2019-05-08: Steam, Nuts, and Black Sand

We woke up shortly after 7:00am this morning. We looked out the window and saw the island of Hawaii passing by. We got ourselves cleaned up and headed up to the Windjammer for breakfast. This has become our morning routine it would seem. The ship docked in Hilo as we were having breakfast. After breakfast, we headed back to the room and packed up our gear for the day.

We headed off the ship and through the building at the pier. We found the rental car shuttle pick up area and within a few minutes were on the shuttle to the airport. We were given a new Ford Taurus with only 490 miles on it. From the airport we headed towards Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Around 45 minutes later, we arrived at the park. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center to get information on the current state of the park and crater. Unfortunately, they are still doing repairs and rebuilding from the eruption that occurred last year so most of the sights were still closed including the Thurston Lava Tube and Jagger Museum. We learned that during the eruption last year, the depth of the crater increased from about 280 feet to 1600 feet. The lava flows from the eruption added around 875 acres to the size of the island.

Darrell’s parents had suggested we visit Volcano House which is a hotel across the street from the visitor’s center, so we headed there first. They have a viewing platform that overlooks the volcano crater. We took a few photos then moved on. A couple of miles down the road was an area called the steam vents. There are fissures in the earth where steam from the heated earth underground escapes. Everywhere you looked, you could see pockets of steam rising into the air. You can walk right beside one of the vents and the steam is definitely hot! There was also another viewpoint over the crater. It was a really neat experience. There was another viewpoint of the crater about 5 miles down the road in the other direction. After seeing two viewpoints, we decided we didn’t need to see a third so we left the park and headed back towards Hilo.

Just outside of Hilo is the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Farm. We found our way there next. Their orchard is 2500 acres containing over 250,000 macadamia nut trees. They have a large store that sells all their products of course. They have an area where you can try samples of the different flavours. We grabbed some lunch at the snack shack they have. For dessert we all had ice cream with macadamia nut chunks. Yum! Beside the snack shack is a little garden where they have some local trees and bushes. We walked through the garden. There was a macadamia nut tree of course as well as bushes such as pineapple plants. We saw little baby pineapples growing. We then made our way to their factory. They have a walkway on the exterior of the building and windows into the building so you can see how they package the macadamia nuts.

We made our way to Rainbow Falls next. It is an 80 foot waterfall on the other side of Hilo. It gets it’s name from the rainbows you can see in the mist created by the falls. Unfortunately clouds were rolling in by this point so we couldn’t see the rainbows.

Our final tour stop was Richardson Ocean Park. This is a black sand beach on the outskirts of Hilo. The kids played in the water for about half an hour until Michael got a gash in one of his big toes from a rock in the water. The coastline of Hilo is very rocky. We got him patched up and headed back to the airport to return the car. It was a little later than we had intended but we managed to catch the last shuttle back to the ship. Everyone had to be back onboard by 5:30pm and we boarded at 5:15pm. I think that’s the closest we’ve cut it to the back onboard time. Not something we want to do again.

Once we were back onboard, we changed quickly and headed to the restaurant for another delicious dinner. The kids met the kid’s club staff outside the restaurant at 6:45pm. Without kids, we stood on deck for a bit and then returned to our room until it was time for the evening show. Tonight was a singer/comedian by the name of Tony Pace. He sang some songs from the fifties through current day. He also did some impressions. We enjoyed the show and laughed throughout. After the show, we picked up the kids from the kid’s club. It was pirate night in the kid’s club and the kids were dressed in bandannas and Michael had face paint to make him look piratey. We returned to the room and called it a night.

We have our one and only ship tour booked for Kona in the morning. It’s an early tour so we’ll have a shorter night tonight.