Honeymoon-Hawaii's Big Island

We left for Hawaii the day after the wedding (5/11/08) and spent 1 week on Hawaii's Big Island. We spent a few days in Kona and then drove over to Hilo and spent the rest of the time there. Can I just tell you that Hawaii is amazing! Tristan is a great tour guide since he grew up in Hawaii...I will explain the trip through some of the picture...
National Parks
There are several National Parks in Hawaii and we went to all of them. The first was the Pu'uhonua O Honaunau NHP. I got several more stamps in my NP passport!!

Checkers, Handmade Canoes, Carved statues.


We also went to Volcano National Park. Most of the park was closed due to the sulfer dioxide that was being released from the craters. It was extremely Voggy (yes, that is spelled correctly) the entire time we were in Hawaii but it was still beautiful. Here are some pictures...

The flowers just grow in the middle of the lava field. Arch at the end of crater road.

Sulfur coming from the crater in the Park & Tristan in the Lava Tube (lava once filled this tube while it was flowing to the ocean).



Luau
We went to an authentic Luau during our stay. It was great entertainment and wonderful food!




Beaches and Waterfalls
Okay I will admit that we never spent any signifcant amount of time on any beach (I know, I know). We did go to a variety of beaches and I was amazed to see how different they were. We also went a several waterfalls. We did see to Rainbow Falls in the morning (the only time you can see a rainbow at the falls) although it does not show up very well in the pictures.



Tristan took us to a lot places that aren't in the tour books! He showed me many of the places of his childhood. I even let him drive the car (he has not driven for several years). The arboredum in Hilo was awesome, with amazing flowers that blew my mind away. I could go on and on but I won't...

Our MISADVENTURE:
Tristan wanted to take me to some hot springs that he frequented while he lived in Hawaii. We tried a few different ways to reach the hot springs but we always came to a dead end road. Very frustrating. We found out later that about 40 acres of the island (including the hot springs) fell off into the ocean a few years ago. No wonder we could not find them!!

WE CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK!!