the big island

I’m home! But I’ve still got lots to catch you all up on from the trip – the whole last week on the Big Island.

Monday we drove the northern route to get to Volcanoes National Park – it was a long drive (about 4 hours), but the scenery was interesting. There’s lots of different types of landscapes on the island, from lava fields:

To almost southwestern tribble-looking plants:

To lush green rainforest and jungle.

(Akaka Falls)

Unfortunately, it was super rainy, cloudy, and cold, and once we got to the actual park we realized that we couldn’t really see much of anything! Plus, the main short route around the caldera is closed because of new volcanic activity.

You can just make out the rim of the caldera there. I could process the photo and bring it out more, but really, that’s what I saw. We decided to drive down Chain of Craters Road a little ways before turning back, and it delivered – there were some pretty big craters!

On Wednesday we took the Atlantis submarine tour, which goes 100ft down to the ocean floor. Photo taking is hard because the water filters out colours and makes everything blue and grey!

That was pretty much it for activities, for me – one of my sisters and my mom went on a snorkel tour, but I wasn’t too into it. Other than that, I did visit another coffee plantation and bought loads of Kona coffee, shopped for clothes, and lounged about.

Fun time in Hawaii, although it’s rather far away – the trip home was over 20 hours thanks to an 8-hour layover at Honolulu airport. And lugging 8 pounds of coffee in my luggage kinda sucked.

But apparently the next trip is already booked!