Hawaii - Day 4 - Big Island

I hopped on a 5:30AM flight from Honolulu to the Big Island, rented the red jeep you see in some of the photos, and drove a couple of hours into the Waipio Valley.

See the sign to the left? It is a 25% grade to get into (and out of) the Waipio Valley. 4WD is a must.....unless you want to hike.

The locals have some pretty wild horses down in the valley.

Check out the waterfall way back there. You can't get there in a vehicle. In fact, you can't get very far at all in a vehicle.

This guy named "Eagle" needed a ride home. That was the only way I was able to drive on one of the private roads.......and through this stream.

And this guy needed a ride back out of the valley. Nope, I didn't force them to ride on the back. Most of the locals (in that valley at least) wander around without shoes, so their feet are pretty muddy. These two wanted to ride on the back in order to avoid getting the car dirty (not that I care about a rental).

Scenic lookouts along the way to Hilo

Akaka Falls

I stopped at "What's Shakin'" to get some food after having read about it in a magazine.

It definitely lived up to its reputation. The smoothie was pure fruit and really good. The chicken tamale was amazing as well, and that fresh (huge!) avocado made it even better. You can't see my piece of pineapple because it fell on the floor before I could take a picture. Besides, pineapple doesn't really come from Hawaii, so who wants it in the picture anyway. :)

I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but I'm just not a garden person. I went through this thing in about 20 minutes and was pretty bored throughout.

Some of the plants in the botanical garden.

This strange-looking thing was in there too.

A view from the botanical garden.

Yup, that's rainbow falls. If you've been to the Big Island you may notice I don't have any pictures of the Volcano National Park. I decided I've spent enough time in dry, dead areas of the world, so I spent the whole day on the green part of the island. I love the green! I did make it up most of the way to the observatories at the top of the mountain (almost 10,000 feet!), but the last part is a really rough dirt road and I wasn't comfortable with my off-roading skills (and it was raining), so I decided to drive back down to Kona.