Hawaii – Day 6

We check out of the Waikoloa Marriot Beach Resort this morning and got on the car to head to Hilo. We made a few stops along the way to make the most of our trip. The drive was fairly scenic along the way. From our car we peered out at the mountain we’d be driving up and around and marveled as the clouds hugged the mountain top.

Our first stop was the Hapuna Beach Park.  A picture speak 1000 words.

Our second stop was a small little town nestled in the mountain. We drove by a farmer’s market and were stunned to see a sign reading “TAMALES” with an arrow pointing to the camp ground. We parked the car and looked around, bought some tamales and other knicknacks and headed out. We were fascinated to find that thousands of miles from the border over pacific ocean, we spotted Mexican food on a mountain top!

Our third stop was Laupahoehoe Point Park. This is a site of mass devastation when a tsunami rolled through here in 1946 killing many people. The view was amazing as the sea collided with the rock sewn about the beach head and in the far distance, you could see waterfalls from the cliff tops cascading down to the ocean.

Our fourth stop was Botanical Gardens. The fauna inside these gardens were beautiful! I photographed flowers I’d never seen before any where. The most amazing thing was the wide variety of flowers growing in different shapes, colors, and sizes.

Inside the Botanical Gardens, we stopped by an amazing three tiered waterfall called Umauma Falls. It was spectacular! We then walked along a tropical rain forest inside the gardens for a while. We spent a few hours here and the $36 admin fee (for 4) was well worth it!

Our fifth stop was Akaka Falls which featured an amazing 442-foot fall. Unfortunately, it was a hike to get to the falls and I didn’t take the wide angle lens. So I took high res photos with my 70-200mm Canon 4L lens and the shots came out great but I’ll need to stitch them together to get a final product. It also began to rain so we didn’t get a chance to take too many photos.

After the falls we stopped at the nearby town shops for a quick lunch. We ate some Ahi burgers and chips and quickly moved on to our final stop – the hotel in Hilo.