Day 3 - Hilo and surrounding

For the 3rd day, we were up before 6am.   It makes you productive in the morning, but exhausted by sunset.  

Today we packed a lot in.  After some debating about when to get in some snorkeling, we decided to just take it on ourselves, grab some cheap snorkeling gear (via Walmart) and head to a local city park.  Yes -  We were at Walmart before 7am, and in the water by 7:30.  

Anybody who knows me knows that cold water is NOT my thing.  I HATE it.  After mustering up some serious gumption, I waded out into the water.  Once I got my face in and could no longer touch the bottom, it all changed.  Fish and coral everywhere!  Right in a small bay in a city park!  It was awesome.  

There are no photos of the snorkeling, but some of the area after we got out of the water.  

The shore area is rocky with black sand beaches, but once you get out, it changes to coral. Mauna Kea is in the background.  

panorama of the bay

The rocks in the distance form a really calm bay to swim and snorkel in.  

After snorkeling, we came back to town, cleaned up, and headed into downtown Hilo.  Today was the first day we saw it with clear skies.  

That's me in front of a banyan tree.  The ones in downtown Hilo are huge.  

I loved the Hilo post office.  It was an almost open air building....very Charleston like.  

Hilo is a lot like Asheville (I think I mentioned that before).  The more we are here the more we see the similarities....especially the people.  

After wandering around, we headed into the rainforests for some waterfall watching,  Our fist stop was Rainbow Falls.  It's only about 1.5 miles outside the city.  A big tourist attraction, but still impressive.

Another banyan tree. The white dot in its center is a person climbing it.

Everything here always seems like it is blooming.

Always be careful. 

After Rainbow Falls, we drown about 30 miles north along the eastern shore.  About 10 miles inland was Akaka Falls....higher than Niagra Falls.  

Huge.

Rainforest everywhere.  Hot and humid. 

Every surface covered in plants.  

The final excursion for the day was a mainly for me, but I think Kim enjoyed it a lot too.  We toured a local organic tea farm on the Onomea Bay.  

Onomea Bay - the gap  in the middle of the rocks was a natural land bridge until it fell in the 1950s.  

We spent about an hour walking the farm with one of the owners.

ALL tea is from one plant - a Camellia sinensis.  Most of teas picked come from just the top 2-3 leaves of a newly sprouted shoot.  

Tea blossoms 

Other plants were on the farm like banana and...

Cinnamon. 

The view from the house down to the ocean.  A hedge of tea shrubs in the running across the middle of the photo. 

They insisted on a photo.  

The best part of touring the farm came at the end.  We were invited out on the lanai (open air porch) where we sampled each tea from green, oolong, black, and aged black teas grown and prepared on the farm.  

It took an hour to go through 4 teas (several steepings each) while talking about the flavored and notes of each one.  The 4 bowls in the foreground are the spent leaves of each tea.  We also had some amazing scones with passionfruit custard.  

Of course we came home with some tea.  

At the end of the day, we headed back to our little apartment in downtown HIlo.  The private garden is very sweet.  Once it starts to get dark, the coqui frogs start chirping.   I had to go out and find one to see who could make so much noise.  

Good night. 

Day 2 - up and over the mountain and into the rainforest

Today we saw the skies clear in Kona on our last morning there.  After an early breakfast at the hotel, we packed up for a long drive and headed out.  We couldn't help but stop at the open air market again in Kona.  The fruit vendors there are unreal.

So much fruit! I wanted to try ALL THE THINGS!  We got some fresh fruit for our travels and headed over the mountain.  Star fruit, mangoteen, star apple, butter avocado, and my favorite, apple bananas were in the bag. 

It was a foggy rainy drive, but once we got to a higher elevation, things started to clear.

The road to Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa is called the Saddle Road because it runs between the two mountains.  It is steep and windy.  After about 20 miles, you begin to see old cinder cones from dormant volcanos.  

Like this one.

We also saw old lava flows along the way.  Several within this century.  The newer the lava flow, the fewer the plants.  

Lava flows like this can run for miles.

At 9000 ft above sea level (and we started at 0 that morning), we reached the Mauna Kea Vistors Information Station.  At this point, you can't go up any further on the mountain without a serious 4x4.  Today, the road was completely closed due to the tropical storm that blew threw the night before.  

9000 ft was fine with us. 

Mauna Kea Visitors Information Station. 

We ate a nice lunch of all the lovely things we bought at the farmers market and a few things at a local grocery store on the way.  

Then we headed up a trail for a better view.  

Yes - this is as steep as it looks.  We are heading up an old cinder cone.

Almost to the top

9500 ft above sea level.  Mauna Kea  and the observatory is another 5000 ft up!

Kimmie was excited to see the series of cinder cones that dotted the area.  See the mountain she's pointing at that looks like a collapsed mountain?  Cinder cone.  

On our way back down the mountain towards Hilo on the eastern coast, we stopped at an older lava field from the 1800s.  

The plants have begun to fill in the cracks and the forest is taking it back over. 

Ferns growing out of the rocks. 

When we got to Hilo, the rain was still coming down so we checked in to our accommodations and settled in.  Hilo is a VERY different place than Kona and the tourist-y side of the island.  It's got a kind of Asheville vibe, But from 20 years ago.  Lots of storefronts still closed or boarded up.  It has some nice parks, and good restaurants, but the downtown needs some attention.  

I did stop for some Hawaiian shaved ice.  Never had it before, and it was awesome.  The best part was the Li Hing powder and the azuki beans at the bottom.  There was a line out the door when we go there.  

Our AIr B and B is right downtown (and I mean RIGHT downtown).  It a very sweet place.  A little noisy with the street noise, airplanes overhead, and the constant chirp of the coqui frogs.   It has an outdoor shower (and that IS the shower), in a beautiful little garden courtyard.  

I think we will sleep just fine tonight regardless of the noise.  Tomorrow we go exploring the rainforests on this side of the island - waterfalls, gardens, and a tea plantation.