I woke this morning to a sunny sky - the first early morning sun since I left Kona. It may not last, but it's a nice way to start the day. I checked the weather forecast last night, and scattered showers are forecast for the remainder of my stay here. The graphics that the National Weather Service shows during the day looks like scattered showers but the graphics for overnight look like solid showers. The descriptions are the same though.
Breakfast was a real winner today - pancakes with macademia nuts, eggs on the side, and of course a starting course of papaya and bananas.Yum, again! I found out a little more about this marvelous B&B over breakfast. It turns out all of the water in the house is rain water. Robert has 2 large holding tanks at this house, and 3 more at his house, all connected together. The water flows from the roof into the holding tanks. And the hot water (and the front gate) are powered by solar energy. Interesting.
Today started with a circuit of Crater Rim Drive by car, with a bit of hiking thrown in. It was a beautiful morning in the park with sunshine interrupted by fluffy white clouds, a good day for crater viewing.
The rock in my hand is big, but it's very light volcanic rock with lots of air holes in it! (And yes, I did leave it in the park - I don't need Pele casting a bad spell on me.)
One more circuit of the park, then it was time to head downhill. That was my first rain encounter of the day. Downhill towards Hilo, a little rain, ah, it's dry again.
The morning had just about disappeared by the time I hit the outskirts of Hilo. I turned south to explore the Puna area. On my first trip to Hawaii many many years ago I actually drove south from Hilo, around the southern coast, then headed north into Volcanoes National Park. It's not possible to duplicate that drive any more since lava flows covered the road and destroyed all of the houses in that area in a 1989-90 timeframe, but I thought it would be interesting to drive along the piece of that coastline that is still accessible. There's a triangle drive - heading south of Hilo on route 130, branching to the left onto route 132 and following that road almost to the coast. Next pick up route 137 and follow that for quite a few miles until the road dead-ends into lava. Then follow route 130 back to Hilo. It was an interesting drive. I thought I was done with those one-lane two-way roads for this trip, but I was wrong since a good portion of route 137 was a single lane. This time there was no lack of space to pull to the side though - much improved over the last couple of one-lane roads that I drove. Well, much improved except for the sign "Road Floods During High Tide". When is high tide? Oh, it must be over, but look - there's a puddle on the road. Most of the road looked like it was safely away from the ocean, but a small section near that sign was very close to the water.
I stopped at one very interesting park that had a pool that looked like it was fed by the ocean - but it was a hot pool. I felt it, and the water was definitely warm. The ocean spilled into it, but it definitely was warmer than the ocean water. There were a few people lounging in the warm water in spite of the warning sign about eels. What a beautiful spot!
Yes, it's definitely a hot pool.
I drove to the end of the paved road, then walked ten minutes south across lava to a beautiful black sand beach. The ocean in this area doesn't make bathing beaches though - the water was very, very rough. That was a spot for me to get soaked by rain. When I headed out on my walk there were clouds in the sky, but there was also blue above. When I reached the beach it just started pouring. I thought about turning back at that point, but I didn't want to leave yet so I waited out the rain. I was pretty wet by the end of it, but between my carrying (and using) an Aquis travel towel and the very strong wind I was almost dry again by the time I got back to the car. People have been carrying coconuts down to the beach and planting the sprouted nuts - so there is the start at new coconut palms at the boundary between the black lava and the black sand. It should be be even more beautiful as the new trees start to get taller.
Here's one of the very young coconut trees (or should I just call it a plant?)
Time to head north towards Hilo. I turned onto route 130, and it started pouring again. It stopped and the sun reappeared before long. I found the Wild Ginger Inn after asking 2 different people. It's just north of downtown, and within walking distance of restaurants. It's what I expected - a basic place to stay in a great location. I headed out to explore a bit - and got stuck downtown by the rain. I waited it out staying dry this time since most of the downtown area right on the waterfront has sidewalks covered with an extension from the buildings. That's handy. And I managed to get a few pictures of an absolutely amazing rainbow. I only managed to get part of the rainbow in my photos, but I could actually see both ends in the bay. Beautiful.
I wish you could see how beautiful this rainbow really was...
Dinner tonight was at Cafe Pesto - pizza, not another repeat of Thai food tonight. I had a Greek pizza - a pizza crust topped with feta cheese, yellow and red peppers, and fresh spinach. Excellent!
Now I'm sitting in my room listening to the rain - which nicely waited until I got back here to start yet again - and the chirping of frogs, crickets, and who knows what else that lives in the wooded area behind the hotel. Well, in Kona I had crashing waves all night, and here I guess I'll have chirping bugs and animals! And I'm hoping that tomorrow is a repeat of today from a weather standpoint - some rain is fine, but hopefully I'll get some dry time too.
Photos for today can be found in my Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Southwest coast, Hilo, & north to Waimea photo galleries.
