We arrived at DFW after an uneventful flight. After the walk from C Terminal to D Terminal we stopped at Cool River Cafe for breakfast. After passing up on McDonalds and Starbucks. Real breakfast! Sit down!
In 3 hours we’ll begin the last leg to Philadelphia.
Arrived in Honolulu on schedule at 4 PM. Now to charge up the mobile phones for the longer 2nd leg to DFW. Depart Honolulu at 5:40 PM HST.
Joyce is out checking on what we can get for dinner to take along. Hopefully it will be something tasty.
The airline is now calling for volunteers because they are oversold. Nope, not interested!
Up at 5:30 AM as usual! Had our coffee and breakfast on the lanai for the last time. Took a few last photos of sunrise and clouds. Then started the packing and checking to make sure we had everything before taking our leave of Flower Hill.
We left about 8 AM to return to Akaka Falls to see if the sky would cooperate and provide some blue instead of gray for photo ops. Yea, there was blue sky and whit puffy clouds! Took some photos and got some steps too. AND, we were able to get aan earth cache too–#1 for the day.
Next we headed for anothet nearby beach park to check out another waterfall. Not so impressive, but took some photos anyway. Joyce went looking for a cache while Gary did the photo thing. No luck on finding the ccache.
Still in search of another cache we returned for the third time to the shave ice spot to look once more for the cache that’s supposed to be there. No luck even though there were only a few people around at 11 AM.
Then on to Rainbow Falls for one last photo op. No rainbow at 11:30 in the morning. Too late!
Gary, still in need of a Hawaiin shirt, took the advice of our hosts and shopped in Walmart.
One last try to locate an interesting Post Office to photograph was a bust. It was time to get to the airport, return the rental car and check in. After passing security we had lunch in the waiting area to use up the last of our food items.
Almost readyto board the flight for Honolulu.
After we thought about some, we decided to try for a cache again today. We returned to the shave ice establishment and still too many things going on to try for that cache.
We decided to try for one at the Pepeekeo lighthouse located down toward the ocean from our guest house. It was a remote possibility. After locating the public access to the shore, we made our way to the rocky ledge and had a walk through tall grasses and over rocks and trees to see the lighthouse. The cache was located closer to the public access, but it had been moved and the new coordinates didn’t seem to point to any logical location. We abandoned this one too.
We had on last hope at the big gear on a pedestal at the main road. Fortunately we had success here and found our only cache today.
Back at the guest house we did take showers, got out boarding passes, made dinner and enjoyed the lanai one last evening on the Big Island. Enjoyed another pineapple courtesy of our hosts.
So, we were up early this morning. After some discussion, a quick breakfast and morning coffee, we made a plan to return to the Volcano NP and hike across the Kilauea Iki crater.
We left the guest house at 7 AM for the 45 minute drive to Volcano NP. Got there a little before 8 and stopped briefly at the visitor center to see if we could get a map. No luck as they open at 9AM. We did get another copy of the brief description map of the areas in the park, but no details about the Kilauea Iki trail.
No matter. We drove to the parking lot for the hike and were on the trail about 8:45 AM after a false start because G had left his sunglasses in the car and had to make a 0.3 mi return trip to get’em! As it turned out, didn’t need them after all. It had rained earlier and was cloudy the entire time we were hiking. Of course, that made for better hiking than full blazing sun, but made for lousy pictures. Took a lot anyway and hoping that post-processing can make something of gray sky, gray lava and little green on the sides!
This was a very interesting hike. We took the trail in reverse and had a nice walk down the 400 feet through the rain forest into the crater floor. Once there, the trail was maked by Ahu (stacked rocks). We saw steam vents up close, the smallest plants growing in the harsh conditions of the lava and plenty of broken lava in many shapes and forms. Photographed quite a few and maybe some will turn into photos….
The rain forest part of the trail both going down and coming back up the 400 feet in elevation at the end were muddy in spots. We were able to work around most of the puddles with a little ingenuity. The trek down through the rain forest was more interesting because there seemed to be more gradual descent with changing vegetation along the way.
The walking on the crater floor was really very easy. After crossing the crater, the trail back up was across some rougher terrain and it was more difficult walking and climbing.
After returning to the top, we had bananas and Kashi bars for a snack. Then began our drive back to the guest house. As we got back into Hilo, Joyce remembered that we still needed to find a Hawaiian shirt for Gary. We looked for the store recommended in the guidebook our hosts have available, but the Hilo Hotties stores were out of business. We’ll have to check with our hosts for more information on this topic.
We drove by the Hilo lighthouse and stopped to take it’s photo again this time with blue sky in the background. Then, finally we decided to have a Hawaiian shave ice treat at the little restaurant just down the road from our guest house. Gary had mango and banana while Joyce had guava and passion fruit. Very tasty! We looked for a geocache at this place, but were unable to search very much due to the number of people present. So far, no caches today. We’ll be out again to find at least one!
finally back at our house around 2:30 PM. We need showers, aspirin and a bit more to eat. Probably popcorn and whatever….
We’re keeping an eye out for blue sky over the Akaka waterfall hoping to improve upon the photos take when it was cloudy the other day. No luck so far!
Later, we plan on dinner out.
Today we got an early start (around 7:15 AM HST) because we planned a long drive around the Big Island. We started to the south again, but stayed on Highway 11 past the Volcano NP entrance and kept on going!
Our #1 cache for the day was found at Wellington Wonderland a state park with a beach. Not much to speak of.
We stopped at Naalehu Town for Portuguese malasadas at Punalu’u Bake Shop and a geocache. We were successful finally with #2 geocache for the day located in a Banyan tree. The malasadas were nothing special when compared to Tex Drive In’s that we had the other day.
We drove to South Point (Ka Lae) the southern most point in the US. Two objectives: 1) you guessed it a geocache #3 and 2) a lighthouse. The N 18 degrees 54 minutes W 155 degrees 40 minutes. We took some surf photos, lava photos and a couple of signs/monuments.
Then we made our way to Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park. This was formerly a sacred place for the Hawaiian Royalty. It was a very small park and took about 15 minutes to see it. Cache #4 was found just outside the park on the way out. A plastic bag in a hole in a fence post! Pretty lame!
We visited the other Painted Church on Painted Church Road near Keokea Town. Took a few photos for rural architecture. No cache here. Then on to Holualoa Town via the old winding road (Mamalahoa Highway) to get a cache in an old post office building. It took us a few tries to get the mailbox open and retrieve cache #5 for the day. A good caching day so far!
Continuing on to Queen K highway for gas and through the lava fields of a very old lava flow. Then we turned off Queen K Highway and headed for Waimea to get a cache that we’d missed previously. It started to rain just as we were getting to the Parker Ranch where the Camp Tarawa Marine Monument and the geocache were located. Joyce hunted for #6 cache of the day. Then we drove home sometimes through heavy rain.
It was about 5:30 when we got home and had Hawaiian dinner (Spam, corn, rice and pineapple and pears). Watched a little TV and called it a night around 10 PM. Thinking about an early rise to go and walk the crater in Volcano NP on Wednesday.
We were having a leisurely morning after the long day yesterday which was interrupted by our host Karen bringing some fresh bananas from their farm! They were pretty tasty just picked from the tree! We also have had our 3rd pineapple courtesy of our hosts. We’ve enjoyed it for dinner a couple of times and had it again for lunch today. More coming for dinner tonight!
After breakfast we headed out for our first planned activity of the day–the Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Gardens located just down the road from where we’re staying. See www.htbg.com for some info. We got there about 9 AM opening hour and stayed until 11:30. Lots of tropical flowers and other plants to photograph. Tried to find a geocache just outside the gardens on a public path down to the ocean without success. However, our 1st cache of three for the day was on a bridge on the Old Mamalahoa Highway which is now a scenic byway. Reminded us of the Road to Hana with all it’s one lane bridges.
On our list was to get a smoothie at the local “best” place on Hawaii…. What’s Shakin’! Well, Joyce had packed our lunch and the smoothie spot was just a little ways up from the gardens. We stopped in and ordered a Bananarama (Joyce) and a Paradise Passion (Gary). They were really flavorful with lots of island fruits. Ate our bread, cheese and salami, fresh pineapple (see above) and ended with Nutter Butters for dessert.
Then it was on to the famous and largest waterfalls in Hawaii–the Aka’ka waterfalls. This was in a state park that costs $5 to park. The walk was about 0.5 mile on a sidewalk trail. It had a lot of ups (stairs) and downs that contributed to the 34 stairs on Gary’s fitbit and 35 on Joyce’s. There was another waterfall in the park, but it was not very photogenic because of all the overgrowth that covered it up from the viewing points. We moved on to the Aka’ka where good photography was possible. Gary set up his tripod in the best spot and got out the neutral density filter so he could use a slow shutter speed to make the water flow silky smooth. Look fine on the camera’s small screen, but will have to see it on the computer to know if the photos were successful. (That’s a project for back in Wilmington). We were successful in finding our second cache in a guardrail just outside the state park and an uphill walk to get it. Of course, it was downhill to the car. Half of what Gary prefers….downhill both ways!
When we finished at the waterfalls it was only 3:30 and we weren’t hungry and decided to go to the Japanese Gardens in Hilo on Banyan Street. We’d been by it a couple of days ago and thought it looked interesting. Besides, there were two caches there. We only found one, out 3rd for the day, because the other had gone missing and been temporarily archived. The gardens were very different than most other Japanese gardens we’ve visited. Lots of bridges, pools and lanterns. No Zen garden! An imposing black cloud suggested that maybe we should conclude our visit and head home. It was about 5:30 and seemed like a good time to rest up from the day’s activities on the lanai.
Home about 5:45 and Joyce assembled the dinner while Gary poured the cold white wine to enjoy on the lanai.
Another nice day in Hawaii!
Wewere up with the sun–that’s like 5:30 AMHST! After breakfast we decided to make this our first visit to the Volcano to check it out. We went by way of Rainbow Falls just outside Hilo’s downtown.
At Rainbow Falls we were disappointed at first. The information we had said best in the morning. When we arrived, there was no rainbow to be seen! And we could not do the geocache there because of too many muggles. They were everywhere! Maybe there will be fewer people not on a weekend day. And the sun was in and out of the clouds. So, we waited around and waited around. About 10 AM the sun peeked out for longer periods of time and we saw the hint of the rainbow from the main walkway. After watching at this spot for a few minutes, Joyce went up to the right so the sun was in a better position and the rainbow was more present. We both got a few shots from that spot.
There was a higher overlook that looked down on the falls and upriver. No rainbow up there. BUT, Joyce did it twice thereby ensuring that her fitbit would record more stairs climbed that Gary’s! We met a fellow photographer from Honolulu who had the same brand of travel tripod as Gary and he remarked on it. Saying that he had to actually go to B&H (the big photo store in NYC) to check it out. He had a Canon 5D MKIII for taking great photos.
We tried once more on the way out for the geocache, but there were still too many people about. Left for the Volcano National Park about 10:45. Once again our Senior Pass got us through the entrance gate without charge. Stopping at the visitor center to get the first of several earth caches in the park (Success!!), we also got some information from one of the rangers about various things to do in the park. Based on that information we decided to go along the Chain of Craters Road to the Sea Arch. Along the way we stopped at the Devastation Trail and took a 0.7 mile round trip walk to see over into one of the cratersthat people could hike across. Then we drove to the hike to the petroglyphs. It was 1.5 miles, but across the lava. Joyce was sure that it was 2 or maybe 5 miles! This took about an hour. Got a few photos from both the Devastation Trail and the petroglyphs.
On to the Sea Arch! Here we got the 2nd earth cache successfully by answering a couple of questions and sending a photo of us (Joyce) holding the GPSr with the Sea Arch in the background. Got a few other photos in the area. Then headed back up the Chain of Craters Road to make our way to the Lava Tube. It was really hot, too!
We stopped at one of the craters that was not named on the map and we didn’t document the name while there. Took a couple of panorama photos and some various shots of the crater.
At the Lava Tube, there were hordes of people! It was a walk down, down, down into the rain forest and back up into the Lava Tube. We were after our 3rd earth cache here. Successfully answered the questions and walked a short way into the tube. Too many people so we returned to the parking lot. Up, up and up that added about 4 stairs to our fitbits (Joyce is still ahead of me) stopping along the way to grab a few photos.
Since the weather was pretty clear we decided to try for dinner at the Volcano House (lodge and restaurant built by the CCC) and then stay for the night photography opportunity at the Jaggar Museum viewing area. We were lucky, the lounge was open and they had enough choices to make dinner. Joyce had three BBQ sliders and Gary had a pizza with pork and pineapple. A couple of local beers, too. The restaurant had views of the caldera and steam vents. Nice!
After dinner and the short drive to the Jaggar Museum, Gary set up his tripod for the night shots. Of course, it was only 5:30 and sunset was around 6:50 and dark was around 8 PM. Waiting on photograpy opportunities is not one of Joyce’s best loved activities. During the 3 hour wait, she found the 4th earth cache at the Jaggar Museum, logged all the day’s caches and waited in the car the last 30 minutes!
Leaving around 8:20, we arrived back at the guest house around 9:30. watched the news and called it a day!
Well, our drive today started from our guest house Flower Hill near the town of Pepe’ekeo about 12 miles north of Hilo. It is a small ranch (farmette) off the beaten path (good roads)! We took Highway 19 North through the following towns/villages:
Honomu
Hakalau
Papa aloa
Laupahoehoe
Honoka’a
Waimea
In Waimea we took Highway 190 , We stopped hoping to get a geocache at the Parker Ranch Marine memorial, but were unsuccessful. Then we continued on 190 to a “Y” in the road and took the left fork. It was Saddle Road, no number! It did connect up with Highway 200 near the military reservation Pahakaloa where the army conducts tank training. Highway 200 is named the Daniel K. Inouye after Hawaii’s famous senator. We turned left and continued looking for caches along the way. There was one at a state park about 5 miles down the road. It was a very nice state park with restrooms, picnic tables, playground equipment and cabins that could be rented. We found the cache! #2 for the day!
We made our way to Hilo and the Safeway to fill up the rental car before exchanging it for another at the Avis facility at the airport. The Ford Focus had some kind of mechanical problem that caused it to shudder when starting from a dead stop. Could be transmission or tranxaxle, but we didn’t feel comfortable keeping it for the week we were on the Big Island since we planned to travel to some lesser traveled places looking for geocaches, waterfalls and volcanos!
On the way from Hilo to the guest house, we decided to check out the webcam cache that was at the tsunami museum and included the lighthouse on Hilo Bay in the picture. Our daughter Jolene was the first to respond (she was awake at 10 pm (4 PM HST) and had her phone handy) to access the museum’s web site and find us in the picture and make a copy to email us so we can claim the cache! #3 for the day!
We completed our 100 mile trip around Mauna Kea volcano without ever actually seeing it. In and out of clouds and rain most of the trip. Had a little sunshine and a few glimpses of blue sky along the way. Drove through ranch country.
After returning we collected the white pineapple our hosts offered and began the process of cutting it according to Aunt Janet’s instruction to go with our dinner. I think we’ll stay in again this evening. At 6:30 PM HST it is raining again…..
It’s 11 AM and we’vejust finished our Malasada (Portuguese donuts) at the “world faamous” Tex Drive In (Honokaa, Hawaii) about 40 miles from where we’re staying. Joyce had a guava filled one aand Gary had Bavarian creme. Tasty!
This was a stop recommended by Toni and Greg we met in Kihei. Greg is of Portuguese heritage.
We found one virtual cache on the way. It was still misting occasionally, but there are hints of blue sky and once in a whike the sun peeks out. We made a good choice for our drive this morning.