Blogs from Hilo, Big Island, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 4

OK. So, there is a big rivalry between Hilo-side of the Island and Kona-side of the Island. If you ask a Kona-side person what they think of Hilo, they will typically say things like: “It rains too much.” ”They have coqui frogs.” ”There’s no place to surf/swim/snorkel.” If you ask a Hilo-side person what they think of Kona, they will typically say things like: “Kona? Pfft.” We love both sides for different reasons. I will talk more about why we love Kona later. (The primary reason is that we have really wonderful friends there, and that always makes a difference, doesn’t it.) But, some of the reasons that we LOVE LOVE LOVE Hilo side is that: 1) It rains. I don’t want to say “too much”, but it rains enough to make it lush and smell ... read more

The first time we went to Kalapana, we were lost… I can’t remember where we were trying to go,but we were not only lost, but… let’s not call it “fighting”… but the attitude in the car was … “tense”…maybe it was just me… There were 5 of us, and I, for one, was feeling “crowded”. (Oh, that time was with Richard & Shannan, and their son, Evan – previously mentioned often in my stories. Then, we got to the end of the road – literally, the end of the road. In 1990, the Kilauea eruption that started in 1984 reached the village of Kalapana in 1990. The residents tried to resist the lava, putting up sandbags and whatever else could be done to preserve their houses, but in the end… the lava won. It was slow-moving ... read more

Flying from O'ahu to the Big Island of Hawai'i on a monday morning (29th April), I wasn't the slightest bit surprised to see the entire island buried under a blanket of clouds - except for the tops of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, both of which are over 4000 metres above sea level - as the town we were landing in, Hilo, is officially the wettest town in the whole of the United States! And though I was content to save myself an unnecessary cab fare by walking from the airport to my hostel, I had only made it five minutes down the road when I was offered a ride by a friendly local! Having checked into my hostel - housed in a beautifully restored old wooden building right in the centre of Hilo - I ... read more

Up early to head into LAX. The place understandably is enormous and we were travelling American Airlines. Its affiliated with the Qantas program which was a plus and enabled us to all check in as Priority given my current Gold Status. Priority extended to security screening and given the size of the queues here it was good to skip all of that nonsense. Lisa of course didnt care about any of that other than the extra weight limit that was allowed! We headed into the Qantas club lounge which had a kids playroom so of course the kids think now this is what you get everytime you travel. The flight was 5 and a half hours which was made a lot longer without in-flight entertainment in the back of the seats. Instead there were those big ... read more

Geo: 19.7297, -155.09Today we arrived in Hilo Hawaii! We woke up around 7 and went out on the balcony. It was a nice day with some low clouds but we were able to see the island of Hawaii in the distance. We were set to dock around 9:30 so we still had a little while before we arrived.We met the girls at Beach Blanket Buffet for breakfast at 9:00. By this time we were alongside the shore line. It began to rain pretty hard. Since Hilo is the rainiest city in the world, this was expected. Hilo receives on average 120" of rain per year. The ship docked early but it took a little while for the local officials to clear the ship and they sounded the all ashore at about 10:30.Our shore excursion was set ... read more