Honolulu to Hilo

July 7, 2019 • 9:00 am

The interisland flight from Honolulu to Kona, on the big island, is beautiful. We sat on the left to get the best views (it wasn’t crowded), and saw every island between the two, including  Molokai, Maui, and Lanai.

Waikiki, the tourist epicenter of Oahu, with Diamond Head on the right:

It’s only when you fly over Diamond Head that you see clearly that it’s a volcanic cone:

This is where I was staying on Oahu:

I got confused by the islands, but as far as I can see, this one is Molokai.

Renting a car in Kona (from where we flew yesterday), we drove over the “saddle road”—Route 200—between the volcanic Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, arriving at our destination: Hilo (population about 45,000), on the wet “windward side” of the island.

There we stayed at the lovely and friendly Dolphin Bay Hotel, where I stayed about 30 years ago. Not much has changed, and I recommend this place highly.

The grounds are lush, tropical, and lovely:

I don’t know what this plant is, but I’m betting it’s pollinated by bats:

Ginger of some sort:

Breakfast every day is good strong coffee, banana bread, and fruit picked from the garden, including papaya and bananas. Pick your own off the stalk:

Although the resident cat, Opie, is not listed as one of the hotel’s attractions, she should be—at least to an ailurophile. Opie is uber-friendly and will follow you to your room. If you want, she’ll spend the night in your room, and lie with you on the bed. Give me a cat-owning hotel any day!

I highly recommend the Dolphin Bay (and Opie) for an inexpensive stay in Hilo. Here’s Opie resting on our microwave:

Lunch in Hilo at a well known local place, the Kuhio Grille. also known as “The Home of the One Pound Lau Lau” (pork, beef, or chicken wrapped in taro leaves and steamed):

There is a big collection of Asian “lucky cats” behind the counter; we were told that the owner collects them and thus gets given even more of them by visitors:

Unable to handle one-pound lau laus, we opted for the plate lunch: kalua pig with two scoops of rice, salad (not shown) and taro, and I had kalbi beef with two scoops of rice, a scoop of “salad”, and taro. Very good. I still would love to write “Jerry Coyne’s guide to the plate lunches of Hawaii.” I will list my top three in a later post (this one, while good, wasn’t on that list):

On a rare clear day in Hilo, you can see the whole of Mauna Kea, the highest mountain in Hawaii and the second highest island mountain in the world (4207 meters or 13,802 ft). Atop the peak are the Mauna Kea observatories, an important site for astronomical observation.

If you measure from its underwater base to its peak, Mauna Kea is actually the highest mountain in the world! As Wikipedia reports, “Most of the volcano is underwater, and when measured from its oceanic base, Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world, measuring over 10,000 m (33,000 ft) in height.”

Photo from downtown Hilo, in Liliuokalani Park and Gardens. You can barely see the observatories on the top:

A zoomed-in view:

An even more zoomed-in view:

A vanity picture with an enormous banyan tree in the Park.

One version of the famous but distorted statue of King Kamehameha (the features are more Roman than Polynesian). The most famous version stands at the Iolane Palace in Honolulu, but this one in Hilo, erected in 1993, is a replica.

You can see that some residents object to the statue. I lowered the camera a bit and took this photo:

We visited the Kaumana Lava Tubes outside Hilo, a pretty obscure spot that’s also a bit dangerous given the slippery steps and jagged lava. But they are, as the kids say, “awesome.” Here is the entrance, almost hidden by tropical vegetation.

Lava tubes are formed by the flow of molten lava beneath already-hardened lava, and can be very long. When the molten lava makes its way out of the crust above, it leaves a tube behind. You can read more about the formation and location of the Big-Island lava tubes here.

Heres an entrance photographed from inside the tube:

The glassy interior:

Tree roots extending through the cave surface form a kind of ecosystem in which other life can thrive. Species inhabiting Hawaii’s lava tubes include insects and other arthropods, including some endemics like a cave cricket

And a street beloved by all denizers of the Cheezeburger site:

18 thoughts on “Honolulu to Hilo”

    1. I sometimes wish it had become known as global CO2-ing, instead of warming or change. The CO2 result is the clearest and most compelling thing going on. It would be great if someone could come up with a catchier term than CO2-ing.

  3. Nice review of the Hilo side of the big Island. The lower key, less tourism side I should think. I spent a short time on the other side (Kona side) but it was more tourism. The thing about the big Island, especially if you are living on Oahu, is how much larger it is. You can spend two or three days just driving around the big Island and not nearly so covered up with people. Being away from the tourist center is always better. That is why I enjoyed Kaneohe the years I lived on Oahu.

    1. My aunt lived on Maui and always wants to go back. She lives and has a business in California now. I’d love to live on Big Island.

      1. I never got a chance to see Maui. However, there or the Big Island would be better for me as I am from the Mid West and Oahu is very crowded. Certainly living and working in Hawaii is different from being there as vacation but it was a pretty good time. I decided I must have a thing for Islands. I lived in England, Oahu and Okinawa. That was 13 years.

  4. The plant name you were looking for (the one you suspect is pollinated by bats) is Brugmansia: https://wimastergardener.org/article/angels-trumpet-brugmansia/
    My husband and I visited Hawaii for the first time this past May; we stayed in an amazing B&B on a mountainside overlooking the Kona coast. Brugmansia plants were everywhere, and they were so full of blooms, we dubbed them “Ridiculous Trees.” We were so taken with Hawaii, we booked our next trip, this time to Kauai, almost immediately after returning home.

  5. Hawaii isn’t America, though given the history of colonialism in the 19th century, it’s hard to imagine how the story could have ended differently. The seizure from Queen Liliuokalani was utterly illegal, even by contemporaneous standards, though pretty innocuous by the standards of the day. Not much, or any, bloodshed. Of course, that doesn’t mean it was justified.

    At the inception of the 20th century the growing realization that Hawaii was a critical strategic point for the American military (and still is), sealed the deal. Not to mention the economic advantages, and moneyed lobby power of the resident elite.

    I’m not sure there is a realistic hope for future Hawaiian sovereignty. We don’t like to think we live in a country that takes land for unjust but practical means, but that seems to be what humans do.

    John Wayne said it was selfish for American Indians to retain lands in the face of European expansion. Somewhere in between the callousness of that statement–given the genocide that ensued–and the exigency that people need a place to live, lies the correct attitude.

    1. I’m pretty sure I’m repeating myself, but, Indians (Native Americans) were still being killed in the U.S.A. in the latter part of the 19th century. After the gold rush attracted so many miners and settlers to California, conflict arose. Bounties were set on the natives: “Prices included 50 cents per scalp and 5 dollars per head.” By 1865, most of the Yahi (Ishi’s tribe. See “Ishi in Two Worlds” published by Theodora Kroeber in 1961) had died of European diseases or been killed by soldiers or settlers. On August 29, 1911, Ishi came out of the woods into the western world, sole survivor of his tribe. No-one ever found out his true name because there were no members of his tribe left to name him. He became known as Ishi.

      Please read about Ishi if you haven’t . There has also been a movie about him.

  6. Great shots of the islands from the air. On my annual trip to the Aloha state I always secure a window seat. There is nothing to see for six hours but then, magically, the islands appear, shimmering in the turquoise blue sea. Wow.

  7. I stayed in Hilo on Big Island. Those flowers are in NZ too and my mom always calls them outhouse flowers because they always seemed to grow outside toilet areas. I did know the real name but always forget it.

  10. Thank you for all the pictures and stories of the Islands and the time and effort you put into relaying these experiences. When (and where) is your next adventure and tour guiding? Can’t wait.

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