The Big Island Tour

While on our trip to Hawaii, we decided to take a day trip to the Big Island of Hawaii to see the active volcanoes.

 

 

It was a wonderful day.  Our tour picked us up at the hotel very early that morning.  We flew from Honolulu to Hilo and spent the day sightseeing.  It had been 24.5 years for me, and David and the boys had not been to the other islands so it was a real treat.

 

 

(We're dressed warmly because it was chilly in the morning and high up in the mountains.  This was the only day we wore sweatshirts, believe me!)

 

Our first stop on the Big Island was to the black sand beaches.  Just gorgeous.  I'd always heard that they existed only on the Big Island, but not true.  Apparently they are throughout the world, including Iceland.  Regardless - gorgeous!

 

The lava formations are evident throughout the Big Island, thanks to more active volcanoes in recent years, changing the coastline of the island.

 

 

We stopped at Queen Lilioukalani Gardens.  So pretty, and I loved all of the beautiful trees and bushes.

 

We also visited Rainbow Falls.  Look at that monster palm frond!

 

Rainbow Falls.

 

I loved these palm fronds climbing the tree like a vine.

 

We saw nene all around the island.

 

We spent quite a bit of our trip exploring the volcanic areas. 

Here we're walking towards the cinder cones and sulphur banks.

 

 

Sulphur Banks - it was really interesting to see the steam rising, smell the sulphur and see the yellow sulphur throughout the hike.

But everywhere plants found a way to grow, even in sulphuric lava beds.

Walking around Kilauea caldera, viewing the crater

Looking down into the crater

You can see people hiking down in the crater

Then we walked through lava tubes - this one is 550 years old.  We walked through lush rain forest to get to this point.

And then back out.

 

Hardened lava.  We stopped and explored this large area. 

It was sharp and very hard.  It was really interesting to see up close.

 

A huge sea of hardened lava.

 

Climbing and exploring

 

Then back to view the crater and steam vents at night.  What a sight to see!

A really great day on The Big Island!

 

Diamond Head and Hanauma Bay

Two of my favorite places on Oahu -

 

We had a really fun time hiking Diamond Head and snorkeling in Hanauma Bay!

 

 

Diamond Head is a dormant volcano. 
Here is the park in the crater of the volcano before we started the hike.

And here we are 23 years ago in the same park!
Leigh Ann, David & me - December 1989!

At the start of the hike David pointed out these caves built in the side of the hills.

About half-way up, looking out at the beach

About half-way up - beautiful, beautiful views!

A look back at Honolulu and Waikiki

And on the other side of the volcano - back towards the Windward side of the island

From the very top - a look down at the homes and water

sooo pretty

And on our way back down - see all the people walking the trail above us?

Diamond Head Lighthouse

 

 

We spent half a day snorkeling, swimming, and relaxing on the beach at Hanauma Bay!

It's now a nature preserve and we had to watch a video about preserving the coral reef.

I've been here on days when it is absolutely packed.

We were there on a great day.

The reef is just beautiful and makes for some great exploring.
We saw beautiful colored fish and lots and lots of coral.

Thomas doing his favorite thing - building in the sand.

Brennan and David on their way out to snorkel.

 

 I'm uploading a couple of videos of our time at Hanauma.  If you're reading this in a reader or email, you may have to switch over to the blog to see the videos.

 

 Here are David and Brennan snorkeling at Hanauma Bay.

Eventually Brennan got to go way out into the reef and explore.  Here we were just starting out.

 

 

Thomas playing in the sand at Hanauma Bay

 

 

My 360 view of Hanauma Bay when I wasn't snorkeling

 

Beautiful days exploring Hawaii!