Hawaii part 2 - the Big Island

For our final week and a bit in Hawaii, we flew out of Maui into the Big Island, in Hilo on the East coast.

Manual crosswalk haha

While we were there we stayed at a Hostel that had outdoor "glamping" - glamourous camping. We enjoyed it so much that we stayed outside for the rest of our time at that hostel. The room walls were made out of bamboo with an open ceiling and outside our window opening we were next to a little rainforest. At night we could hear frogs that sounded like crickets and it was relaxing to hear the stream of water passing by.

Checking out our gorgeous hostel!

On Sunday we went to a Baptist church nearby and they had some hymns and meaningful scriptures. And one man played a special instrument. Becky thought it was cool sounding. The people there were really friendly and welcoming. Becky felt at home there, it was a smaller church which she liked very much. That afternoon we walked through a nice scenic park and Coconut Island with beautiful palm trees and other unique looking trees.

Even trees with beards! (Banyan)

The next day we went to Walmart and picked up camping equipment and later that day we hiked to some fairly long caves. In them we found dried red lava.

As we walked to the Rainbow Falls we enjoyed looking around the area

 
and also found some pools of water called the boiling pots and another waterfall behind it that was pretty.

Above the falls! (no, we didn't look over the edge)

Then we went for a walk and bought some ice cream on our way back to the hostel. The next day we bused (almost got on the wrong one!) our way west into the south-middle of the island to Kilaueu, one of the world's most active volcanoes, in the National Volcano park. We went to the volcano and watched it illuminate the sky into an orange glow!

A better one that I didn't take

They're elusive to take pictures of!

We camped at a park that night, and shivered through an unprepared cold and damp night at 4000 feet elevation.

The following day we hiked on the Crater rim trail and along the way we saw hot steam fields rising from deep underground (They were nice to stand in)

We hiked along the forest, visited the volcano museum, watched some volcano eruption movies, and hiked alongside hot Sulphur fields - stinky and colourful!

The rural buses come once a day, and there are no bus stops, you just flag them down. We continued west to Hookena Beach Park on the West coast, watched a sunset

Can't resist those sunset pics

and set up our tent and ate dinner in the dark. It was an absolutely gorgeous, very hot park to spend a few days at with very friendly people.

The next morning we relaxed on the beach, swam in the big intense waves. While Aaron worked, Rebecca blogged and read her book. The third day we relaxed, tanned, cooked, packed. Since it was our last night we were looking to sell our camping equipment, and we actually did to a local! She was an elderly lady who also gave Aaron some traditional Tamali: corn husk wrapped beef.

We hitchhiked up the steep and long hill to the bus stop and made our way north to Kona.

Hitchhiking on the back of a truck (Becky was inside) on a roller coaster road!

The next day we hitchhiked to a down town beach area there. In case you're wondering, hitchhiking is a normal and accepted part of culture in Hawaii. We found a nice modern church there. We visited a traditional dance competition, and Aaron went for a walk through the YWAM base in Kona (University of the Nations). That night was between our 1.5 halfiversary and valentines so we had a nice dinner around the downtown beach area with an ocean view. We took the trolley back home. The following day we waited and waited at the bus stop to get to the airport...and it never came because it was Presidents day! Thankfully we managed to hitch hike with a nice young couple to the airport. The girl was from Alaska and the guy was from Poland. A pit stop in Honolulu to pick up and repack our luggage, and we said goodbye to Hawaii. Now we're headed off to New Zealand!

Enjoying Kona