Blogs from Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii, United States, North America

Tour Day 7, Cruise Day 7, Hilo Hi – Hilo's Waterfalls & Gardens Tour (6 Hours) – The Hilo Walk of Fame is comprised of a series of banyan trees planted by celebrities. You'll drive through this leafy labyrinth en route to Liliuokalani Gardens. The latter is the most extensive ornamental Japanese garden outside of Japan. View one of Hawaii's most important statues of King Kamehameha -- the man who unified the islands into a kingdom. Enjoy expert commentary from your guide as you pass through the town of Hilo to Wailuku State Park. This is where you will find picturesque Rainbow Falls. Continue to the majestic Akaka State Park, where two gorgeous waterfalls tumble into an eroded gorge. The first is the 100-foot Kahuna Falls, and the second is the towering Akaka Falls, which plummets ... read more

What a varied and lovely day – a dry day. After a speedy breakfast we headed out before 7:30 to cross the “Saddle Road” from West to East again – this time all the way to Hilo. Our first stop, however, was the lovely Kaulana Manu trail where we’d enjoyed a walk yesterday. Getting there early rewarded us with a lovely red I’iwi – he loves the Ohi’o tree’s red puffy flowers too. And the Japanese Whiteeye. Then off to the Rainbow Falls in a park just outside the city of Hilo. Yes, we saw the rainbow colors in the mist. It was a very small park so we only stayed 15 mins – there was an enormous banyan tree there too. Then we drove 5 mins to the Boiling Pots section of the park – ... read more

Dateline: October 29, 2018 Hilo, Hawaii Lava, Macadamia Nuts and Black Sand After 4 ½ days at sea, we have sighted land! It’s 75 degrees with a heavy mist rain as we dock in Hilo on the big island of Hawaii. This is the only Hawaiian Island where we will take an organized tour. We are interested in seeing what has happened because of the recent volcanic eruptions. The lava flows stopped about 2 months ago but decimated a number of small towns and neighborhoods as it flowed to the sea. At one point, several months ago, the lava was flowing at 24 miles per hour, continuously, for two months and created 800 new acres of land. We get out our cruise cards and ID and head down the gangway to line up with our tour ... read more

Day 8 We were up early again as we were headed to Maui and it was a 2 hour drive to the airport. A quick brekky of Spam again and we left our treehouse sanctuary behind. We only wanted the one quick stop on the way which was at Rainbow Falls. A 24 ft waterfall flowing over a lava cave that when the sun hit it created rainbows.. magical!! Kym saw some people on the rocks above the falls and wanted to get closer. So in my thongs I climbed over rocks that had water flowing next to them to get to the falls for that perfect picture. It was spectacular to see so close. Our next part of the journey wasn't so good. We thought we had enough fuel to get us to the next ... read more

Hilo 29th March Hilo The Big Island, Hawaii - where there are two active volcanoes and Captain Cook was killed in Kealakekua Bay in 1779. Other interesting facts about the island is that it has 13 major climatic zones from tropical rain forests to snow capped mountains and the ukulele is a favourite musical instrument (bizarre)!!! Hilo is the capital and gateway to the Hawaiin Volcanoes National Park. The park was created a World Heritage Site in 1987 and has two active volcanoes. Maunganui Loa (13677 ft) and Kilauea (4078 ft), the latter being the more active and volatile. Kilauea has been erupting continuously since for the last 20 years and lava buried the village of Kalapana in 1990, the crater is called ' The House of Everlasting Fire'. We took a Highlights tour to give ... read more