We wake up at 5am today. It's like 8am in Singapore. And it's drizzling and chilly. We put on our raincoats and scooted out to the car. No one else is up yet. The HVNP is empty. We hurry to the steam vents. The rain has helped to up the steam factor. We walk to the sulphur banks. A couple in sweats is out there too, reading the signboards. Finally, we can smell the volcano! I pluck an ohelo berry just to find out what it tastes like. Bland. My tummy is rumbling. Time for breakfast. Quick stops at the gift shop and the art gallery prove there are no souvenir tees on sale. Imagine that!
When we return, we find this huge man chatting with Gordon as breakfast is being readied. The man is a twice-married (his first wife died at childbirth - the baby was too big; his second wife didn't want to move somewhere with him, so he dumped her), Sicilian-Comanche Viet veteran retired cop. He claims to have visited Singapore when he worked for the CIA. He says he's visiting his "foster" parents - he has a set in every port. HB snaps a picture of Gordon reading the papers. She says he looks like Santa Claus.We take a walk in the B&B's garden. I love the anthuriums. It's still drizzling when we go back to our room to pack up and move out. I buy a book by Gordon - it's not really a guidebook and has anecdotes that span his years running a tour agency and B&B.
Then it's Hilo here we come, going up the same highway we took yesterday to Puna. It's raining, so there goes our chance of viewing the Pu'u O'o eruption from the road - it's supposed to be a good view.
Our first stop is Pana'ewa Zoo. OK, so it's miles behind Mandai zoo's standard, but it's free!! And there's a geocache to find! It was hidden with the blessings of staff there! Yes, all the exclamations make this a worthwhile stop. Lots of mozzies though. I'm bitten as I retrieve the cache, I'm bitten as we inspect the contents and fill up the logbook and I'm bitten as I return the box to its hiding place.
I expected Hilo, being the island's capital, to be city-like. Instead, it is more a sprawling town of low-rise buildings, many of which are wooden. It's Pahoa on a bigger scale! But it has Borders, Walmart and malls on the fringes of town.
We drive into Hilo and still make it for the farmer's market, which is supposed to be shut by noon. It has a wet market on one side and stalls selling tacky souvenirs and handicraft on the other. Unimpressed, we explore other parts of downtown and stumble on Topical Dreams. Yes, lunch is ice cream today! We order a scoop of lilikoi (passionfruit) and a scoop of chocolate and are stunned to find that a scoop is actually TWO scoops. We sit in the squashy shop and struggle to finish the too-sweet double double scoops.
The Pacific Tsunami Museum is round the corner and, after spotting the webcam on the building, we cross to the island in the middle of the road to call HB's brother. Another picture to snap for another webcam cache. Except it is no fun standing in the noonday sun and waving the GPSr about as drivers in passing vehicles stare out curiously at us. We stand around for nearly half an hour.
Holmes Sweet Home is our "home" for the next 2 days. No one is in but there is a nice welcome note on a little notice board. We notice there is also a "Winifred and family" note. Oh dear! Does that mean rowdy kids? We move in our suitcases and, after making some calls to find a laundromat that is open on a Saturday, we head there with our dirty clothes. It takes us 1 and a half hours. HB snoozes as clothes go round and round. I study maps to find possible routes.
Our car boot loaded with clean dry clothes, we hunt for Lokoaka Park, a small beach that has more rocks than sand. A little further to the right, there is a surfing spot. We see shady types in their cars in the carpark. So we decide one of us should stay behind watching the car, while the other goes on the trail of a geocache. I am "the other". I take along the walkie-talkie, but find that it is pretty useless when trees start interfering with distance. I leave no rock unturned, but nada - no cache. The GPSr is pointing me here, there and everywhere. I dodge the thorny leaves of the hala trees. I give up after 20 minutes. HB's turn. I give her till 5.30pm to emerge. On the dot, she's out - but hands empty. She has met some geocachers. Austrians (Team Libervir) and armed with a clipboard of printed geocache pages. (Later, we find out they too didn't find the cache. It is lost, muggled.)
We take the long way home, via Banyan Drive, which is littered with hotels and gets its name from the banyan trees planted by celebs like Babe Ruth and Amelia Earhart. The road runs by Lili'uokalani Park. It is laid out like a Japanese Garden. Out at sea and linked by a bridge is Coconut Island. We park our car, but hastily go back in because there is a loony homeless man about. We saw him earlier while standing in the middle of the road for the webcam shot. (See him behind me in the webcam shot above)We dine at Cafe Pesto - which is like Spageddie's back home. A live band has just started playing. Ho hum. All the shops in the shopping centre have closed. Back at the B&B, Charlotte and her cat Anuenue wait for us. She is a nice old lady. A boy with a ukelele emerges from the other room. He says he plays jazz piano and asks for permission to play the piano in Charlotte's living room. We sit on the lanai (verandah) playing with the cat while Nathan plays the piano. Pretty good for a 15-year-old.
Snooze time in our new room. We share a huge living room with Winifred and her grandson, Nathan. There is a high-speed Internet port in the room, but no laptop, lah.
Geocache count for the day: 2
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