene with a waterfall in it, this is the one!
We drive on through the Mamalahoa Scenic Road
It's a pretty drive and it leads us to the ocean side.
This little cove was just beautiful.
We drive into Hilo, and I get to take photos that I was not able to take yesterday from the bus.
The streets of Hilo
Statue of King Kamehameha
Tulip Trees are in full bloom
Hilo waterfront
Liliuokalani Japanese Gardens
As I'm taking photos of the gardens a catch movement at the edge of my vision on the left side
Mongoose ! ! ! They are vicious little critters and I'm told by the grounds caretaker that this is just a young one.
There are Monkey Pod Trees everywhere in Hilo (or rain trees because of their umbrella
shaped top, also known as tamarind, which I first saw in Peru and Brazil.) These were
introduced to the Hawaiian Islands to provide shade and is now considered an
invasive species.
There are also many Acacia Koa trees (part of the acacia family, it is the
tree the Hawaiians used to build their carved canoes and is endemic to the
Hawaiian Islands.).
While Grady goes to gas up the SUV, I get to visit the
market area and buy something for lunch.
Nice freshly baked croissant roll filled with ham and cheese, and I buy
some apple-bananas. They are a small
variety, which have a bit of a tart taste to them. Everyone raves about them being really sweet,
but I did not find that they were. Maybe
they weren`t ripe enough. They were good
and did taste a little like an apple, but mostly because of that tangy taste.
We drove out of Hilo, just north of Rainbow Falls to an
area called Wailuku "Boiling Pots".
Must be the wrong time of year because the creek at the bottom of the gorge had some small rapids in it, but no boiling pots that I could see.
Well, maybe with the zoom, in kind of looks like a pot of boiling water.
It started to rain
while we were here. We had been very
lucky with only a few drizzles near his uncle`s property.
Our last stop was at Kaumana Caves, another lava
tube. 
Down some steep steps to get to the entrance of the cave
And there is another cave entrance on the right side as well. We don't enter the lava tunnel this time since Grady doesn't have a flash light and there is mud in the cave.
Back near the parking area I notice the lava flows that are underfoot.
Amazing to see it everywhere around us.
We picked up one of Grady`s brothers here as well as his sister, who were returning home to Kona. It was now pouring rain and Grady`s older brother quizzed him on what he had told me during our drive. He added other information about our drive along the central Highway 200, which was taking us from the eastern side of Hawaii to the western side.
Look at how high the lava is past those tall trees!
It's so impressive; lava lava everywhere
As we started our descent and we were returning to the sunny side of the island, the skies cleared up and we passed between Mauna Loa on our left and Mauna Kea on our right.
Mauna Kea or White Mountain (4205 m / 13,796 ft above sea level) only 35 meters above Mauna Loa, is the highest volcano and second largest on the Hawaiian Islands. It actually rises over 30,000 feet from the ocean floor and would therefore be the tallest mountain in the world. It is dormant, having last erupted about 4,000 years ago, and does not have a caldera on top.
I realize that today, I’ve driven all the way around Mauna Kea.
Mauna Loa is finalling peeking out above the clouds. It is the largest volcano on earth (4170 m / 13,681 ft above sea level) it rises almost 9 km (29,568 feet) above the sea floor; the weight of the massive mountain has depressed the oceanic crust down by about 8 kilometers. In mass, it is the largest mountain in the world.
As we were making our way to highway 190 we see a huge dust devil that my “tour family” called a tornado! I turned around to Grady and said: ”You didn`t tell me this was going to be a tornado chasing tour.” We all had a good laugh.
Our highest elevation on this route was 6,632 ft.
We've had all sorts of weather today. A cloud of fog will soon envelop the car.
Coming down to Highway 190
The landscape keeps changing all along our route. The Big Island of Hawaii is simply amazing.
We got back to Kona at around 2:30 pm where the sun was shining again and I was back onboard after taking the tender back to the cruise ship.
Back in Kona, I catch the tender back to the ship. Some little kids spotted some dolphins playing in the water, but I was too far away from that side of the boat to take photos.
There's a little elephant on my bed to welcome me back aboard ship
Lifting the tender back onto the ship. Someone's in the Christmas spirit.
It had been a long day. After watching them getting the tender boats back on board, I decided to just eat at the buffet area instead of the dining room.
Good bye Kona, Good bye Big Island
Sunset aboard ship, on our way to Kauai
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