Today we drove around the northern shore of the island to Hilo and came back to Kailua Kona through the Saddle Road again.

Our first stop was at a very pretty beach called Hapuna Beach which was located in a little bay and had nice white sand and a lot of picnic areas. Next we drove through the green rolling hills of the Waimea area which is good for grazing. There are supposed to be long horned cattle here but we didn't see any. We did see a few sheep instead. On the way, we caught some views of the western side Mauna Kea peeking through the clouds and were amazed to see snow near the peak.

We continued along the coastline, until we turned off towards the quaint little village of Honomu. A bit further was the Akaka Falls state park, where we walked on a loop through a very lushly vegetated valley and saw the spectacular Akaka Falls. Back in Honomu, we had an enjoyable lunch at a little cafe.

On the last leg into Hilo, we took a scenic route, on an old road close to the coast and stopped for some spectacular photos at Onomea Bay. We had a bit of a drive through Hilo, but didn't find it terribly impressive and were glad we had chosen to stay at Kona instead.

Then we took the same road back over the saddle that we had traveled on last night. This time however, there was plenty of daylight and we could see the scenery! There was a bit of cloud obscuring the peaks of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea but we could get a fair sense of their presence. We took the road up to the Mauna Kea Visitor Center where we were advised not to travel any further without a 4WD. There was a large crowd of people up there staging a peaceful protest about a new telescope being built up there.

We made it back to Kona in time to spend a bit of time looking around our local neighbourhood, which we hadn't had time to explore yet. We walked up Alii Drive which commences right outside our hotel and found a very interesting selection of shops, a historic church and even a historic palace which is now a museum. Best of all, we stumbled upon the Kona Inn Restaurant where we had another fantastic seafood dinner with a view of the waves and the sunset.