We woke up on Easter Sunday knowing we only had about 12 hours left on the island :( But we were going to make the most of 
it! We packed up the bags for the last time, made breakfast in the nice little hostel kitchen, and said goodbye to Arnott's Lodge. We had no real plans for the day, but a few things we still wanted to do on the island. We started by setting out in the direction of more waterfalls.
We made it to Rainbow Falls, which was just outside of Hilo, and
got out to explore...but again, it was kind of a roadside water fall, and we could see it from the parking lot! We wandered around and hiked up to the top of the falls, and found the most gigantic Banyan tree! It was huge, and interconnected, and really neat! After taking all the pictures of the falls we could handle (and the "rainbow" in the falls' mist where it got its name) we 
headed on to yet another waterfall.
Boiling Pots is actually a series of waterfalls with pools that have churning water (that look like a pot of boiling water, hence where they got their name!) and again, they were about 100 feet from the parking lot. We took a peek - but we were kind of on waterfall overload, so after staring for a minute we took off in search of other adventures. We wanted to try a brewery and a candy shop we had read about, but the brewery didn't look open....so we headed straight to the candy factory! We were welcomed at the door with samples, and had a great time tasting all the goodies. They specialized in macadamia nut shortbread, and we tried a bunch of delicious 
varieties. We made our Mother's Day inspired purchases (we 
couldn't resist and even got some for ourselves!) and headed to our next destination: the Mauna Loa macadamia nut factory. It was only about 4 miles south of Hilo, so we made the short drive and arrived at the factory.We learned all about the trees, the processing and the history of the macadamia orchard....and we got lots more free samples :) After buying
even more treats, we decided we had enough candy for the day, and headed to find some food. The only area of the island we hadn't explored was the Southern tip, so we agreed to head down and check it out! We drove about 20 miles south to a small town looking for a resturant to have our big Easter meal. The guidebook steered us toward another gem - we found an amazing place in the middle of 
nowhere! Taylor got a delicious plate of kalua pork hash and home fries and I had a mahi mahi wrap. Both dished were fantastic, and Taylor thought it might have been our best meal of the whole trip :) We were absolutely stuffed, but it was only about 1pm and our flight wasn't until 8:40pm, so we kept exploring!We set off to find the coast and a thermal spring near the ocean at the very end of the island. We passed through beautiful forests, more lava flows, and across rugged, pristine stretches of black lava beaches. We found the hot springs, but the park looked crowded with locals having weekend
bar-b-ques, so we kept moving. We stopped at a couple places and stared at the ocean...it was so turbulent and such a deep blue crashing on the black rocks. I was still astonished at how many hundreds of miles of 
undeveloped coastline there was on the island, but Mother Nature kept reclaining this land in the form of molten lava, so maybe this island will stay undeveloped for a while longer.We drove around for a couple hours, but decided it was time to drive back across the island to Kona and start the trip home. We left the Southern point, drove back through the small towns, back through Hilo, and across
the high country between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa in the center of the island. It was a rainy drive until we crossed the midpoint of the island, but as soon as we hit the "west" side the rain cleared and we could see for miles. From the slopes of Mauna Kea we could see all the way to the north were we spent our first night, and all the way into Kona where we were headed. There were miles and miles of open, rocky, lava filled, grassy plains and there were almost no houses or buildings anywhere in sight besides the Kona area.
It took us about 2 hours to get back into Kona, and we arrived around 4pm. It was too early to go to the airport, so we went into town for one last drink before we had to part with the island. We wandered through the tourist district one more time, and had a drink on a balcony bar overlooking the ocean. It was a nice way to unwind before the hustle of the airport, but we were just delaying the inevitable. Taylor finally dragged me to the car, and as we were pulling out of the
parking lot, we saw a huge rainbow hovering over a picturesque church in the middle of Kona.We reluctantly turned in our rental car, caught the shuttle to the airport, and checked in for our flight. We made it onto the plane and settled in for our red-eye flight back to LA. We were of course seated directly behind a screaming baby, but I tried not to let it bother me. I put in my headphones and tried to think about what an awesome trip we had! We did so much cool stuff in one 9 day period! Scuba diving with mantas, whale watching, coffee tasting, volcano spotting, and so much yummy food! Waterfalls, scenic vistas, hikes through the rain forests, rainbows and black sand beaches.
And its becoming a tradition that I sum up my trips with a few fun statistics:
Miles driven: About 850 miles
Scuba dives: 6 dives! (around 4.5 hours underwater :)
Whales seen: about 20! (Taylor think this is an exaggeration - but we saw A LOT!)
Manta rays that hit me in the head: 4
Mac nut factories visited: 2
Types of coffee tasted: around 15
Sunsets watched: 4
Rainbows spotted: upwards of 10
Pictures taken: around 1,620 (9 gb of pictures and movies!)
Money saved: ~$700 on the room and exactly $800 on the flight! Thanks Mrs. Bright for letting us use your timeshare! And thanks Delta for bumping us from a flight and giving us $400 vouchers :)
See all the trip pictures here: http://kristynspictures.shutterfly.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment