Sorry for the lack of blog posts the last few days, we’ve had a couple of long days visiting the East coast of the Big Island, which is about 2 hours drive or so away from where we are staying on the West coast. This island definitely feels a lot bigger than the others we’ve been to before!

Volcanoes National Park

On Sunday we set off early at about 6.30am to get over to the East coast to visit the Volcanoes National Park, aiming to beat the crowds which worked out well as everyone was moving round the park around an hour behind us, so we managed to see everything we wanted, and stop everywhere we wanted to without there being big crowds or queues for parking spots etc.

On the way we stopped very briefly at Punalu’u Black Sand beach on the way, which was pretty unusual. It was too early for sunbathers, although I assume people do, in spite of the black sand.

Once we got to the Volcanoes National Park we went to the visitor center to pick up a map and get some advice on places to see, and hikes to do. I won’t explain all the different look out points, but there were walks along the rim of the volcano, looking down at the crater including where it still spouts out steam and often lava – it sadly wasn’t erupting at all while we were there, but has been active in the last few weeks.

There were more wooded and forest areas than I thought there would be, so a nice break from it just being loads of black rock everywhere. There were also areas where steam was just coming out of the ground from various holes (“steam vents”) which was weird.

One of the most popular and famous walks takes you down in to the crater, and across the lava flats. You could see this from above while walking along the rim before descending, and then you cross over the large area before climbing back up.

At the end of this hike we stopped to see the Thurston Lava tubes, some tunnels which you could walk straight through in a long loop. Those were good fun.

There was a long scenic drive which took around 45 mins and took you all the way down to the coast. Some nice views on the way down, and then a short walk at the bottom to view a sea arch in the cliffs.

On our way back up from the coast we also stopped for a couple of short hikes including to see the Sulfur Banks (sorry, I’ve become American in my spelling – I mean “sulphur”) area which had some interesting colours in the rock from the Sulfur, but did smell a bit.

Day trip to Hilo

After our long Volcanoes NP day, we had a very lazy day off, sitting by the pool for a bit, then heading in to town for a few happy hour drinks.

Yesterday we ventured over to the East coast again, taking the Northern route around the island and stopping at various places on the way and eventually getting to Hilo, which is a small town on the East coast.

We stopped for a short woodland / nature walk in Kalopa State Park (above).

Then at Akaka Falls which had a short hike to see a very impressive waterfall (above).

Hawai’i Tropical Botanical Gardens

We then stopped at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden which had a really amazing variety of plants and flowers and some great walks around the gardens, including some nice beach coves and a 5-tier waterfall. Some of the unusual flowers we saw were named the “pink quill” and the “pink maracas”. It was really humid in there, and it had been showering a bit too – which is obviously a great climate for the luscious plant life inside.

On our way back towards home, we stopped at Rainbow falls, and then at some old lava tube caves. Those weren’t even lit, so you had to stumble around by phone / torch light but you could go down the tunnels to the end of the cave which we did.

We are heading to the airport shortly to fly to Maui, which will be our fourth and final stop in Hawai’i. Again it’s a short flight so we should arrive there late afternoon. More from us in Maui soon.

Si