Hilo, Hawaii – Second Port of Call

Today is the second port stop in Hawaii, this time on the Big Island of Hawaii, in the town of Hilo. The ship is tying up at dock today, so it will be easier for us to get off and on as compared to yesterday’s stop in Maui where we used the ship’s tenders. Once again, we set an early alarm for 5:15 AM. The ship is scheduled to be at the dock at 7:00 AM, and departs at 5:00 PM, with all passengers required to be back on board by 4:30 PM.

Once again, we are renting a car, this time from Thrifty. We were able to get off of the ship by about 7:10 AM, and the Thrifty shuttle was waiting at the pier. All of the rental car agencies in Hilo are at the nearby airport, which is about a 5 mile drive away. We were able to get onto the first shuttle, and they would allow both the driver and passengers, but would only take as many persons as there were seats, which was about 15 or so. Some people were forced to wait for the next shuttle, about 20  minutes later.

We rented a Jeep Liberty through an online special we found for Thrifty. We also utilized their Blue Chip program, and our car was ready and waiting for us, all we had to do was have them verify the drivers license and credit card, and sign the paperwork, Within 10 minutes, we had the GPS up and running, and were on our way.

The plan for today was to visit a couple of nearby waterfalls, then head to the Volcanoes National Park. During our online research, it had been suggested by others to visit the waterfalls in the morning when the sun was in a better position, so we headed to the waterfalls first. Unfortunately, the weather this morning was mostly cloudy, with some rain showers nearby. Hilo is noted for being more rainy than other cities on the island of Hawaii, it is on the side of the island that is the wettest.

We headed to the Rainbow Falls first, it was actually located more in a neighborhood area than we had anticipated, but was only a few miles away from the airport. We were the first persons there.  It is a national park area, but consists of only a parking lot, bathrooms, and a walkway to the falls. There was certainly more water flowing from this falls than we had seen yesterday in Maui, but you could tell that a lot more water went through the falls during a heavy rain based on the location of the rocks around the stream at the top of the falls. In addition, there were several large concrete culverts in and around the falls that diverted rainfall runoff to the river that forms the falls.

We walked up a path to see the river ahead of the falls, and there was also a large area full of giant Banyan Trees, with their large root systems.

We then headed farther up the Wailuku River to an area called the Boiling Pots, which appeared to be several river rapids in succession. Once again, you could tell that in a heavy rain, the amount of water flowing through this area would probably more match the namesake than what we were seeing today. From the viewing area for the Boiling Pots, you could also see a smaller waterfall named the Pe’epe’e Falls. Then we drove farther upstream to a bridge to see the Waiale Falls, all in succession on the Wailuku River. The last area was not very impressive, and the area around this falls was not well kept.

There were other more impressive falls in the area of Hawaii more to the north of Hilo, but our next area we planned to visit, the Volcanoes National Park, was in the opposite direction, and about 30 miles on the other side of Hilo, so we had to skip the other waterfalls and headed to the National Park.

We had seen some periods of sunshine while at the falls, but on the way to the Volcanoes National Park, we ran into several rain showers in the first 15 miles out of Hilo. I believe that the entire drive to the Park was uphill, we saw signs along the roadway telling us the elevation as we drove. It took about 45 minutes to get to the park, but as we got higher in elevation, the skies cleared some to give us partly cloudy conditions. We entered the park, paying the $10.00 per car entry fee, and headed to the Visitor’s station to obtain some information on what was accessible in the park.

Due to some volcanic activity at the Halema’ uma Crater, the road called the Crater Rim Drive was partially closed. There was no lava flowing or spewing from the crater, but there was a very large plume of sulfur filled steam venting from the crater, which caused there to be sections of the Crater Rim Drive where the fumes were too dangerous for people to breathe. We went up to the viewing area for the Kilauea Caldera, which is several miles across, and contains the venting Halema’ uma Crater. The first viewing area of the Caldera had several places where steam was venting from the sides of the Caldera. It was hard to visualize the magnitude of the size of the Caldera, there was nothing around for scale, but the information listed it as being a few miles wide.

We then proceeded to the Jaggar Museum Area, which was the closest area in the park to the venting Halema’ uma Crater, the only crater with some limited volcanic activity that is accessible in the park. There was a park guide there that gave everyone some of the information on the crater, its size, and on how the winds sometimes shift, causing them to have to close the museum and viewing area for the day due to the poisonous fumes.

However, today’s strong winds were blowing away from the observation area, and we could not detect any fumes at all. We were lucky that we had remembered to bring our lightweight windbreakers, it was much cooler here at about 3,500 ft. in elevation, and it was quite windy.

Next, we headed in the opposite direction on the Crater Rim Drive to an area called the Kilauea Iki Crater, which last erupted in 1959. It was a very large eruption, and there were pictures at the parking area of some of the lava streams and ash that resulted from the eruption.

There were a couple of trails that followed along the rim of the crater to an area called the Thurston Lava Tube, which is an area where flowing lava had left a tube (looked like a cave) that was about 15 ft in diameter, and ran a total length of about 400 ft. There was a lighted trail through the Lava Tube to an exit on the other side. It was very interesting to see and to think that molten lava had once flowed through this tube.

When we exited the Lava Tube, we headed back on the trail to the car parking area. There was another trail that went down to the floor of the Kilauea Iki Crater, but it was about 1.2 miles down to the floor, and another 2.5 miles across the crater floor to the other side. We had wanted to at least walk down to the crater floor, but the thought of hiking back up hill for the 1.2 miles discouraged us, as well as the time we knew it would take to get there and back. Unfortunately, this is a drawback to a cruise, you only have a limited amount of time in port and have to pick and choose your activities based on the schedule. We did get some good photos of the crater, and of us standing at the rim of the crater.

We went to one other overlook for the Kilauea Iki Crater, took some more photos, and then decided to head back to Hilo. We knew it would take some time to return the rental car and get back to the ship, but we could also do a little shopping in Hilo, and utilize some of the available time knowing we were close to the ship.

On the way back, we stopped at a orchid farm, recommended to us by the rental car shuttle driver. There was a building full of all kinds of orchids, many of which are hybrid species, developed and grown right there. They were beautiful, and it was surprising to see how many there were with various scents, like chocolate for example. We took some photos, and then headed back to the car for the remaining drive back into Hilo

I had decided to look at some of the musical instrument stores and to purchase an inexpensive Ukulele for the remaining classes and big ukulele concert near the end of the cruise. We headed to one of the stores we found through a Google search, and the person in the store was very helpful in advising us on the various types of Ukuleles and the various qualities. Of course, the ones made by hand in Hawaii were very expensive, so I opted for a decent quality, solid mahogany version, made in China. The ones that they had for sale were either made in China or made in Hawaii, and there were sizable jumps in price from the lowest to the middle to the high priced Hawaiian versions.

After that, we looked around at a few more stores, bought a Halloween decoration for our cabin door, and decided to stop at a Hilo Hattie’s to look around. This store seems to have become a tourist trap mecca, they have their own shuttles from the port, most all of the tours stop there, and has become more of a tourist stop than it had been when I visited Hawaii in the 1980’s. Back then, it seemed to be the place to go and pick up a handmade Hawaiian shirt for a decent price. Now, they seem to sell about everything, and have shirts both made in Hawaii (at least according to the label) and many other places. Stephanie had wanted to go, but once inside, we quickly learned we did not want to stay long or go back again.

We headed to the nearby Walmart and picked up a few items, mainly a few more soda’s, and some wine. We then headed back to the airport to turn in the rental car, and were shuttled back to the ship. Unfortunately, at the port in Hilo, there is nothing within walking distance from the ship other than one small tourist store. There were some vendors set up inside of a large warehouse where we exited from the ship, and where the security for boarding the ship was also located. We decided to drop off all of our gear, and then go back and look through the items that were for sale from the various vendors, mainly to kill some time. We had about an hour before we had to be back on the ship.

After returning to the ship once again, we headed to the cabin to have some sail away refreshments. It was too cloudy to get any good sunset pictures today, too cloudy even for good sail away pictures.

We went and looked at the dining room menu, and not finding anything that we really wanted, we opted for dining in the buffet area once again for dinner. Since they serve most of the same items at the buffet as they serve in the dining room, we don’t always feel up to dressing up, especially after a long day in port.