After an early-morning snorkeling trip to a new and nearby spot (again, amazing snorkeling conditions and this particular snorkeling visit is momentous as it marks my first snorkeling experience where I was not physically uncomfortable with seasickness, cold, boredom from lack of visibility, and/or jellyfish stings), we got back to the hotel, cleaned up and drove to Hilo. The drive to the eastern part of the island was long, about 2 hours’ worth each way, and surprisingly rural. (Rest mouse pointers over photos for captions.)


Following his guidebook (yes, WHILE driving and reading lots of Braille on the road), Mr. W drove us to multiple picturesque spots, including a few waterfalls.

The same hike takes us to Akaka Falls and then to Kahuna Falls.


Where there are water and jungle and tourists, however, there are ravenous mosquitoes. I’d thought I was prepared with newly purchased Avon SkinSoSoft mosquito repellant/sunscreen/moisturizer, but apparently, these wild jungle mosquitoes don’t get turned off by a little lotion. Instantly I was bitten multiple times on my legs, instantly the areas swelled and itched like mad, causing me to stop waiting around for Mr. W to take photos of every flower, tree, moss chunk, distant vine and waterfall, and instead to return to the car. At the parking area, while I waited half an hour for Mr. W to return, I paced so that mosquitoes would not continue to land on me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a blonde woman (clearly a tourist, not a native) walking toward me. I thought she was walking to the restrooms behind me, but instead, she approached me directly and said, “Excuse me. Can we trade tops?” I didn’t understand her immediately. Trade tops? Tops of what? She continued, “Your top’s really cute.” I smiled at the compliment and thanked her. She continued to stand in front of me, smiling nicely, and said, “So is that a no to trading tops? I like it, it looks great on you.” What the hell, was she serious? Who the hell trades shirts with strangers? I looked at her teal knit tanktop. She was still standing in front of me, smiling, as if waiting for an answer. Possible responses were racing through my head, like Thanks, it’s Nike; or I don’t think my top would fit you. I kind of laughed and said, “Thanks, but I don’t make a habit of taking my top off in public.” She smiled again and finally walked away, saying as she left, “Okay. You look great in it.” One of the most bizarre encounters I’ve ever had with a stranger.

Driving to our next spot, we pulled off the road whenever something looked interesting or pretty to us, like these bays, where we saw people swimming, hanging out with their families, and swimming with turtles.


The guidebook mentioned a pretty Japanese water garden nearby, so of course we had to stop by and see.


Next we drove to a lava tube, which is a long cavernous tunnel formed by hot flowing lava underground. A portion of the lava tube had collapsed, which formed an opening to the tubes.

Going left from the opening just led us to a cave about 30 feet deep.

Going to the tube on the right led us to the longer part of the tube, which goes in 2.5 miles! If we were to walk the entire length, the other side of the tube opens out onto someone’s private property, we hear.

But we didn’t trek the entire 2.5 miles. It was pitch black in there, with hair-like tree roots hanging overhead, dripping water. The top of the tunnel had areas of shiny silvery lichen, and the sides were smooth with hardened lava. The bottom had rocky craggy stones that were broken off pieces of hardened lava, and pretty unstable to walk on. Mr. W had only bought one flashlight, which proved very difficult for two people to use. The person in front had the light and left the person behind in darkness, unable to see what he/she was stepping on. Also, the tube was not an even size, sometimes squeezing into a tunnel opening that I had to squat and almost crawl through, other times opening into a huge room with cathedral ceilings. Sometimes the floor gave way into a deep wide walkable crevice as the lava stream had apparently flowed both above and below some ground and hardened in the middle. We didn’t get in very far when we realized the one flashlight is not going to work. Luckily, right behind us was a tourgroup and the tourguide, after giving her group the history of this lava tube, started chatting with us while giving her people 10 minutes to wander around the openings. Upon finding out that we didn’t have enough light power, she loaned us one of her flashlights and told us, as she took her group back up the narrow stairs to street level, to simply leave it hidden behind the cement stairs and she’ll pick up the flashlight tomorrow when she brings another group here. Hawaiians are SO kind, we’ve been finding all week. The “spirit of aloha” is very strong on the islands.

We went back to the car so I can change into my hiking shoes and Mr. W could get fresh batteries for his camera, then we went into the long cave maybe half a mile deep or more, which is how I was able to bring you the written description above. A written account is all you’re going to get cuz Mr. W realized he’d put in dead batteries into his camera after we were already fairly deep into the caves, so you’re not gonna have photos of deep inside from us. Oh, and water drips on you the entire time. At one point when Mr. W went on ahead, I waited for his light beam to disappear around a bend and I turned off my flashlight. Completely in perfect darkness where I could not even tell by sight if my eyelids were open, I waited for my auditory sense to sharpen. I heard in stereo surround sound the different droplets of water hit all around me, all sounding different as they hit different levels and types of surfaces, like a watery xylophone being played. Pretty cool stuff.

We found the King Kamehameha statue in this park where people were playing soccer. Rather than photograph the soccer players, I found this more interesting:

…And here’s the king.


Wait. Isn’t he the guy on the chocolate-covered macadamia nuts boxes? Let’s take another look.

On the long drive back to Kona around the coastline, we stopped at a convenience store and I bought real, effective, chemical mosquito repellant in a metal aerosol can, with active ingredient the poisonous DEET, not that weak-ass enviro-friendly lotion crap.