Big Island

Hawaii - The Big Island : Hilo, Kona and Volcanoes National Park

Hilo was our first stop on the Big Island of Hawaii. We were here for a week before our cruise on Mercury a couple of years back, and were very keen to take another trip to Volcanoes National Park. We rented a car and headed toward the park for the day. There were new lava fields and many more steam vents since our last visit. This can be a very rainy area but we had a beautiful day throughout.




This was at the end of Chain of Craters Road ... the "No Parking" sign encased in lava was at a point that lava had covered since our last visit 2 years prior.





We saw a lot of steam vents on this visit, much more than when we were here 2 years ago. Stephen picked up some flowers back at the dock then we enjoyed our daily ritual of cappuccinos at the Cova Cafe onboard. There was a delightful classical piano quartet called "Analogue Quartet" that performed at the Cova each evening before and between dinner seatings.


At 10:30pm we cruised by a hilside with molten lava, Stephen took some great video and even caught where the lava reached the sea. Alas my camera is much more limited on zoom capabilities, but I took a couple of shots. On video the hillside was glowing and steams of lava were visible.

Kona
The view from our balcony in the morning.	We rented a wizzy little convertible for the day.












After we left the park we walked up the road a bit and visited a rocky beach -- it had some of the best snorkeling on the trip ! After that, we started to head toward Kona again and planned to visit a beach near town for some more snorkeling. On the way, we stopped at a Greenwell Farms - we were in time for a tour! They had free samples of many different roasts of Kona Coffee from beans on the plantation. We bought the Private Reserve and Peaberry coffees to take home. To the right are some red coffee beans ready to be picked!
	Avocados and Bananas were offered to us to pick as a snack while we enjoyed the tour.

Coffee Beans laid out in the sun to dry, the bed they are on can be retracted into the building if it rains.


	The Infinity in Kona
	Took this picture from the tender boat as we arrived back to the ship. We had a great day! -- Tomorrow we visit Maui