Kona and Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii

Today I'm going to finish our last island in Hawaii.  If you have been following along we took this trip in October to celebrate our anniversary and both of our birthdays.  I'm so behind in posting about previous trips.  I still have two full weeks in England to finish.  Hopefully I will stop dragging my feet and get on with our travels.  We have cleared our home of Christmas so now I have some time to devote to our trips.

First up is our trip to Kona.  It was a very rough sea day as we approached.  You can hardly tell as we are viewing from high on the top deck of the ship!

This is as close to Kona as we got as the Coast Guard advised the Captain to not allow us to board tenders to visit the island.  This is a town that does not have a pier for such a large vessel so we were going to go on tenders ashore.  The swells of the ocean would have made for dangerous boarding of the pier from a moving tender.  We were disappointed, but understood that our safety is of upmost importance.  So we said goodbye to Kona and sailed on to the other side of the big island of Hawaii for a stop in Hilo.

That evening the Naturalist that was on board told the Captain if we sailed by Kilauea we may get to see some of the lava flow that still is active.  You may remember large damaging eruptions this past year from this sleeping giant!   As we passed the island in the evening we were only able to see smoke plumes from the volcano.  It was a lovely moonlit evening as the Captain guided our ship close by. 

The next day we were docked at Hilo.  We had booked an excursion to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.  This is an extraordinary "Garden in a Valley on the Ocean."  

This garden was founded by Dan and Pauline Lutkenhouse in 1978.  They purchased 17 acres of land and spent six years clearing the jungle and created a paradise of exotics.  There are miles of winding trails to take you down, down to the ocean floor.  The steep trail descends down 120 feet to sea level.  We walked the downhill trail and were delighted by all the beauty we viewed!

Come along with us as we walk carefully downhill!

The under story of trees and lovely waterfalls cool our spirits as we descend into paradise!  How in the world did these folks ever do this job is beyond my imagination!

Around every bend more and more lovely flowers growing happily in this tropical paradise.

As we reach the bottom, the under story opens and we reach a path to take along the ocean.

Lovely flowers everywhere and the gorgeous ocean pounding the lava rock formations.

If you want to take a lovelier walk, I don't know where it would be!

If you love orchids, this is the spot for you!  Hawaii is also known as Orchid Island.

The ocean and flowers certainly are two of my favorite things!  Yes, I'm in paradise.

I really didn't want to leave this beautiful spot, but we had to catch our ride back to the ship.

Oh, and we needed to climb back up that steep hill.  Oh no, I told Grayden he must hail a golf cart for me!  Yes, I wimped out and rode the golf cart back up!  

This trip was primarily to Hawaii and then one more stop.  I'll share that next! 

On to the Islands of Hawaii

We both were excited as we checked out of the Queen Mary and walked over to board our ship!  As you can see the rain had just stopped as we rolled our bags to check into the Carnival Splendor.  The Splendor is certainly not The Queen Mary, but she definitely showed us a good time.  The Queen Mary is on the left so you can see we were literally next door to our next ride.

As we boarded the ship we were greeted with a lei!  You can't go to Hawaii without one.  In 1971 we went to Hawaii when our daughter was a two year old.  When we left the plane we were presented with fresh flower leis.  These were not, but still festive and fun.

It's always fun to enjoy the sail away as the ship leaves the port.  The weather began to improve and we even saw some blue skies as we headed into the Pacific Ocean.

Checking into our stateroom I was surprised to find flowers from our children for my birthday.  They certainly made my day even more special.   

The flowers lasted our whole two weeks and were greatly enjoyed in our stateroom.

Even our cabin steward Carter remembered my birthday!  He took such good care of us making sure we had everything we needed and made the cutest towel animals everyday for our bed.

For me the best part of a cruise are the relaxing days spent reading and gazing at the beautiful ocean!  We have never been this far into the Pacific Ocean on a ship.  It was absolutely gorgeous!

After traveling trans-Pacific for four days we reached the island of Maui.  Hawaii was admitted to the USA in 1959 and is our newest state.  It is located on an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean 2,223 nautical miles to Honolulu from Los Angeles.  Today we stopped on the island of Maui that is one of the 8 major islands that make up Hawaii.   We booked a tour to the Iao Needle Valley and a Tropical Plantation.

As we enter the Iao Needle Valley we are in awe of the towering emerald covered peaks of lava that are covered with vegetation and beautiful water falls. If you look closely you can see the falls cascading down the mountains.  Our guide mentioned that we are lucky to view that as there had been rain the day before.

We hiked the short walk to the viewing area to take in the beauty.

There were many plants popping up all around us that we were told were not native to Maui.

The famous Iao Needle is the center of the Iao Valley State Park.  It is a sacred place for Hawaiians as in 1790 the Battle of Kepaniwai is where King Kamehameha I clashed with the Maui army in an effort to unite the islands.  This battle changed Hawaiian history forever.  Even with the cloud cover, we were able to view this lovely park and its botanical interests.

In the valley you can view the Pacific Ocean.  It was time for us to board the bus and go to the Tropical Plantation.

Walking into the Plantation I knew we were in for a treat.

Sugar cane machinery was used as a focal point in this pond.  Sadly sugar cane is no longer grown commercially in Hawaii.  It is now grown in other countries where they employ cheap labor.

Just before boarding the tram I peeked into a cafe that had the most lovely arrangements on the tables.  All in the open air!

The Maui Tropical Plantation was quite interesting as we boarded a tram to ride throughout the fields of pineapple, papaya and coconut palms and many other interesting plants that I never see growing in our little corner.  Our guide was a lovely Hawaiian beauty who explained the plants along the way.  She even demonstrated how to properly open a coconut.

We enjoyed seeing the wide variety of plants that are grown here for local consumption.

It was fun seeing the chickens wonder about the gardens.  The wild nature of this plantation had a very serene feeling. 

Our bus tour guide, Henry brought us safely back to the ship after a wonderful day on Maui.  We enjoyed this excursion very much and have fond memories of our time spent on this lovely island.  I hope you will join me again as we travel to Oahu.  We will be visiting a very important place that touched us deeply.