We ventured across the island on Thursday, through Waimea (which seemed like a great little town to return and explore) to the eastern side of Hawaii. It became increasingly cloudy as we drove across the mountains, and started raining as we drove south along the eastern coast. It was a bit of a shame since we didn’t get to see the ocean views we were hoping to see, but there were some spectacular waterfalls and deep canyons, and steep rocky drop-offs down to the water. Our destination was the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens, and they were truly wondrous. Such a variety of plants and flowers, some from Hawaii, and some from other Pacific Islands and SE Asia. We all took more photos than we had during all the other days put together. :)
After the garden, we headed into Hilo for lunch. Hilo seemed like a nice town to live in, but the downtown area was a bit run down and there wasn’t a lot to see or do. We got takeout food from the Puka Puka cafe and ate on some bleachers under a covered gazebo on the waterfront. There was a fruit market, where I picked up pineapple, papaya, mangoes, and avocado — the pineapple in particular was so sweet and ripe on Hawaii that we ended up buying and eating an entire one almost every day. We called it “the daily pineapple”.
Our next stop was Rainbow Falls, a waterfall that is supposed to be spectacular on sunny days, with rainbows going across the face of the water; on a cloudy day, it was just a nice falls that we viewed from the parking lot overlook. We instead headed to Kaumana Cave, a half-mile long lava tube. It was super cool, in part because it wasn’t very well developed as a tourist attraction. There were steep stairs down into the lava tube and then a stream running along the bed of the cave. You had to hop and clamber to avoid the water, half-crawling upwards into the pitch black of the tunnel. We used our cellphone flashlights to light our way. It opened up a bit as we walked, and towards the end there were long roots coming down into the cave from the plants above. And then the lava tube ended and you emerged into a rainforest to a sign that stated “Private Property, No Trespassing, Go Back to the Cave”. There was a faint trail heading back in the direction of the cave entrance but no signage; we did not want to walk back through the cave and so gamely set off down the “trail”, bushwhacking through the shrubs and vines, trying to figure out if the trail was heading right or left at various points of confusion. But we made it back to the parking lot and headed home, driving past Mauna Kea (which was hidden in a thick cloud the whole way) and emerging to sunshine in Waikoloa.
Rainbow Falls
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