October 10 - Big Island Of Hawaii

Today we arrived at our first Hawaiian island. Our port of call was Hilo on the big island of Hawaii.  The weather has turned from early Canadian fall into steamy hot tropical summer in the space of a day.  I'm sure that temperature must be in excess of 30 degrees with very high humidex. Hilo is one of the wettest cities in the world with an average of 127 inches of rain per year.

The big island of Hawaii was the last of the Hawaiian Islands to be conquered by Kamehameha the Great and added to the Hawaiian federation.  Kamehameha the Great died in 1819 and many think he is buried on this island.  But according to the Hawaiian custom of that time, the location of his grave is not known. With the arrival of the missionaries on the island sugar became the major crop and money maker for the island.  Sugar is no longer grown on the island due to cheaper crops in other parts of the world. 

Our first stop on the tour was a placed called Rainbow Waterfalls.  This was a small waterfall but it did allows to see many different types of vegetation including a Banyan tree which is a massive multi trunked tree that can cover large areas and provide great shade.

Next we traveled to the summit of Mauna Kea, which is the tallest mountain in the USA, if you count the 15,000 feet under the ocean.  It reaches over 14,000 feet above sea level and is the only place in Hawaii where it snows. The landscape surrounding the mountain is desolate.  It has been used to simulate Mars.

On the summit there are many huge telescopes, as this is considered to be one the best places on earth for unobstructed viewing stars.  At the Keck Telescope Control Center on the summit Canada and France share one these telescopes.  The mirrors in these telescopes have to be flawless and their position adjusted continually buy micro pistons.  We stopped two thirds of the way up the mountain to get accustom to the thin air.  Even with this acclimatization you really did feel light headed and faint when walking around the summit.  

At this visitors centre they recently found a thought to be extinct plant which looks like someone sprayed painted it silver.

Mythology about Mauna Kea says that in the creation Father Earth and Mother Sky were always able to hold each other.  But when the earth and sky separated, they built Mauna Kea so that earth could reach up and touch the sky by extending well beyond the cloud cover.

On our return to Hilo we went to Liliuckalani Park.  This is a Japanese rock garden, with beautiful green lush landscaping.

One of the first things you think about when you think about Hawaii is their volcanoes.  On the big island of Hawaii is the Volcano National Park.  Up until recently there was an active volcano, called the Kilauea Volcano, on the island.  In the 1960’s it produced enough lava on the island to pave an eight land highway four times around the world.  But as you may remember in the summer of 2018 there was another major eruption that destroyed many homes along what is known as Fissure 8.  This seemed to put the Kilauea Volcano into a dormant state.  Even though the large volcano is dormant the park is just now beginning to reopen.

Our tour guide told us that she was escorting a tour of the Volcano National Park when Fissure 8 erupted.  First there was a 5.9 earthquake that happened while her group was is an old crater.  She got them to safety but the tour group thought this experience was cool and not dangerous.  Only a little bit later, when they were having lunch did the major eruption happen which was prefaced with a 6.5 magnitude earthquake. Our guide said you could see real fear in their eyes when the cars in the parking lot were swaying and the road was buckling.  Our guide told us that some of her friends lost their homes in this eruption.

We went to a musical production called “I’ve Got the Music”.  I will admit that the singers and dancers in the Princess production company are better than what can be found on Celebrity.  Marg also says that costumes are more elegant.