The Big Island of Hawaii

Waipio Valley Lookout was one of the intended sites for the day.

I woke up to some amusing looking animals off of my balcony.  Apparently they are called a 'gang' of Wild Turkeys and they can be aggressive.  They are huge, the size of Peacocks.

The gang of wild turkeys was outside the back balcony but when I went to my front balcony, it was more akin to heaven with the scent of wild Plumeria and cute tiny song birds singing their song to my delight, unlike the awful turkeys on my back balcony.

The views off of both balconies was much prettier than the squawking Wild Turkeys.

Front balcony views of the blue Pacific.

Volcano in the distance.

Back balcony views of the mountains

Golf Course views are stunning in Hawaii.

We had a really nice day today which consisted of a ton of driving in the car, which I usually don't like, but on the big island of Hawaii the views are stupendous and there is always something to see and to look at.  This time around we were staying in Waikoloa and we drove North on the 190 Highway to Honokoa and then drove West on the 240 to the Waipio Valley Lookout.  One of the blogs I read about of the Waipio Valley Lookout stated that it was the most beautiful spot in all of the United States.  I was highly skeptical but the extra half hour of driving time was completely worth it.  He was not wrong. The view was absolutely gobsmackingly beautiful.  The valley is a very sacred place and it is only open to locals to walk down into.  Personally we had no interest in walking down into the valley because you have to walk back up and it was very steep. 

We were content to just stare at the stunning coastline, the view, the turquoise waters were stunning.  There are spots to park and you have to walk down to the lookout where there is also washrooms that you can use. 

You can never get enough of eye candy, so after about 15 minutes of staring we decided to take our leave and continue on our journey towards the Hamakua Coast.

It is said that the Hamakura coast line is the most scenic in all of the big island of Hawaii. It was a pretty drive and we made our way down towards Akaka Falls State Park. 

You can see the waterfall in the distance which is approximately 15 minutes walk away.

They wanted 10 USD for parking so we just drove out of the parking lot and approximately a half a block and parked outside the parking lot and saved ourselves a tener which is now 15+ CND. The actual entrance fee into the Akaka State Park is 5 USD per person. It is a nice half hour loop to go down and see the Falls which is over 400 ft high and then walking back up again. It is a pretty little walk and well worth the $5. 

Walking down towards the Falls.  I did not know yet that my lens of my phone was dirty. 
My Google 8 Pro later displayed a notification that I should clean it.  Sometimes tech is super sweet.

These pics are not as clear as they should be due to my dirty lens, sorry.

Another little babbling brook in the Park.

We continued on and drove through the picturesque town of Honomu and stopped to pick something up to eat.  I chose the monkey bread which is a strange combination of apples, cinnamon syrup and a very heavy dough. It was extremely filling, I did not eat the whole thing and I did not need to eat anything for the rest of the week!

Local wildlife.  I never take pics of cold blooded things usually but this guy was pretty with turquoise rimmed eyes.

We continued driving down the Hamakua coastline and stopped at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens.  Unfortunately we were too late to enter.  We arrived at 4:07 and they have a hard 4:00 pm last entry. I wish this was somewhere in the brochure and then we would have arrived on time.  That was a bummer but the girl at the entrance said that there was a hike just down the road called Onomea Trail. 

This was worth doing. It is a fairly steep trail down to the water with some very pretty views, but some potentially dangerous spots if you decided to off trail. 

There are lots of chickens on many of the Hawaiian Islands.

Thick rain forest surrounds the roads and trails on the East side of this island

Fairly typical Big Island Beach with rocky black lava stones.

Peekaboo view of where we were headed.

We explored a bit and took some pictures and meandered our way back up to our car to  to continue to drive our drive towards Hilo  the wettest city in the USA with 211 days of rain.  We cut back and crossed the island on the Saddle Highway # 200.  This highway is also quite picturesque because you're driving in between two volcanoes and a lunar-like landscape of little mini volcano areas.  You are driving in the clouds most of the time and it's a little chilly when you open up the window to take some pictures. 

The cloud cover is very pretty.

It was a little remiss-ant of a Saskatchewan wind chill when opening the window when you're driving 60 mph. We headed down the highway towards the village of Waikoloa and our ears were a popping as we descended to some pretty views. 

The clouds look extremely fake.

We arrived back into Waikoloa Village and stopped and picked up a few things for supper and continued our 2 minutes down to our Resort at Paniola Greens and we were rewarded with the last vestiges of a gorgeous sunset over the Pacific Ocean.