Saturday, August 20, 2016

18th August 2016


Hilo, Hawaii. Partly Cloudy Temp 30c

Today we went on our last booked tour for this cruise, “Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden & Gazebo Lunch” we had to meet on the wharf at 9.20am so we had breakfast in our cabin. Jan & Bob were doing the same tour so we arranged to meet them before going ashore so that we could be on the same bus together, we need not have bothered because there was only one bus and 5 people on the tour. Apparently there should have been 8 but some did not turn up. We did not mind because we had a 20 seater minibus for the 5 of us. Our driver/guide Frank was very good. Betty & I have actually been to the Gardens before on a previous cruise and it was so good we thought we would do it again. The ride to the gardens was not very long and soon we were walking among Lush Rainforest, Orchid Gardens, Bird House, waterfalls and lovely views of the ocean. From the Gardens we drove to the 1000-acre OK Farm where they grow a variety of crops, tropical fruit, macadamia nuts and coffee.  At the farm’s private Rainbow Falls Gazebo we had a lovely picnic lunch. After we left the farm Frank took us to get another view of Rainbow Falls from the other side of the river. He finished our tour with a short tour of the Hilo town. It was a good tour. The entertainment tonight is billed as “Bande Artistique” Expect the unexpected with this comedy act. This show was at 7.45pm and the Captain had said at 8.30pm we would be passing the lava flow into the sea from the Kilauea Volcano so we were torn between seeing one or the other. However, we went to the show hoping it would finish in time to see the Lava flow but we need not have bothered because the show was so bad we walked out, we don’t do that very often. The Lava flow of course turned out to be a red glow in the distance but at least we can say we saw it. There is quite a swell at present causing some motion of the ocean as we sail down to Papeete.

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