Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2019 November Day 02 Big Island Hawaii

November 3, 2019

We decided last night that we would attend a 10 AM church service in Waimea. This was in the direction that we wanted to go to see rain forrests and waterfalls over by Hilo. So to get there by 10, we had to leave around 9 AM'ish. Upon entering the chapel, we were greeted with paper Lei's (things around your neck) to welcome us as visitors. When the meeting started, we looked around and half the folks in attendance had lei's around their necks. Lots of visitors. Not surprising in the Hawaiinislands.

After church, we darted out and on our way to Akaka Waterfalls. On the way, I found a small road that looked barren where I could pull off and change my clothes. I pulled in front of a road that led to some farm. As we did that...a heard of chickens came running down the road towards us. They wanted to watch me undress I guess. It was funny. I changed quickly and off thoAkaka we went. We found it easily. It is a LARGE waterfall. There was a path that led around it that we walked. The forest was cool and nice in the shade...hot and muggy in the sun. Fortunately, most of it was in the shade. It was up and down a bit. Not too bad. Lots of pictures there. Very nice.

It was about 12:30 PM by then and I was getting hungry. So we headed into Hilo and found a highly rated Hawaii Plate lunch place. It was called Hawaiin Style Cafe Hilo. We found it easily and it was crowded. We decided to wait the 30 minutes and it was worth it. The plates were huge. Fortunately we shared one. Katsu chicken, some kind of beef, macaroni salad and big scoops of rice. All very yummy! Glad we shared a plate. More than enough. After lunch, we headed to another water fall called Rainbow falls. This was about 5 minutes from where we ate our lunch. Really close. It was beautiful too...but not nearly as large as Akaka falls. In both cases, I was wishing that we could get down to the pools and swim. It was prohibited in both places.

After Rainbow falls, we decided to go down to Volcanos National Park. We were going to make the long drive there on Tuesday. Glad we did it today. It was only about 30 minutes from Hilo. And, it was worth the 30 minute trip...not sure it would have been for a 2 hour trip from Kona. The park has lots shut down to the eruptions that happened a while back. Nonetheless, it was cool to see the huge craters there. We were up high and steam cracks were billowing up steam all over the place. Hard to believe that we were standing in a volcano.

At the end of our volcano tour, we headed back to our BNB in Kona. About a 1.75 hour drive. As we came out of the park and headed up the high way, I noticed some large black things moving on the side of the road. As I got closer, it turned out to be 4 wild pigs! I passed and then turned around to go back and get pictures. As I pulled off the road, a stream of cars passed close to them and spooked them. We tried to get pictures...but none turned out good. We decided to go back through Hilo and then take the 'Saddle Road' to get over to the Kona side, west side, of the island. That was a heck of trip. You climp up so high...your ears keep popping. At points, it felt like we were driving in the clouds as they would come and go making it feel foggy. The road to Maune Kea was closed from there. But there was a bunch of tents...a tent city all around that road. Not sure why. I'll have to research it out. But it was really a neat ride home from Hilo to there.

To conclude the day, we found a Thai food eatery, ate some expensive Thai food and now we are back in our humble BNB getting ready to post this and then go to bed. The name of the eatery was Original Thai Cuisine. It was real close to the temple. There are lots of eateries near the Kona Temple. Tomorrow is a laid back beach day of snorkeling and sun.

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