Our Days are Winding Down

We left the Hilo cottage and started driving toward the Kona coast on Friday. Our first stop was an orchid nursery. They have been raising orchids here for over forty years and have developed hybrid strains found nowhere else.
From there we drove to Southpoint and had lunch at the southernmost point of the island, Cliffs and lava caves along the coast and an area that the ancient Hawaiians called home. Young folks were diving from the cliffs and into the caves and having a ball. The sea floor dropped off fast here and this is a prime spot for offshore fishing since it is so deep close to shore. We even saw a school of flying fish skimming across the surface several times.
After we had lunch here we drove on to Kailua-Kona and stopped at Grenwell Farms which is one of the oldest Kona coffee farms. They grow and process their coffee and have a store where we could sample the various brews and buy their coffee.
We reached the cottage and it is the nicest and newest of the three we booked. The past two days we have been making day trips from here exploring the area and hitting the beaches.
We had a Norwegian Cruise Line ship in port yesterday and the town was quite lively with the added tourists.
We've finally had some blue skies and sunshine and it feels a little more like Hawaii!

Akatsu Orchid Gardens

One of the lava caves at Southpoint. Kids were jumping into the water here and getting carried out to the ocean with the waves. It's about thirty feet to the water!

Southpoint cliffs

A monument to the ancient people at Southpoint.

Drying coffee beans at Greenwell farm.

We saw this cottage along the shore at one of the beaches we hiked to.

This is our cottage number three.

It is new and well appointed Everything we need!

Farmers market in town on Sunday

Bubba Gump's Shrimp. That's all I know about that!

The Royal Kona Resort. We're coming back tomorrow for Dan the Beachcomber's Mai Tai's at happy hour!

Cruise ship in port.

This boat is towing a submarine with a guy sitting on the deck of the sub. A third boat follows. We saw this sight while sitting at the beach on Sunday.

We were at this black sand beach today. It was a two mile hike through the lava fields.

Moving on to Cottage Number Three

Our stay here near Hilo is over and we are moving west to the Kona area. We've had so much rain here we are ready to go find some sunshine.
On Wednesday we explored the area in the southeast corner of the Island and we were at the very eastern shore. That area is used by scientists to measure air purity since it has been moving over the ocean for several weeks and has very little pollutants. We saw the black sand beach but were surprised to see it was clothing optional. Did we or didn't we?
We also went to Uncle Roberts Farmers market and enjoyed the shopping, live music, and food stands set up there. We had dinner, then watched the waves crashing onto shore before heading back for the night. We actually had quite a bit of sun on Wednesday, but the rain returned in the evening.
On Thursday we toured Akaka and Rainbow falls and saw the boiling pots on the river below the falls. (This is where the water drops from cavern to cavern on it's course downstream and creates cauldrons of churning water). Thursday was a washout with rain all day, and we finished up by doing a little shopping at the Walmart and heading back to camp!

Orchids growing around the cottage

And on  the lava flows

Flowering trees near the falls

Cottage at Ohia Grove 

We had wild pigs roaming the property

Lava trees at Lava Tree Rec area. These were formed by lave engulfing the trees in it's path and forming around the trunks

Light tower at the east end of the island.

Lava meets the ocean (but not recently).

Live entertainment at Uncle Roberts Market.

Waves rolling onto the shore.

Akaka Falls and the end of my umbrella. We had rain all day on Thursday.

A little rain never hurt anybody!

Hidden falls above the boiling pots. With so much rain the falls weren't hiding very well.

Rainbow falls.

We made it to Hilo but lost the sun!

Sunday we took a drive to Mauna Kea which is the highest mountain on the island. It's quite impressive at 13,796 feet. That not much less than Pike's Peak at 14,115. There is an observatory on top of this mountain that has about ten different telescopes of varying sizes and technologies. They are some of the most powerful in the world and the mountain is one of the top viewing spots anywhere. We drove to the visitors center at 9,000 feet and the road to the summit was closed. We toured the visitor center and then ate lunch and then the road up was open!
We took a hike at 9,000 feet and when we got back in the car we didn't make the drive up. I know it's a rental and they normally go anywhere, but they didn't recommend taking the trip up without four wheel drive. For the first time in my life I listened.
After enjoying the mountain and the cool weather (56 degrees compared to close to 80 near the sea), we drove down and wound up at Spencer's beach near Kawaihae. We enjoyed the sun and then drove back to our Hawi cottage.
Monday morning was our move to cottage number two near Hilo. We did some sightseeing on the way and the closer we got the cloudier it became. Rain in Hilo, rain at our cottage, and rain all night! The rain and gecko's and tree frogs were a chorus that was very hard to sleep through.
Today we took a ride to Volcanos National Park and did the tour to see the sights there. Again we had rain, but it was on and off so we could get out and take walks to see the attractions. We didn't see any active lava, but the entire area is lava fields and craters. The main crater and a couple of smaller ones were blowing steam, but no lava. The valcano has been pretty quiet lately.

Hills on the way to Mauna Kea.

The top of the mountain in the background with snow at the summit.

At the visitor center they had a telescope set up to view solar activity.

Hiking at 9,000 feet in Hawaii

Somehow they discouraged me from taking the mustang convertible to the summit.

A memorial to the people who died in the tsunami of 1946 at Laupahoehoe. In all 159 people died that day. We saw this on the way to Hilo on Monday.

Our cottage for the next four nights.

Everything we need for a base camp

Nice screened in lanai for breakfast and dinners

People viewing the main crater at Kilauea volcano.

Lava flows. See the cars driving on the park road.

The Nene' is Hawaii's state bird. This is our fourth time in Hawaii and the first time we saw them!

An arch on the coast.

Another arch further along.

Life takes hold in the lava. 

Petroglyphs carved by ancient Hawaiians.

Flowers along the rim of one of the craters.