On Monday, February 12th, we flew into Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, and went right to our ship. This is our view of northwest Honolulu from our port.
There was a great shopping center also located at the dock. You can also see the mast of a sailing ship in the distance, along with two buildings from the business district.
Here are some of the city's beautiful buildings. At 8:00 pm that night we set sail for Hilo, on the big Island of Hawaii.
We arrived in Hilo at 8:00 am on the 13th and our first shore excursion was to the Volcanoes National Park and Rainbow Falls. Here is a picture of the Falls. It is known for the rainbows that appear when the morning sun shines through the mist from the falls. When the 80-foot cascade hits the water below, the mists throw prisms of rainbows into the air. The expansive green foliage in Hawaii was also wonderful to see.
We also stopped at the Nani Mau Gardens in Hilo. We were able to walk through a beautiful orchid garden, filled with incredible flowers.
The colors of the flowers were just breathtaking!
We stopped at the Volcano House for a buffet lunch and then proceeded on to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It is a 333,000 acre park that features a live volcano. There we saw views of where volcanoes had erupted. In this picture, the actual volcano ring is in the background and the foreground shows the caldera where a smaller volcano erupted later. The yellow tint inside is actually sulpher, still smoldering.
Further down the road, we saw lava mounds and rifts where the lava had poured through the valley. Here is the caldera with smoke coming out of the ground. It was very impressive!
Afterwards we had the opportunity to walk through an actual lava tube, created under the ground by flowing lava. We had to walk down steep hills into a rainforest and then walk through the tube. It was cold, and dripping water. The floor was wet but it was a great experience. Mom and I almost didn't go, but we were sure glad that we did!
This is the rain forest that we came to when we exited the lava tube. When we were walking down to the tube, it was raining, but when we emerged, the sun had come out! As we made our way back to the ship, we made one last stop at the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut House, as our tour guide called it. Mom and I made lots and lots of purchases of chocolate covered macadamia nuts for ourselves and as gifts. We tried some delicious ice cream, including vanilla macademia nut.
This is Dennis, our tour bus driver and narrator. He was a wonderful guide and also taught us many Hawaiian words. He always called us "cousin" or my "hana," which means family. There are so many different races intermingled in Hawaii (only 10% of the population is pure Hawaiian!), that they consider everyone to be family! I like that idea!
I got a kick out of this bumper sticker. It was on a van parked at the Volcano House in Hilo.
The ship sailed from Hilo that night at 6:00 pm and we headed toward Kahului on the Island of Maui. That night, after we set sail, our ship went to the south end of the island where we were able to view the lava flowing into the ocean from the Kilauea Volcano. It has been flowing every day for the past 25 years! It pumps red hot lava through a vent on the side of the mountain sending thousands of gallons into the sea. It hits the water at a blistering 2,100 °F and explodes into a fountain of steam hurling volcanic debris everywhere. It was dark when we got there so unfortunately, the pictures I took of it didn't come out very good, so you'll just have to take your own trip there to see it for yourselves!!
This is the beautiful scene that we awoke to on the morning of February 14th, Valentine's Day. This is the city of
Kahului. The sky was clear and the temp was about 78 °F, which is was about every day!
Our next shore excursion was to go whale watching. We boarded the bus for the 20 minute drive to the marina. It was a glorious day out on the water and it didn't take long to catch our first sighting. We saw many baby
humpback whales, along with their mothers, like the ones below. The problem is catching them on your camera -- no sooner are they up, and then they are down! We were also able to hear their "singing" when the tour guide dropped a microphone down into the water near the boat. They were calling and singing back and forth to each other. I was able to turn my camera to "video" mode and although I didn't get any movies of any whales in the water, I was able to capture the audio of their songs. It was a marvelous day for the two of us off the coast of Maui.
We didn't sail out of Kahului until 6:00 pm the following day (the 15th) so that morning Mom and I decided to go shopping. We caught the shuttle to
Hilo Hatties, a big chain store known for its Hawaiian clothes and souvenirs.
It was located at a strip mall so we were able to do lots of other shopping!
To take a break during our shopping I treated Mom to her first
Jamba Juice! She really liked it.
The next morning, the 16th, we arrived in the harbor of
Kona, on the big island of
Hawaii. This is located on the opposite side of the island from Hilo. We had a great breakfast and relaxed all morning on the ship, and then headed out to the lifeboat transfer for our shore excursion around historic Kona.
This is a banyan tree, located right near the shore. There were many of these trees around Hawaii. I was so impressed with the size of the trunk -- I had to get a picture of one.
Other shore excursions offered for Kona included snorkeling and canoeing. Here you see some of the people from our cruise heading out for both!
Our tour of Historic Kona took us to one of the Kona Coffee shops. The coffee is grown on a narrow strip of land along the mountain slopes above Kona. It's a world renowned coffee and although I did not partake, my mom tried it. This was the view out the back of the shop....
...and this great tree house was located right next door.
We also visited an old Catholic church that had a neat history. When it was built, the natives would not go inside because it had a roof and they didn't believe that God wanted them to praise him inside a building. So the priest painted the inside with palm trees, clouds and stars. With that, the natives agreed to go in. These beautiful hibiscus flowers were outside. It is the state flower.
One of the islands' most sacred sites lies just south of Kealakekua Bay on the Kona coast: Pu`uhonua o Honaunau. Ringed by stone walls twelve feet high and fifteen feet thick and believed to date from the fifteenth century, this sanctuary offered protection for all. Guarded by priests, this pu`uhonua (safe haven) was more than a simple refuge: spiritual and psychological cleansing was provided here so that fugitives might be healed in mind and spirit and absolved by the gods. When a native committed an egregious act, they were to swim to this sacred site to receive absolution for their sins and then return to society. Here is one of the huts that the priests lived in, left bare on the side so we could see how they were built.
This is a
Konane game board, much like our checkers, played with black and white rocks.
Isn't this tree something? The roots are partially above ground.
This is the beach that the natives would have to swim to to get to the sacred grounds. The water is very rough behind us (although it doesn't look like it!) and the trek could be dangerous. We were able to take the easy way!
Although I would like to say that these are two of my mom's new boyfriends, I have to admit that they are actually woodcarved statues protecting the reconstructed temple and they are called Ki'i.
This is a hut with a handmade canoe inside. I liked the texture of the roof and the intricate lashings on the canoe.
On to Kauai
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Created: 16 Mar 2007
Modified: 26 Mar 2007