This morning I received a call at 9 a.m. Utah time, which means 5 a.m. Hawaii time. So I decided to get up and do my Day 5 post, since I didn’t have time to do it last night. Then Tonya woke up at 6:30 a.m. and we had some toast and hard boiled eggs. We then met the shuttle bus at 7:30 a.m. We started the bus tour around 8 a.m. and then spent the next 12 hours on this tour.
I think I have mentioned before, that the Big Island of Hawaii has something like 10 to 13 different climates {based on who you talk to}. What this means is that you have a wide diversity of vistas available as you travel the island. There is no better way to see this than to drive around the island. And, that is exactly what we did today. The best part is that I wasn’t driving so Tonya and I could both enjoy the views, not just me (just kidding).
The bus driver (Tommy) was a little shorter, a little rounder and no hair (except on his chest which protruded out from his shirt). Hmm, does that remind of someone else who drove a bus. He is originally from Napa Valley California and was a bus driver for public transit there. He came to Hawaii in 2006 and has been driving bus tours ever since. He said that there are only two states in the union that allow a bus driver to narrate while driving, Hawaii and Alaska. And he did narrate. He talked for the whole bus trip and I have to say I found him quite interesting and entertaining. He had a bit of sarcasm and humor and along with the facts he brought up, it made for an enjoyable trip. His stories were mostly facts mixed in with some common bus driver folklore. Tonya and I could have driven the same road by ourselves, but the stories and facts would have been missed. In fact the fir st bit of the drive we did on Saturday when we drove to South Point and the last bit from the North down the west coast of the Island, which we drove on Monday. But the commentary made it so much better.
What I found interesting in his commentary was the reference to those that live on the east coast and those that live on west coast. Coming from the mainland, there is a huge separation between the two. But on the island, it is something like an hour.
The trip started with us driving south along highway 11. There are only two major highways on the island, highway 11, a belt loop on the south of the island connecting Kono to Hilo, and highway 19, a belt loop on the north of the island connecting to Kono. There some smaller roads that connect to these roads, but that is about it. So we are going south on the west coast. The driver is telling us what wild life to watch out from while we are driving our rentals along the roads. There are wild pigs, brought over by the first Polynesians sometime before Christ. I believe brought goats along with the pigs and seeds and other necessary items. So, there are wild pigs everywhere. There are a small variety or birds that are kept in check by the wild mongoose that eat the eggs. He also pointed out some wild peacocks brought to the island by Buddhist monks, who thought the island needed more color. Oh yea, he also mentioned wild cats and stressed the fact that we do not feed the kitties (cats), that they are wild and that they are a nuisance.
Our first stop was at a Kona Coffee plantation. Coffee is big here on the island. There are two brands, Kono and Kia, and from what he said they are big competitors. So you don’t talk about Kia coffee while in the Kono district. The shop had a number of different samples, but we suppressed the urge to try any, given the fact that we don’t like it and don’t like the flavor. But, they did have many flavors to test out. We saw how they grow the coffee plants and the process of harvesting the coffee beans. It is quite interesting.
An interesting fact is that coffee plants don’t like a lot of sun, so in some areas, they will plant macadamia nut trees and then plant coffee plants under them. But most places just have rows and rows of coffee plants. The area where they grow the coffee is usually sunny in the morning and has cloud cover during the hottest parts day, ideal for coffee beans.
Both Tonya and I get a bit of motion sickness, Tonya more so than me. So when we loaded onto the bust the only sits available we mid to rear of the bus. Tonya was concerned. so when she noticed that there were two seats in the second row that no one had sat in because a reserved sign she wanted them. At the next stop she asked the driver if we could sit there because of her motion sickness and guess what, we spent the rest of the tour in the second row. I was a little skeptical about her asking, but again, if you don’t ask you won’t know. With that bit of information, I decided to buy me a Coke at the Coffee shop to help with the sickness, at least that is the excuse I used at the time. Not sure what the excuse was at lunch when I ordered a Coke (maybe I like to drink a Coke with lunch?).
With the morning coffee and potty break out of the way, we continued our drive south. We drove through lava rock, which came from a 1959 eruption and and flowed to the ocean. Then we hit a forest where is started to rain. Then we hit what looked like a desert area and of course the rain had stopped. This all within the hour.
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The third stop was at the Kilauea volcano. We had lunch at the Volcano House at the rim of the main crater. Basically this volcano has the main crater, very large, then a second crater, smaller and then the crater inside the second, where the current lava is and the smoke is coming from. We couldn’t see the lava, but we could see the smoke. We had a nice lunch and then walked around the rim for a short time. We then went to the Jagger Museum, name after geologist, not a rock singer. We only had 20 minutes, which was barely enough time for Tonya to take it all in. Then on to a volcano tube. Volcano tubes are caused with lava cooling on top and the hot lava continuing below. So we walked through one of these lava tubes.
After leaving the volcanoes and lava fields, we started were driving north on the east coast. Now we started entering an area that receives 120 inches of rain during a year. It is very green and beautiful. When arriving at Hilo, we went to the Big Island candy company. This place was all about macadamia nut short bread cookies and macadamia nut chocolates. We had to buy some Rocky Road chocolates. Then off to Rainbow Falls and I will let the pictures tell the story.
The drive from Hilo over to the west coast showed us a lot of cattle ranches. There use to be a lot of sugar cane farms, but not so much anymore. Now there are a lot of cattle and grazing. The sugar cane fields are being replace by corn fields to create feed for the cattle. There also 57,000 acres of eucalyptus trees. These trees were planted in the 1970’s as an investment. So now they have all these trees, but no lumber mill. The trees are being shipped to China and shredded into backing for flooring and shipped back to Home Depots.
The last stop was at the macadamia nut factory. We received a explanation of how they remove the nuts from the shells. At the shop they had all kinds of seasoning on the nut samples.
That was it and then we stopped to drop off all the people. Tonya and I were the last to be dropped off. So the trip was 12.5 hours.
Our next adventure will be snorkeling and a ride to the top of Maunu Kea, more than 13,000 feet. Stay tuned…..