Waiākea

After a good sleep, good coffee at Explorations Cafe, birthday phone call to John A and text to Ruth, we met for breakfast in the Lido. It’s a rainy day with haze and forecast of 50% chance of rain all day. Garry and Carolynne had booked a Shore Excursions Group excursion and we booked Historic Hilo and Akaka Falls excursion through HAL. Had originally booked a bike excursion but changed our minds. We are glad we did!
First stop on our tour was Big Island Candies where we were greeted at the door with samples of shortbread and nut-filled chocolate as well as fresh Kona coffee. Beautiful, expensive boxes of candy and cookies but I’m sure we will have ample opportunity to buy some in Honolulu.
The rainfall average here is 144 inches annually and Hilo is known as the tsunami capital of the world. The Hawaiian saying goes “as the skies weep, the earth flourishes”. This is apt because everything we see is lush and green. Many banyan trees near the port, planted by famous people like Babe Ruth and others. The photo is of a very small one.
Next stop Akaka Falls named for Chief Akaka who went to visit his paramour near Kahuna Falls while his wife went to the sea to trade goods for fish. He heard his wife call and so ran to meet her with his dog. Alas, he fell over the falls, hence the name, and met his doom. The dog remained at the top of the falls, barking a greeting to the wife. There are a large rock and a small rock at the top of the falls representing the wife and the dog as well as a large one at the bottom representing the Chief.
Maluna akole is a toast meaning bottoms up.
Made a stop at Rainbow Falls. If you stare at the falls for 10 seconds then look at the rocks and trees beside it, it will seem that they are moving upwards, like a stairway to the sky. This is actually an optical illusion called persistence of vision. Next stop downtown Hilo. Since today is Saturday, there is a farmers’ market with draft booths similar to St Norbert Market. Beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables. Stopped to share a smoothie at Makani’s Magic Pineapple Shack.
Final stop was at the Mauna Loa Macadamia processing plant and visitor Center which has just opened after Covid lock down. Macadamia nuts are ripe when they fall off the tree. Special tractors sweep up the nuts into a line and another one vacuums them up. The processing plant is self sufficient as they use the shells to burn to roast the nuts.Read more