Hawaii Report - Day 6
14 March 2008 14:15![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kmusserThis is it, our last day in Hawaii. Still we have almost a full day as the flight isn't until 10:30 at night. So we decide to take a drive to the other side of the island and see all the stuff we didn't think we'd have time for. Our route takes us over to Hilo (still sunny for the record, I think it's a myth that it rains there all the time) and then up the Hamakua Coast.
The coast is quite lovely, lots of little valleys, lush vegetation, incredible smoothies. We do a short detour to go see Akaka Falls which are pretty impressive. The road along the coast ends at the dramatic Waipi'o Valley - what used to be one of the most densely populated places in the islands. The walls of the valley are roughly 2,000 feet high. There is a somewhat notorious road that makes the descent, but not having all that much time we decide not to chance it and content ourselves with the view from the overlook. We also stop in the nearby town of Honoka'a for lunch, which is good, and for desert - more malasadas! - these ones are even better than yesterdays. Yum.
From there it's pretty much a straight drive across the north end of the island back to Kona - this stretch goes mostly through ranchland, especially past Waimea it would be hard to tell you're not in the middle of Montana or Wyoming. We zip through here and actually get back to Kona a little earlier than expected - we take the opportunity to visit the Kaloko fish pond where the traditional wall creating the fish pond has been mostly restored. There are a bunch of Hawaiian stilts here, though sadly our pictures of them don't come out well. We take a brief hike to find some pools supposedly once used as baths - we find some pools, but they don't look like much - there were some man-made structures in the distance but we cut the hike short as the park was closing soon.
On into downtown Kona for dinner at a sushi/tapas place which is quite good - plus they have $2 mai tais, so who's going to complain? We enjoy our drinks and watch the sunset. Finally it's time to head home. The KON-OAK-LAX-MDW-BWI flight home is very long, but thankfully uneventful. Was a good trip :-)
The coast is quite lovely, lots of little valleys, lush vegetation, incredible smoothies. We do a short detour to go see Akaka Falls which are pretty impressive. The road along the coast ends at the dramatic Waipi'o Valley - what used to be one of the most densely populated places in the islands. The walls of the valley are roughly 2,000 feet high. There is a somewhat notorious road that makes the descent, but not having all that much time we decide not to chance it and content ourselves with the view from the overlook. We also stop in the nearby town of Honoka'a for lunch, which is good, and for desert - more malasadas! - these ones are even better than yesterdays. Yum.
From there it's pretty much a straight drive across the north end of the island back to Kona - this stretch goes mostly through ranchland, especially past Waimea it would be hard to tell you're not in the middle of Montana or Wyoming. We zip through here and actually get back to Kona a little earlier than expected - we take the opportunity to visit the Kaloko fish pond where the traditional wall creating the fish pond has been mostly restored. There are a bunch of Hawaiian stilts here, though sadly our pictures of them don't come out well. We take a brief hike to find some pools supposedly once used as baths - we find some pools, but they don't look like much - there were some man-made structures in the distance but we cut the hike short as the park was closing soon.
On into downtown Kona for dinner at a sushi/tapas place which is quite good - plus they have $2 mai tais, so who's going to complain? We enjoy our drinks and watch the sunset. Finally it's time to head home. The KON-OAK-LAX-MDW-BWI flight home is very long, but thankfully uneventful. Was a good trip :-)