We checked out about 9:30am, but our flight didn't leave until 8:00pm. That left us a whole day to explore the island. Kailui-Kona is on the leeward side of the island and is drier and the landscape is lots of lava rock from the still active volcano, Mauna Loa which is currently sending streams of lava down the side of the island. It also spews a steady stream of gases that form a haze (smog or "vog") over the leeward side. We drove up (4000+/- feet) the mountains and over to Kona which being windward is lush and green and rainy. Our destination was the Hawaiian Botanical Gardens. Just incredible!! It is in a gulch that leads down to the ocean. Steep gulch!! The scenery is so lush and with so many gorgeous flowers and shrubs and a stream meandering down the hill to the ocean. The climb back up was - strenuous! Panting, we made our way to the car, a place to sit down and cool off. The is no way we could ever remember the names of all the flowers. I'll be putting a majority of the pictures in a slide show to the right of the blog. We took a couple hundred!
Then we were off to Akaka and Kahuna Falls. And, an even steeper walk!! Kahuna Falls is pretty. Akaka Falls is just gorgeous!! Kahuna is not as dramatic and is further away and inaccessible. The walk back up the hill - gawd awful!! I was thinking about crawling up the last few yards on my hands and knees!! Was it worth it? YES!!
Mmm, now I just have to figure out why my yellow border does not always show up when I import the set-up....
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