Day 6: May Day is Lei Day in Hilo

Pretty heavy rain showers all night, off and on. After breakfast on our lanai (the porch of our cottage), we drove towards Hilo with a stop at the second Macademia Nut Company on the island: Mauna Loa Nuts. Other than Hamakua, this one offers more chocolate covered nut varieties and pralines. Like the other one better.

 

 

1st of May - not an official holiday in the U.S.A., but "May Day is Lei Day in Hilo", and the 19th Hilo Lei Day Festival was taking place in the park in front of the stately Federal Building. A statue of King David Kalākaua (1836 – 1891) - a patron of Hawaiian music, dance, and culture, is set up in the park appropriately, and, the whole festival was an ode to Hawaiian culture and the Hawaiian people. It was a locals' event, seemed like everybody knew everybody else there. 

Big get-together for all ages, genders, nationalities (though, polynesian roots seemed to be prevalent), all kinds of characters (hippies, families, some tourists), and, there was the "Royal Court" with official reps from all Hawaiian islands in their typical colors (photo above). The Mayor of Big Island (right) made a speech and the official re-inauguration, and, there was "Tom The Chickenman" with his special chickens. 

Organisations had set up boothes, there were several lei making opportunities and demonstrationa, a stage with a band, and - most importantly - several dance groups and dancers. It's been fun to watch, only thing missing were food vendors.

On the pic the lady is showing visitors how to make frangipani (plumeria) leis. Others offered different techniques, flowers, berries, leaves, etc. to make your own lei or headband.

Dancers and dance groups, one very spirited young boy among them.

,,, and the perhaps most authentic dance group - impressive performance!

There were rainshowers all day, but water almost evaporated in the air, and only a few times we needed an umbrella. When we drove along the beaches to the east of Hilo when the festival ended, sun was out again and it became really warm, over 80 deg F. 

We stopped at Richardson Beach for a while - a good spot for snorkelers and ideal to learn surfing, but not so much a perfect swimming beach. A little naked gecko, a skink, was making friends with Peter (below),,,

On our way back to the AirBnB we, of course, had to check out a new brewery in our neighborhood: Wailuku Brewworks. Unfortunately, they didn't serve food, but IPAs were great and so was conversation with locals. Had some pasta with spam ("Frühstücksfleisch") in the cottage instead on our last evening.

Day 5: On the wet side of the island - Hilo

Hilo is not your typical tourist town, it doesn't have fancy resort complexes like on the west side, it isn't plastered with overcrowded sandy beaches and touristic adventures. There are some souvenir shops, but also some nice local boutiques and shops, a workshop making ukuleles, etc., along the oceanfront promenade, and, interesting architecture, murals, markets and other places only locals know. 

Hilo, in general, gives a much more "authentic" Hawaiian experience than Kona - it's appears a little run-down, but it certainly has its own unique flair. Its historic buildings (pics above), mostly from the beginning of the 20th century, like  The Palace Theater, the Kress or the Koehnen Building (with the Mokupapapa Discovery Center) still show the former wealth of the city, when sugar milling was florishing.

Hilo Farmers' Market (right photo) is a must-see in Hilo downtown, mostly, farmers from the countryside selling their produce for great prices. We bought fresh strawberry papayas and apple bananas - much cheaper than anywhere else before. 

In our favorite garden shop we noticed these two posters below, showing all the different varieties of bananas and avocados growing on the island. Isn't it amazing? And, what do we get in our stores?

 

 

We went for a walk through Queen Liliuokalani Park, named for the last Queen of Hawaii. This lush public garden with ponds, a teahouse is an arboretum at the same time, with rare and huge trees- like the Monkeypod Tree (from the tamarind family) on the photo above.

Rested there a little before we got us late lunch/early dinner at a little take-away restaurant: Lokomoko, a typical Hawaiian dish, a beef patty, rice, brown gravy and an egg on top. There are many variations of this traditional simple dish nowadays - but originally, it was nothing fancy, but affordable and filling!

Weather was - as usually on this coast - mostly cloudy, with some sunshine and some rain showers. But,,, temps were constantly at around 70-80 deg F (21-25 C), rather humid, and, sort of pleasant.

Day 4: Going East!

We left Kailua-Kona in the morning after a short stop at the supermarket to get groceries (big supermarkets are not to be found easily outside the two big cities, Kona and Hilo) - with this view: One of the huge cruise ships unloading passengers on smaller boats and bringing them over for excursions.

The road to Captain Cook - the next larger, attractive settlement south of Kailua-Kona - still offers great views from higher above, and that's where the famous Kona coffee grows on the slopes. We stopped at Hawaii Coffee Company (photos below), a roastery which gets their beans from many coffee farmers in the area (Kona), tasted some of their coffees and headed on to our favorite cultural sight on Big Island. 

 

 

 

Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park (photo above) is considered one of the most significant traditional Hawaiian sites, including Royal Grounds and a place for asylum. When someone in the past had  broken the sacred laws, the only chance of survival was to elude your pursuers and reach the Pu'uhonua. This place of refuge is enclosed by the Great Wall, a massive masonry wall. Nearby, Hawaiian royalty established important residential and ceremonial sites,  the Royal Grounds, with temples and resting places. 

 

Such a tropical paradies, looks straight out of the picture book! A busload of cruiseship passengers were strolling around, but since the area is vast, it didn't disturb the peace of this special place too much. Besides the historic ruins and reconstructions, there are fish and crabs to watch, too!

The drive further south lead us through dense wooded areas, mostly "Natural Preserves", forests with old lava fields cutting through. The equivalent to yesterday's excursion to the north, is "South Point" today, but, the southern-most tip of the island can only be reached over a gravel road, and, therefore we just looked at it from the distance under not so clear weather conditions. The wind farm seems to be a new feature there.

 

Drive was a bit boring and we stopped for a "snackie" at Punalu'u Bake Shop in Na‘alehu.Introduced to Hawai‘i by Portuguese sugar workers during the 19th century, sweet bread became famous on the island. This bakery produces moist Hawaiian sweet bread after a traditional family recipe, in different variations, e.g. with Taro (sort of yams), with Macadamia nuts or Guava. Also famous are their malasadas, with different fillings, sort of donuts or "Krapfen". 

What fits better with such  sweetdelights than coffee? Next stop: a coffee plantation and roastery, hidden in the backcountry: Ka'u Coffee Company.

Kona Coffee grows on the slopes of the Hualalai and Mauna Loa volcanoes in the north and south Kona districts on porous and mineral rich volcanic soil combined with a specific climate. Kona coffee makes up about 95% of all coffee being grown on the Big Island, the rest is mostly made up of beans grown in Ka’u (that's where we were), Puna and along the Hamakua coast. Kona coffee is either sold in blends that carry only 10% Kona beans, or in more expensive ‘100% Kona Coffee’ packs. Prices in the roastery we visited started at about $ 20 for a 230 g pack - cheaper than what we've seen before.

It's been our fourth visit to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park! Here on Big Island it's not ONE volcano, but several and the earth's surface seems to be broken everywhere. There are lava fields and lush rain forest landscape, and, visitors stand almost at the edge of the volcano already at the Visitor Center. The last devastating eruption (lava flow) took place in 2018 and since then the volcano is considered "dormant" . 

 

The park encompasses the summits of two of the world's most active volcanoes: Kīlauea and Mauna Loa. Extending from sea level to the summit of Mauna Loa is 13,677 ft (4.200 m) high! The park's main crater, Kīlauea (pic) - completely changed during the 2018 eruption and is much larger and deeper now.  It's surrounded by a field of fumaroles (sulphur gas vents) with water steam visible. Though visibility was not too good and skies were grey, this park is always an experience!

 

Passing the newly born land (after the eruption 2018) in the distance (new black sand beaches!) we reached the Puna district and Keau'au with our AirBnB for the next three nights. To our full surprise, it was neither too far out of the way, nor as rustic as the previous one! Nice secluded cottage, tastefully furnished, cleverly equipped, full kitchen, nice large bathroom (the other one was sort of open and a quite rustic), large TV (didn't have one before) and a wrap-around patio with a hammock(!) and a comfy seating area. All of that surrounded by a tropical, fully blooming landscape. The owner extended a warm welcome, fridge was filled, and we felt good after a long day on the road with many interesting stops!

African Tulip Tree