We were on the big island for the whole trip, and spent most of the
time on the Kona side of the island. I didn't like this part of the
island last time I was here, but we saw some cool stuff.
1st day was mainly just chilling. The rental house had a Japanese-ish theme to the decoration, and my room had this awesome bed.. It's good to be the king ;)
There's a decent botanical garden north of Kona called Pua Mau Place. It was a bit hot, but they had some cool plants. They even had a specimen of Manilkara zapota. Total deja vu!
I think this is the Pololu valley lookout. All of these valleys are really scenic... Nice sunsets from our deck..
Obligatory beach time...
Hawaii Volcano National Park. They had half of the drive around the Halema`uma`u crater closed off, since the big vent was releasing tons of toxic gases.
Nice gecko.
This was a Hilo-side day. Started with the Waipio Valley lookout
Then we went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, just north of Hilo. I'd been there about 18 months earlier, but it was definitely worth a revisit. Great mix of plants there, and some nice ocean views as well.
Brief stop at Akaka Falls state park.
We went on whale-watching cruise, which was pretty cool. I had the wrong camera to actually get any shots of the whales, and they were also only up for short periods of time. One of them came within about 15 feet of the boat, which was pretty cool.
This was another trip to a beach, where I had some fun playing with perspective... I also got to build some sand castles and sand crocodiles with my favorite neice ;)
On my last day, I took a helicopter trip to see the volcano and some valleys. Got a good view of some lava pouring into the ocean. It was exploding up into the air when it hit the water.. In the second half of the flight, we actually flew into one of the steep valleys to see a waterfall up close. I some movie clips but they all were terrible. I've got a DVD taken by the copters cameras which is OK.
These last couple pics are taken from the visitor's center halfway up the road to Mauna Kea observatory. My weak rental car barely made it up there, so I didn't continue up to the top. The visitor center is at 9300 feet, and it was already above the clouds. the actual summit is at 14,000 feet, so the view must be incredible. I'll have to check it out sometime..
Well, that's all for that trip. Now I'm back in the wind and rain of Yorkshire, but it was nice while it lasted... If you get the chance, definitely go to Hawaii!
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1st day was mainly just chilling. The rental house had a Japanese-ish theme to the decoration, and my room had this awesome bed.. It's good to be the king ;)
There's a decent botanical garden north of Kona called Pua Mau Place. It was a bit hot, but they had some cool plants. They even had a specimen of Manilkara zapota. Total deja vu!
I think this is the Pololu valley lookout. All of these valleys are really scenic... Nice sunsets from our deck..
Obligatory beach time...
Hawaii Volcano National Park. They had half of the drive around the Halema`uma`u crater closed off, since the big vent was releasing tons of toxic gases.
Nice gecko.
This was a Hilo-side day. Started with the Waipio Valley lookout
Then we went to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, just north of Hilo. I'd been there about 18 months earlier, but it was definitely worth a revisit. Great mix of plants there, and some nice ocean views as well.
Brief stop at Akaka Falls state park.
We went on whale-watching cruise, which was pretty cool. I had the wrong camera to actually get any shots of the whales, and they were also only up for short periods of time. One of them came within about 15 feet of the boat, which was pretty cool.
This was another trip to a beach, where I had some fun playing with perspective... I also got to build some sand castles and sand crocodiles with my favorite neice ;)
On my last day, I took a helicopter trip to see the volcano and some valleys. Got a good view of some lava pouring into the ocean. It was exploding up into the air when it hit the water.. In the second half of the flight, we actually flew into one of the steep valleys to see a waterfall up close. I some movie clips but they all were terrible. I've got a DVD taken by the copters cameras which is OK.
These last couple pics are taken from the visitor's center halfway up the road to Mauna Kea observatory. My weak rental car barely made it up there, so I didn't continue up to the top. The visitor center is at 9300 feet, and it was already above the clouds. the actual summit is at 14,000 feet, so the view must be incredible. I'll have to check it out sometime..
Well, that's all for that trip. Now I'm back in the wind and rain of Yorkshire, but it was nice while it lasted... If you get the chance, definitely go to Hawaii!
return to main page
