Volcano video

Manta video

Day 8

 On our final day in Hawaii (outgoing flight at 11:55pm) we packed in a drive south with beautiful southern views, a visit to the Volcano National Park during the day, and a drive up Mauna Kea.

Volcano National Park

Maunea Kea - 14,000 feet high. We ended up just stopping at the visitor center at 9000 ft and hiking up a nearby hill to watch the sunset. It was beautiful because we were above the cloud layer. It was also cool to watch the clouds roll in and envelop the mountains.

After the sun set, we were able to see so many stars!

Day 7

 As predicted, diving was cancelled because of high surf.  I was glad because I did not want to go diving in such rough waters. We decided to head up north again and visit the Waipi'o valley. This required a 1000ft hike down which of course requires a 1000ft hike back up. But it was totally worth it. We arrived in a beautiful valley with great trees, a river, and a beautiful black sand beach. We had to cross the river to get to the other side of the beach which was fun. 

On the way back we saw some wild horses.

After the hike up we got fresh coconuts and rambutans. Yum.

And beautiful sunset as always.

We had dinner at Jackie Rey's Ohana Grill Kona which was highly rated. I liked my seafood trio of crab cakes, shrimp and grilled fish - butterfish - but the other grilled fish - ono - was not good, way too overcooked. 

Day 6

 After a very long day, we slept in, and slowly started our day. We decided to drive back to the Kohala coast to look for whales. Our condo (Hale Kona Kai) came stocked with beach chairs and beach umbrella which was very helpful. We stopped by our favorite grocery store KTA super stores for some onigri mentai and musubi as snacks. We visited a couple parks where it was recommended to see whales but didn't like either. So instead, we pulled over on the side of the road and climbed a hill and settled in. It didn't take long before seeing some whales. We learned that they surface about every 10 minutes so we were ready to anticipate their movements. We were lucky that we saw them just in front of us and they didn't move very quickly so we were able to see many episodes of surfacing.

We couldn't go kayaking because there was a high surf warning - 8-11 feet surf! I was worried about our dive the next day. 

Day 5

 Today started off as a leisurely day but ended up being a day packed with activity.

We drove north to Pololu Valley. On the way north, we drove along the western coast - Kohala coast - and saw a whale breaching by as we drove by. We stopped along the road and watch and saw it do a couple tail flips. It was super cool and unexpected. The view along the drive was beautiful. The visibility was so good we could see to Maui and the other islands.

The view at Pololu Valley was stunning! We hiked down to the beach and saw the mist/clouds rolling into the valley and walked along the river among the trees and also along the beach. We tried to climb up the other side but without a map to guide us we didn't known how long before we'd see a vista again so turned back. The climb back wasn't bad at all. Beautiful views at every turn.

Next we drove along the east side of the northern area which afforded a different beautiful view. 

We went to Akaka Falls which is in a state park. Not really worth it as it was less than a mile walk with a peak at the waterfall and lots of people also visiting. Plus they charge per car as well as per person. 

We stopped in Hilo for coffee and snacks but went to a place that was definitely on island time as it took over 30 minutes to get our coffee and bubble snack (like a large soft waffle cone with ice cream). 

We then drove to the Volcano National Park. We got there just at dusk. We started at the northern side. We drove by the Steaming vents and saw all the steam rising from the ground. The volcano has been active since September of 2021. Apparently, it flows a couple days and stops a couple days. We were in luck because it had just started erupting anew that day. We went to the Kilauea Overlook and saw this smoke cloud forming above the volcano with a bright red glow from the lava. You could see the volcano spewing the smoke intermittently.

We then drove around the chain of craters road to Devastation Trail and walked about 1.5 miles in the dark to the Pu'upua'i Overlook. There we could see the lava emanating from the cone and the lake of lava flowing out around the crater. It was awesome! Everything looked so bright. You could see the pattern of the flow changing with time and every once in a while the volcano will spew some chunks of red. It was mesmerizing.  

The drive back to the condo was a bit tedious as we didn't get back until 11pm but totally worth it!

Day 4

With breakfast, we saw a pod of dolphins swimming past us. Beautiful start to the day. Then we visited Kiholo Bay where we saw 8 turtles - some catching some rays on the beach and some swimming by in the shallows. 

Then we headed out for our afternoon and night dives. Dive 1 was on the reef at garden eel cove. It was near sunset so the eels came out to play - I saw 10 eels including 2 that were free swimming! I also saw a male boxfish that is endemic to Hawaii - beautiful colors.

The night dive was nearby and was the much anticipated manta ray dive. They turn on these lights as the sun is setting to attract the plankton that think they are gathering by the setting sun and with the plankton come the manta rays. First there were 3-4 boats of snorkellers. Must have been cold for them as they only wore swimsuits. After they left, we went for our dive. We sat/laid on the sandy bottom and watched as manta rays "flew" by us. I say "flew" because watching them gracefully glide through the water in front of us and above us resembles majestic birds overhead. One manta ray came straight at me but I did not flinch. I held steady and took pictures ;) what an amazing experience!