HAWAI'I - HILO

Hilo, our second port of call in Hawai’i. We arrived early in the morning to a beautiful sunrise.

We had a tour booked for a visit to the volcano National Park today and fortunately this one went ahead as planned.

Our tour guide was a total nutter; he talked at a rate of knots that left one breathless. He was either seriously bi-polar and not taking his prescribed drugs or maybe he was taking his non-prescribed drugs!!

Our first stop was the Thurston Lava Tube and a chance to walk through it. The approach to this tube was via the rain forest and it was awesome.

The coach made frequent stops to view the sights such as the local viewing spots and waterfalls. The flora of the region is so lush and green in this part of the world.

The next short stop was the Japanese Gardens in Hilo. OK, we’ve seen gardens before. These were pretty but not spectacular; I guess the tour guides have to fill in their time somehow!!!!

As usual with these ‘organised’ tours there is the usual commercial aspect where they try to sell you the local produce. This resulted in a visit to the local Orchid Gardens which was really a market garden selling orchids!

However, I have to concede that there are some gorgeous orchids grown here and I wouldn’t mind having some of them in my garden.

After the orchids it was on to the primary destination of our tour, the Kilauea Iki active volcano. Not that we saw any eruption like the above!!

She was much better behaved when we were there and all we got was a good look at the crater.

Our next stop was the Halema’uma’u crater. This baby is still active and is bubbling away. We saw plenty of steam but no lava; we did see some mild tinges of red at the vent area.

Night is the best time to view these craters as that is when the fiery glows can be seen.

This volcano is quite active and frequently has little bouts of activity. Hence the warning signs for tourists.

All too soon our little tour around the island was over and it was back to the ship. We had a little bit of time to spare so we called in at the local shopping center to just look around.

Boy, they sure build ‘em big around here! I wonder if this belongs to the security guys?

So, with time moving on it was back to the ship to prepare to sail to our next stop. We have 4 days of sailing before calling in at Apia, the capital of Somoa for the day!