We'd already planned the night before that we were going to go on a day trip to the other side of the island. It's the biggest of the Hawaiian islands, but that doesn't mean it takes very long to drive to the other side. Since my parents had been out that way before they knew there was a tropical garden on the way to Hilo, one of the major cities on the island (as in, it has an airport). We weren't sure if we wanted to stop there, but that was the direction we headed anyway.

As we started to head inland and towards the other coast, you could see a change in the scenery. The side we were staying on is mostly volcanic, so unless you're in a resort area that is well-maintained and regularly irrigated, it's completely dry like a desert. However, once you start driving around where you actually get some rain, there are trees and fields for farming. And then, once we were on the Old Mamalohoa Hwy, it was definitely tropical greenery. There was lush, dense forests with giant trees and palms. Quite the difference from the volcanic desert just a couple hour drive away. I guess that's how islands out in the middle of the ocean work.

By the time we got there, we had pretty much decided that we did want to go to the Botanical Gardens. So, we stopped, got the tickets, and then headed into the gardens. The botanical gardens are on the sea-side of the road, and although the road is a fair way up from the ocean, the botanical gardens follow the hillside all the way down to Onomea Bay. So, because you actually have to get down to the sea where the main part of the gardens are, there's a steep pathway all the way down. There were all sorts of neat things to see on the path down, enough that it took your mind away from the fact that you'd eventually have to climb the steep path back up at the end. Everything was so green and luscious.

We took forever to actually walk down the hillside because we kept stopping to look at all the interesting plants. Even saw a couple gecko friends hiding amongst the plants and flowers. There was a lot of Heliconia (the red flower-vine things that hang down in long strands from trees), and to me, those plants mean 'tropical' just as much as hibiscus' do.

Off to the right side were a couple places to go look at the waterfall/stream that ran down to the ocean. It was pretty and quiet, despite other people being in the gardens too. I think everyone was too busy looking around at all the different types of plants. There was a lot of poking and pointing to get others to notice what you'd seen.

One of the main attractions of the gardens is the huge collection of orchids. To me, orchids are something you find in the supermarket, in silk plant stores, in office spaces, or in our city's hothouse gardens. I've been to orchid shows in Edmonton and in New Zealand, I've tried my hand at properly photographing them and painting them, but I don't think I've ever seen them in their natural habitat / growing wild. I know there are many different types of orchids, but it was amazing to see so many different kinds all in once place. I might have overdone it with the orchid photos, but they were just so pretty!

In amongst the large orchid collection they had a couple big parrots in cages. Not quite sure how that fit with 'garden', but it's definitely tropical. I even managed to get pretty close to a gecko that was hanging out on their enclosure. From there, it was a little walk down towards the ocean. You could even get down to the water if you wanted.

After we had taken in our fill of the garden (and made sure we'd been on every pathway), we finally decided (after a few hours) to head back up. The climb wasn't as difficult as we expected, especially since there were numerous seats to sit at on the way up, and flowers and plants we had somehow missed on our way down.

We even spent a little bit in the gift shop at the top. They had some cool hand-crafted tiles and would look fantastic in a kitchen. We ended up getting an ornament for the Christmas tree, because hey, what says holidays more than a bird of paradise?