(Hilo, Rainbow & Akaka  Falls; posted from Kona on December 30)

 

After another night of pouring rain, it continues to rain in the morning.  Opting for an indoor activity, we head to Hilo and stop at the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center.  This couple year old center is on the site of the University of Hawaii – Hilo campus.  The museum is interesting with exhibits on the Universe, Mauna Kea, and how people made it to the Hawaiian Islands from Polynesia 1500 years ago.  We take in the planetarium show during which I take a wonderful ten minute nap.

 

Unimpressed with the museum cafeteria, we venture to Aloha Luigi’s which is recommended by Lonely Planet.  The NY style pizza is quite good (and my Bay Area readers know that I am quite the critic of pizza).  It even stops raining on our return to the car after lunch.  Optimistically, we head to Rainbow Falls which is only five minutes down the road.  In the morning when the sun is out, there can be rainbows in front of the falls.   With the sun nowhere to be found, the falls are neat to see, but no rainbow.

 

Next up we head to the Akaka Falls that we skipped on Day 1.  We’re hoping that it is not pouring rain when we get there.  A few miles from the Falls, the gas light on the car starts beeping.  We had an eighth of tank before we left, but now the paranoid part of me is worried (and we haven’t passed a gas station since we left Hilo ten miles ago).  We get to the falls and it’s only a slight mist out.  We walk down to the falls, which are great.  They are tall, wide and surrounded by green vegetation and a couple small side waterfalls.  I take a bunch of photos then we go to the other side of the park (a short walk) to see the Kahuna Falls.  These are not nearly as impressive as Akaka Falls, but still a pretty sight to see.

 

Back in the car, I’m glad that return drive is mostly down hill.  We make it to the gas station back in Hilo and fill up.  We stop at the store for some snacks and return to the room for a much needed nap.  We go into the town of Volcano again for dinner and the food is very good. 

 

Hoping to catch another night viewing of the lava flow, we head into the Volcano National Park.  The volcano is currently erupting in two places- into the ocean which we saw last night and inside the caldera.  We drive on the deserted road to the Jagger Museum (which is closed, but it has a viewing area).  With no cars in the parking lot, it’s not looking promising.  We walk to the viewing area, look out and see absolutely nothing but complete darkness.  After a couple minutes of letting our eyes adjust and still seeing nothing, we had back to the car.  We stop at Volcano House to try for another view, but still nothing.  We then return to our room and go to sleep.

 

Jump to the Day 3 photos.