Hilo, Hawaii – February 2

rainbow springing from the caldera

Overcast, rain, 25 degrees


Today’s tour was one of the best of all time. Everything came together for a fantastic tour…the guide, the people on the tour, the number of people, the content of the tour, the weather-ish.

We were out of the room before 8,

rainbow on the right, caldera on the left

so that we could get a tour in and make it back for Superbowl. I could care less about the game, but Chris wants to see it, so I’m happy to be up and out early.


The tour was called Volcanoes and Blossoms. 16 of us boarded a small bus for the 45 min drive to Volcanoes National Park. Along the way our driver/guide spoke non-stop (this was good) about the area, the flora and fauna we were seeing and general Hawaii information. We saw bird of paradise and hibiscus flowers growing randomly along the road

Kilauea steam

and heard about how Canada Geese were once blown here, evolved and never left. Rain started as we approached the park and continued on and off all morning. This rain wasn’t cold, and it wasn’t hard – sometimes just misty, so we didn’t get soaked.


Our first stop in the national part was the Kilauea Visitor Center – here we

would love to hike this entire trail

looked down into the enormous Kilauea caldera. As we were gazing upon the enormity of Kiluea the rain stopped, the sun came and we were treated to what I think is the best rainbow I’ve ever seen. We saw both ends of the rainbow with all the colours evident and vivid disappearing into the and emerging out of the caldera.


Kilauea is the world’s most active volcano. All morning we saw steam rising from vents. 2018’s eruption destroyed 700ish homes, thankfully no one died. The lava flow from this type of volcano is slow, so people can get out of its way, apparently the ‘Hollywood’ depiction of people being outrun by lava is just that…

smells like chocolate

Hollywood.


One of our stops had a steam vent we could walk right up to (somewhat cordoned off) so that we could feel the steam, it was crazy…glasses completely fogged, clothes got wet…very neat.

Akatsuka Gardens for some orchid viewing

cuper cool orchid

was our last scheduled stop. This was a greenhouse filled with orchids. I have no idea how many variations of orchids there were…hundreds for sure. The interesting ones included the toothbrush orchid, the chocolate orchid and the spice orchid.


One the way back we made an ‘unscheduled’ stop at The Big Island Candy and Shortbread factory. Our guide told us because we were ahead of schedule, that we were only 5 minutes away from the ship that we

lady slipper - wow

had time to stop…we had to agree unanimously. It was going to be a short stop anyway and if someone didn’t want to go, no one said so – I say ‘unscheduled’ because I suspect the guide gets a bit of a kick back from taking us there and it seemed like we weren’t the only tour group there – I didn’t mind as he was a great guide and the stop was short and fun. 


This was a very slick place. As soon as we stepped foot inside we were greeted with a cup of coffee, a

dipping cuttlefish

shortbread cookie and a chocolate – nice! There were viewing windows of the factory and samples of anything you wanted to try. We decided on dark chocolate with macadamia nut and crisp rice, milk chocolate with macadamia nut and potato chip (OMG!), milk chocolate with toffee and red chili, and by far the most interesting chocolate available in the entire shop and maybe ENTIRE world…chocolate covered cuttlefish! Yes, chocolate covered CUTTLEFISH! This is exactly as you would expect…fishy (in a good way) and chocolate. The fishy part could

ika = cuttlefish

have been a bit saltier…I can’t get enough of salty with chocolate, it was surprisingly tasty! Seems like something we should be getting in Asia, but nope…Hawaii, not yet at least.


Finally back at the boat we headed to the Superbowl party…the ship did a great job of this. The theatre was completely decked out…streamers, balloons, cheerleaders, an ice sculpture, ‘football’ food and drinks. I’m not exactly a super fan of the Superbowl, but I like the spectacle of it on the ship and I’m

chocolate covered cuttlefish

interested in the halftime show. A couple Blue Hawaiis, popcorn, nachos and some booty shaking later and it was time for a nap.


These last four days in Hawaii opened my eyes to a Hawaii different from the Maui Chris and I visited a few years back. We enjoyed Maui but didn’t think it was ‘for us.’ I still don’t think Maui is for us, but other parts of Hawaii

are you ready for some football? not really :)

could be. I think we could definitely spend time in Honolulu and other islands in the future.

best part of the game!