Exploring Hilo's Waterfalls

Sunrise on Coconut Island

Due to the wonders of jet lag and 5 time zones, day 2 started approximately at 2:30 am, when phones started going off with texts coming from the central timezone.  With our internal body clocks still stuck on central time as well, it was difficult to fall back asleep.  We had planned on waking up at 5:00am to see the sunrise from Coconut Island, an 8^th of a mile in front of our hotel, however we were wide awake at least an hour and a half before that.   All four of us met in the lobby of our hotel, and headed out towards the coast.  As is typically the case in Hilo, which is very much a rainforest climate, a constant drizzle fell on us as we walked out to the park.  We explored a little bit and waited for the sun to start to rise.  Unfortunately, as the sky began to brighten, we realized there would be not much of a sunrise, as the skies were extremely overcast.  Instead, we enjoyed the sky turning a lighter shade of gray over our heads.

View from Coconut Island

Taryn and I had a 7:45 appointment to take a helicopter ride over the volcanoes. So after a quick continental breakfast, we left Ryan and Amy to relax at the hotel, and headed to the airport.  After checking in, we were ushered into a waiting room with a family of 4, where a video was playing about the volcanoes.  For 5 minutes we found the video to be very interesting. The next 20 minutes we were getting ready to throw our chairs at the TV to make it stop.  Finally, the woman from the desk came in, and presented us the unfortunate news that the rain and clouds were severely impacting visibility, and we could not do the flight.  So instead of climbing into a helicopter, we rescheduled for Tuesday morning. 

Before we headed back to meet Ryan and Amy, we stopped back at our rental car company to complain that the auxiliary power outlets did not work.  This wouldn’t be a big deal, but we were doing a lot of cross island driving where we needed our phones as GPS, and were concerned about running out of battery.  They found another car for us, unfortunately, we moved from a Nissan Sentra, to  a Chevy Spark. This car, as we walked up to it, was best described by Taryn as approximately a rollerskate with doors.  However, while the auxiliary power was not working in this car either, it was equipped with USB ports, so we decided not to complain.  We pried ourselves into the front seat and headed back to the hotel. 

We met up again with Ryan and Amy and decided to do a quick tour of the local waterfalls.  Each one was  more impressive than the last.  We started at Wailuku Falls and the Boiling Pots, moved on to Rainbow Falls, and finished at Akaka Falls.  Akaka was by far the most magnificent, as the water cascaded hundreds of feet into a deep ravine. The walking trails around the falls provided tremendous vantage points for which to admire the unparalleled beauty.

Wailuku Falls

Rainbow Falls

Ryan and Amy: Tree at Rainbow Falls

Damage from Hurricane Iselle's Rains

Akaka Falls

After viewing the falls, we split up again.  Taryn and I went back to downtown Hilo to the Culture Conscious Café since, of course, they had a good vegan selection of meals. As we walked up to the counter to order our food, I made the comment “I wasn’t planning on drinking, but they have a beer I’ve never heard of on tap, so I’ll have to try that.”

Taryn asked “What beer?”

“Kombucha” I said.

Taryn looked at me with a very patronizing smile, and told me how cute I was….and then explained that Kombucha is a hippy dippy fermented tea…not a beer.  I decided to take a pass.

We enjoyed a fairly good meal, and shared a vegan Passion Fruit cheesecake, which was decent (though did not taste at all like cheesecake.) 

At this point, it was time to head over to the rental house: The Falls At Reeds Island, where we’d be staying for the next week.  Taryn and I got there first and were a half an hour early. The owners were just finishing the cleanup for us, and said we were free to go ahead and start getting settled.  We walked in and our jaws simply dropped at the magnificence of the house.  Ahead of us was a long hallway that was entirely screened in.  To the right was a bedroom with a queen sized bed, and 3 of the walls, were almost entirely screened windows, with a view of the Wailuku river.  On the other side of the hallway was an equally beautiful room with a view of the manicured path around the house.

View from Front Door down Hallway

View from Riverside Bedroom

Continuing to the end of the hallway, led us to the pinnacle room in the house: the kitchen.  The roughly 18 x 26 foot room, contained a large wooden table which could easily seat 12, though only had 6 large chairs around it.  The room is entirely circled by screened windows on 3 and a half sides.  Outside the far window, was the most magnificent view I have ever seen from inside any building.  Directly outside the kitchen, was the Wailuku river, and a 2 sets of falls, nestled in a tropical ravine with an incredible amount of tropical vegetation in every direction.  Each one of us that walked into the kitchen simply stopped in our tracks with our jaws agape.

Kitchen

View from Kitchen

While we had plans to go out to dinner in Hilo at 6:30, after seeing the house, we decided it would be much more enjoyable to wait for Jason and Michelle to join us, and sit and enjoy the evening in the house.Ultimately we closed out the evening playing "Cards Against Humanity" where we learned that "Its a pity that kids are getting involved with Harry Potter erotica" and RJ's last relationship ended due to bad saxaphone music...