Hilo is supposed to be the rainy side of the island, receiving over 150" a year, so we were delighted to wake up to sunny skies in the morning. This gave us the opportunity to see both volcanoes on our walk to check out town in the daylight (and stop at a couple of bakeries). It appears the clouds build and descend on the peaks during the day as the sun provides more heat. A check of the week's weather looks favorable - sunshine and moderate winds with slight possibility of occasional evening showers with highs around 80 and lows of 68. Can't get much better than that!
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| Mauna Kea seen from a park in Hilo |
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| One of the big banyan trees in Hilo |
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| With Leonard trying to show the size of the aerial root structure |
With so many things to see and do, the problem is where to start! After lunch, we headed to the Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Gardens, touted as a 'Gem' and 'don't miss' in our guide book and only a few miles away. It was spectacular! Especially when I read that in 1977 it was a trash strewn gulch that was lovingly restored by a couple named Lutkenhouse who fell in love with the location and spent their lives restoring and improving it. A trail wends down the valley with a number of side trails to interesting features and ends overlooking the Onomea Bay. Over the years, more land has been added to the gardens, including a small lake. The Lutkenhouses traveled around the world collecting rare plant species to add to their extensive collection. The pictures below are just a small sample of what we saw.
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| Ginger flower |
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| Pink Marcara |
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| Mayan Rose |
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| Pitcher Plant |
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| Interesting bat-like flowers |
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| Two of the parrots |
When we returned to Hilo, we spent some time walking through Lili'uokalani Gardens on the waterfront. The garden is a tribute to those lost in a 1946 tsunami that killed 159 people and destroyed what had been Hilo's Japantown. After the disaster, town fathers decided to make the area a park rather than risk further loss of life in the next tsunami. It is a beautiful and serene park, filled with ponds, bridges and pathways. A nice way to end our first day.
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| Lili'jokalani Gardens |
True to the guide book, it began raining after we were home, so we could enjoy the sound of rain falling on the palm fronds around the house. It also prompted me to add light plastic ponchos to my shopping list. They'll come in handy, and be lighter to pack and carry than our jackets. We'll need the jackets when we spend time in the Volcano National Park where we'll likely get to 4000' with subsequent cooler temperatures. The peaks are snow covered, perhaps from the blizzard Leonard noticed went through the other week.
We've seen a number of interesting birds and after trying to identify them using birding web sites with less than spectuclar luck, I bought a book. Here are some of the ones we managed to get pictures of on our walks.
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Saffron finches
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| Common Myna |
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| Yellow Billed Cardinal |
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Pacific Golden Plover |
Saturday is one of the big local farmer's market days. The market is open daily, but only on Saturday and Wednesday 200 vendors participate, compared to 30 on the other days. I stopped in to pick up a some fresh produce on a lite day, but wanted to take a look at the real thing, so after our morning walk I spent an hour wandering through the various vendors while Leonard headed back to the house. The array of produce, prepared foods, crafts and baked goods is phenomenal, and my bag was full (and heavy) by the time I left. Prices in Hawaii may be high, but were very affordable at the market. I'm looking forward to the tasty Asian food I found at the market (and plan get for Wednesday's dinner there too!). The downside of the day was a cruise ship was n port, packing the market with slow moving gray-haired folks.
We headed for the Akaka Falls State Park to view the 420' free fall plunge, one of the tallest in Hawaii, along with a number of other like minded folks. We'd hoped to take the .5m trail, but it was closed for repairs, so we joined the rest of the folks and did the short hike instead.
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| Akaka Falls after a dry spring |
On the way to our next as of yet undecided adventure, we stopped in the nearby small town to check out a wood working shop. While we we eating lunch, Leonard decided to open the top of our jeep to get some cool air in the car. For some reason, the 2 door version we have, doesn't appear to have windows that roll down, so he fiddled with the soft top and eventually got it open. The problem was he couldn't get it shut again, try as we might. Why they lease cars without owner's manuals, I find baffling, but we don't have one and after 30 minutes of trying every trick we knew, we headed back to the airport to get help, driving somewhat slowly while attempting to hold the top from blowing back. Thankfully we weren't all that far out in the sticks!
Safely back at the airport, the agent wasn't having any better luck than we'd had. Eventually one of the maintenance guys stopped and showed us the tricks. The back side zippers have to be unzipped, the top taken all the way back, and then with some pushing, shoving and aligning the top, it locks back in place. Even though we know how to do it now, I don't think we'll try that again! What was irritating was we could have done it with a manual in hand.
No longer headed N out of town, having lost about 1 1/2 hours, we checked out a few beach areas S of town.. Unfortunately there are few sand beaches on this side of the island, and with the tide and wind up, we looked for something else we could fit into a short afternoon.
Rainbow Falls, another must see, was close to town, so we headed there. The falls were considerably shorter the Akaka Falls, and the skiywas cloudy, so no rainbows were in the offing. It did feature a large cave that had been hollowed out over the decades. We also checked out the Boiling Pots a few miles further up stream. The guide book says they are impressive with sufficient water flow, but with low water they were being used as swimming holes by those that were willing to slide down the hill, We weren't, and decided to call it a day since Leonard appeared to be coming down with a cold.
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| Rainbow Falls with the cave it made |
Sunday we hope our travel won't be restricted by the the Hilo Marathon closing roads. Maybe if Leonard was feeling better, we'd sign up for the 2 mile walk - for a $25 registration fee each, we'd get a Tee shirt. At least we heard the cruise ship announce their departure, so the crowds would be smaller what ever we chose to do.
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