My first view of Hawaii was oil tanks and a warehouse. Not great facilities for cruise ships in Hilo! It was a bit chilly, so I wore capris and a jacket. Good thing I did, we really needed it later. We were each given a beautiful lei as we disembarked. Nice touch by HAL.
A shuttle picked us up and took us to the airport to get our rental car. What a deal! While others on the ship were spending over $100 each to see about what we saw, our car was $56 including gas! We headed for Volcano National Park. We stopped at the visitor center then went to look out over the crater. There was a lot of poisonous gas coming out of the volcano, so the crater rim road was closed beyond that point. I must say it wasn't as impressive as the volcano I saw in Nicaragua, where you looked down and it was bright red and bubbling. Here, there were steam vents and gas escaping from the ground, but no drama.
We returned to the visitor center and joined a 45 min walk with a park ranger. Learned a bit about the trees and plants in the area, which is a rainforest. He showed us the ginger root (non-edible) which is taking over and killing the native plants. It was brought to HI by ladies who thought it looked pretty for their gardens back in the 1800's. They now need something that will kill the ginger but leave everything else. Not easy to do. We had a beautiful view of the crater again, then it started to rain and fog and mist completely covered it. Glad we were there early enough to see it. The temp was about 57 degrees so Mel ended up wrapping a beach towel around him. He didn't have a jacket like I did. When I get pictures of this area posted, you'll see his beautiful garb.
After the walk we drove to a lava tube. It was quite large and unusual for a natural formation. The forest around it was amazing, full of HUGE ferns. After that we continued down to a lava field. It was interesting to see small plants growing up right thru the bare rock. That flow was from 1974. Within a few years, it will be covered with vegetation again. We collected a few small pieces of lava of various colors. Everyone needs a few rocks!
We headed back into Hilo with a stop at Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory. The Macadamia Coconut Ice Cream was delicious. Sorry, Cal, didn't get a picture. Next stop, Hilo Hattie's, then a fabric outlet. They had some beautiful Hawaiian fabrics for a great price. Found a few pieces to bring home. We continued into Hilo itself and hit the market. Most vendors were closing up, but we had time to see a few things. Visited some galleries there on the main street then drove along the water, around the bay. We could see our ship on the other side. It looked huge sitting there, even though it's a smaller ship a far as cruise ships go. We returned to the airport to return the car and shuttle back to the ship. It was a nice day. I think we saw everything that we'd planned on seeing, very touristy since it was my first visit. We are now headed for Honolulu. Hope to be up early to get to the Pearl Harbor Memorial.
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