We are lucky enough to be in Hawaii through Stampin’ Up after all the hard work Deb has put in over the last year.   I’m the lucky plus one to accompany her.

However, flying into Hawaii yesterday was a bit of an anti-climax.   We had been on the  plane for 9 hours,  it was 3:30am Wednesday Canberra time (7:30am Tuesday Hawaii), I’ve slept a total of 1 hour and it was raining. The world outside the Honolulu airport looked bleak.

yep this is clearly a tropical paradise.

After a 4 hour wait in the airport we made it to Hilo.  Then by the time we picked up our rental car,  found our hotel,  grabbed some supplies at Walmart (what don’t they sell! !) and organizing phones, we were buggered.

Wednesday was a new day and the rain was gone by breakfast time.  We had planned a quiet day today consisting of taking a drive and having a look around.

The big Island has amazing contrasts from the lush tropical gardens to a very sparse landscape and fields, lava flows.  Amazing.

so today we saw an array of waterfalls.  These are a couple of the larger ones.

Rainbow falls

Akaka falls

We paid a visit to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens and wandered through their gardens which was beautiful.  Here is a selection of photos from the garden.

We then made our way further north along the Mamalahoa Highway and took a random turn off and found this spot which would be a great spot to camp.

From Honokaa we headed back via the Saddle road down the middle of the island for very different views.

Then to finish the day off we wandered around Hilo trying to find a nice spot for dinner.   Nothing was jumping out at us so a quick chat to a couple of old locals solved that.  Their recommendation was “Pinapple” a nice little bar and restaurant with live music.   The perfect meal and atmosphere to round off the day.

And that drive was less than 200km.