Today we headed along the north of the island around to Hilo.thus put us on the ‘green’ or ‘wet’ side of the island and the vegetation reflected that. We saw 3 waterfalls today, including the Rainbow Falls where you can see a rainbow in the mist when the sun is shining on it. We were too late in the day to see that but it was still beautiful. The biggest falls we saw were the Akaka Falls which drop 134 metres straight down. We walked along a trail and up stepsthrough the rainforest which was lush & full of vibrant greens. But, it was extremely humid in there too.
Another stop was right down on the coast where there was a huge amount of lava rocks in the water. There was no sand, just rocks. In places they formed rock pools which were popular swimming spots. This area was the location of the devastating 1946 tsunami when over 150 people were killed. The waves were over 15 metres tall. School teachers and their students watched as the water was sucked out of the bay not knowing it would come back with such devastating force soon after.
Hilo is the wettest city in the United States. It rains there about 22 days every month. But, the rain mostly comes overnight. There were rain clouds around but no rain fell while we were in Hilo.
I had my first plate lunch today. These are very popular in Hawaii. They have some kind of meat and always have a scoop of rice and a scoop of macaroni potato salad. Not my kind of lunch but I have tried it.
Another highlight of today was visiting a lava tube. Lava tubes are caves which are formed when the top layer of lava cools and hardens while lava is still flowing underneath it. The one we visited today went a long way underground and at times you have to crawl to get through. I only went in a little way. I wanted to be able to see light. At times the lava was very smooth and other times at was as though someone has swirled a pattern in it. The tube was cool inside with water drips in places.
In Hilo, we drove along the Banyon Drive. Various celebrities were asked to plant a banyon tree here. There is a plaque at the base of each one saying who planted it,
We decided to take the saddle road back to our side of the island. This road goes across the middle of the island at a high elevation. I don’t know how high up we were as there were no signs but we passed through heavy cloud and rain and then rose above it for a while before heading back down into the cloud. It was a fascinating drive as the landscape changed dramatically from the green rainforest of Hilo to the black lavascape on the west side. Once we got back to our coast, we had clear sunny skies which gave us a beautiful sunset that we watched from the hotel’s private beach.