Sunday, April 9 Big Island continued

 Sunday, April 9

We are up early this Easter morning for some quiet time.  We thought sunrise would be nice on this side of the island, but Greg gets up when he should have slept in.  Clouds and buildings block the view.  

We grab coffee and two muffins in the lobby and head first to nearby Rainbow Falls State Park.  The waters of the Wailuku River drop 80' in front of a natural lava cave.  Beautiful! And very few people.

 A trail leads up to the top of the falls where there is a rocky stream and a grove of huge banyon trees. See the two tiny people in the last photo?

In another part of the park are what's called Boiling Pots. Just below Pe'epe'pe falls there are a series of pools in a gorge.  When the water flow is heavy, it appears as though the water is boiling.  There is also a more colorful legend that says the boiling water resulted from hot rocks that the goddess Pele provided to Hina, a Hawaiian goddess of the moon (who dwells behind Rainbow Falls) when she was fleeing from a lizard monster.

Greg spots this awesome fan palm tree. I think it is called a Loulu.  There are something like 50 different kinds of palm trees in Hawaii.

We continue heading north towards Akaka Falls State Park, but decide to detour and follow a sign which points to a 4 mile "scenic route" detour.

 Very lush landscaping and an old (1928) concrete bridge - the first of many one lane bridges we will encounter.

We pull off the road near a beautiful overlook and find part of the Onomea Trail. Steep trail down to ocean level and a rocky cove.  Let's go!

The trail passes through a Bioreserve & Garden which looks interesting but is $$$ to enter.

Back up the steep hill, and we complete the "scenic route", and continue on to Akaka Falls State Park. This park has an entry fee and parking fee, and is quite busy. The trail takes us past massive bamboo trees, gigantic palms and enormous banyan trees.  We are told that there are four falls on the trail but they are stretching things a bit. 

The biggest is Akaka Falls, which is 422 feet high. There was a bit of a rainbow near the bottom, though it didn't show up too well in photos.  Very impressive!

These littler ones were nice, too.

We continue on 19N, exploring along the way.  There are occasionally roadside stands offering fresh fruit, particularly ice cold coconuts.  We stop at this one where the man is splitting a coconut.  I was hoping to get some pineapple to nosh on, but he only sold entire pineapples - too much for a nosh.

We see more waterfalls and cascades along the way, as well as beautiful flowering bushes and trees.  And a wild boar roadkill.  They say the boars are very destructive and along with the wild goats do not have any preditors. As in Texas, they want people to hunt the boars.

We continue north to Waipi'o Lookout, which has a nice view of the valley and cliffs. There is something of a road that goes down there, but it requires 4-wheel drive and even then is sketchy!

You can see a little bit of an evergreen tree in the picture below.  There are a few kinds of them, though they seem to be sparsely scattered here and there. 

Some are of this variety....

We turn around here, and head back to Hilo, crossing many streams and gulches (ravines).

We have decided to do an early dinner at a place called Pineapples, which two different people at Volcanos National Park recommended.

And it is delicious.  We have Poke, which is raw ahi tuna with rice and avocados, tomatoes and cukes and a wonderful curry-ish sauce. (I think it is called ponzi.) It is delicious!!

 We also share a Hilo Local Plate which includes korean ribs, bbq pork, rice and mango chili slaw.  The ribs weren't great, but the rest was tasty.  

  The restaurant is open on two sides and is doing a very brisk business.  They had local entertainment as well and we understand it gets quite lively in the evening.

There is a farmer's market just down the street, so we walk through.

And this guy was parked across the street.  A lot of "vintage" trucks on the island.

Next, we take a short drive to Richardson's Ocean Beach Park to have a look at a black sand beach.  All the beaches and parks along the way are very busy and we are lucky to find a parking space! Looks like the locals love their outdoors, especially on a beautiful Easter Sunday! Like most of the beaches, there are sandy spots between rocky sections.  The black sand is very fine and supposed to have green olivine in it as well, but we couldn't see it.

Back at the hotel, we have a drink downstairs and people watch.  Today's weather has been fantastic.  It is a bit humid here, but we're rather used to that.

We have to get up early tomorrow because we need to return the car and catch a 9:30 flight to Kauai.  That's about and hour and a half drive to the airport back in Kona.  But it was the only direct flight (45 minutes) versus all the others that go first to Honolulu or Maui.