A Biggish Day with All the Rain you could Want

It all started off brilliantly... we met up with Becky, Meg and Murphy at this really rustic breakfast thingie by the water. They've had a blast so far, so we had a bit of catching up to do:

So, we set out for Kamuela (you only see signs for Waimea, though) at around ten-ish. Stretches of the road are in pretty good nick but you can't really go all that fast, particularly with a jeep. We drove out of the haze of Kona into the blustery wind of Waimea. I don't ever remember driving through Waimea without there being fog somewhere and/or wind, nor did it disappoint this time. As we drove down the hill towards Honokaa, in the back of my mind I'm going: "ooo, so close to those malasadas!"... never ended up getting any, though. The girls weren't hungry so instead of messing around waiting we decided to press on to Waipio Valley. The closer we got, the harder it rained. We got there and parked on the edge, peering through the downpour, only just barely making out the breaking surf at the bottom.

Waipio wasn't going to happen. Oh well.

So, we continued down the coast. Much to my astonishment, where were once huge fields of cane, there now stood TALL forests of eucalypts. And I mean tall! I felt like we were driving through the forests between Eureka and Crescent City. Seriously! It was eerie.

Our first foray off the beaten path was Lapahoehoe Point:

I dashed off for the loo whilst the girls braved the blustery wind and spray:

And... it started to rain, again. As it does. We saw stunning hibiscus in an incredible variety of colours. The rain-forest was as it always is: impenetrable, mysterious, unchanging: with that sweet-smelling mixture of wet leaves, rotten fruit and invisible flowers we will never see.

We drove on through the rain. The three loops through valleys were as gorgeous as I remember them.
We finally turned off at Pepeekeo and took the scenic route through old town Pepeekeo, passing this new tourist-thingie called 'something' Botanical Gardens before we got into the windy drive through the jungle, over ancient bridges alongside the ocean in our jeep:

...

No, it didn't rain. Wow.

I'll tell you about Hilo in the next instalment: been driving pretty much all day and I'm knackered. This pint of Guinness is probably contributing to that eye-lid-drooping effect....

So, where did I leave you? Somewhere on the Hamakua coast?

So, let's move on from Pepeekeo. We drove into Hilo, with Hilo looking very much like Hilo has looked from time immemorial. Rain on the slopes, puddles on the ground, sun peeking through here and there, steam rising from the streets where it just rained. We went up Waianuenue, then left along Komohana, down Kawailani, had a stickie-beak at Nohea Street - I'm convinced I saw the lychee tree in the back of the house, one we used to pick lychees from to take in to church to share with folks. We drove down to Awa Street. Things haven't changed there much either - "no stay dee-feren, aftah all".

Hilo itself hasn't really changed much. Apparently, it doesn't. We drove along Banyan Drive: the place looked deserted. I treated the girls to Queen Liliuokalani Gardens:

Yeah, some roads are wider, some stuff is new, what was Mamo Theatre is now a vacant lot, but Hilo still looks fairly the same, a wee bit run-down, overall. The people are pretty nice. Actually: really nice. We had lunch at this place on the waterfront called Cafe Pesto - nice food. Good service. Had a local feel, but up-market.

I spent a fair bit of time immersing myself in the whole feel of Hilo. After all: this is/was home. And it felt no different. Not one tiny bit. And a lot of it, I sorely missed.
The whole rain thing:

sheesh, this is what brings life. SE-Queenslanders get depressed when it rains more than two days running: I learned to love the rain "small-kid-time"... learned to love it here in Hilo. To me, rain is a normal, even essential part of life. It was what I hated most about California: no rain 9 months out of the year.

Julia and Nanny found a Ben Franklin to get stuck into (crafting ribbons and other delectable items) and I had a stroll down to the KTA (K Taniguchi) store to pick up some essentials: Chernoble-orange cheese Americans know as 'cheddar' for the morning omelette... and a Guinness.
Can't believe for the same exact bottle of Guinness it's $2.99 here in the islands: in Queensland it's $5.99. Hope Canberra are enjoying the profits!

Finally, it was time to head back. I'd heard they'd fixed up the Saddle Road, and besides, we were in a jeep, so off we went up Kaumana Drive. Nothing was different, except Bill Wilson's "House by the Roadside" was called something else. And further up, above the caves, it seemed things were more built up.

Initially, Saddle Road didn't seem much different and I was sort of dreading the wind-y drive through fog and rain ... and then suddenly, there's this brand-new *wide* straight road, going up and up and up and we're flying along at 55 mph on a stretch of terrain you could only ever go 30 - 35, tops. I was flabbergasted. In no time we found ourselves back on the Kohala Coast (where the road did go back to narrow, winding and lumpy-bumpy for a little bit.

It was a big day.