continued from post 1

When we reached Lihu'e next morning (first flight out of Hilo), the sky was overcast, mountains were in the clouds, but rain was not pouring down. It was just sprinkling here and there. (and I felt quite smart not having booked the helicopter tour before getting there!) Since we couldn't have checked in so early, we decided to drive to the northen shore and check in when we drive back. While in and around Hilo, we didnt really get the postcard Hawaii feel. Whereas on Kauai you see the postcard-picture opportunities everywhere. Our next stop was a perfect spot for that. The Kilauea lighthouse. We did some birdwatching there. Since the kid was asleep, we decided to skip going inside for a closer look. We wanted to eat some fresh fruit, but skipped Mango Mamas according to the suggestion of THE BOOK and instead went to Banana Joes. Well, THE BOOK didnt mention that Banana Joes is closed on saturdays and sundays . So we just moved on. We stopped to take a look at the Hanalei Valley.

We were quite hungry now, so decided to have lunch in the town below. (don't remember its name right now.) I tried tropical Taco and wife stayed with Subway. (She was losing faith in the book ) Tropical taco had good burritos. We also got some desert from Polynessian Cafe. (I had the "mac nut coconut base chocolate truffle cake" which was excellent. quite comparable to the "Boston Elephent Walk truffle cake" mentioned earlier.

At Tropical Taco, I had my first brush with Celebrity. While waiting for my food to arrive, I decided to wait on a barstool outside the joint. A man sitting in the corner looking away turned to me and said in a british accent "those are taken". OK, so I get up. There are 4 bar stools next to him. So I think I would move to the farthest away from him, so I ask him if he is holding all 4 of them. He says 'hey, its family' with a wave of his hand and actually looking at me. and I just thought he would continue on to say, by the way I am Bond, James Bond! (well I am neither beautiful nor a woman, so he probably wouldn't have said it ) so I just stood there waiting for my food, not bothering the Man. I looked around and realized that many people around me had noticed him and giving him surrepticious looks, but nobody bothered him. Good, people respecting his privacy, I liked that. (Another tidbit of useless information, he was driving Lincoln Aviator)

After lunch we drove upto the end of the road stopping briefly at Tunnels beach and Kehe beach and couple of caves. The surf was quite high at Kehe beach. It was getting late in the afternoon, so we decided to go to the hotel (Aloha beach resort) and checkin. We were upgraded from standard room to Oceanview room. Cool! (More on the hotel later). So we dropped our bags in the room and went to the Lydgate pond (just behind the hotel).

In the evening we went to look at the Opeka falls. We spotted couple of readheads along the way. . Wailua falls were next on the stop. We had dinner in the restaurent King and I. The food was good.

The next day dawned bright and sunny. So it was time to plan the helicopter ride. I called around and found that the most of the recommended operators did not have an opening for that day. But Jack Harter had an opening in the afternoon. So we booked a ride with them.

We drove to the Waimea canyon stopping at the lookout points. The last driveable lookout point, looks out to Napali coast. We walked another 30 minutes (one way) on the road (it was closed for cars) for a grander view. On the way back, after lunch we had shave ice at JoJo's shave ice. It was quite good. We had enough time to stop at the spouting horn before we went for our helicopter ride.

There have been conflicting opinions about helicopter rides. But if you have decided to do it, you won't be disappointed (unless of course you crash ). Here are some of the photos from our helicopter ride jurasic falls, napali coast, king's burial grounds?? on napali coast and hanalei bay from above

Next day we had our flight back to Boston from HNL. We had a few hours to kill in HNL. So we went to Waikiki beach. That place was SO crowded. (I am not much of a beach person anyway) I felt quite happy having decided to skip Oahu in our short trip


Aloha Beach Resort was an excellent hotel for the price we paid ($70 per night). They upgraded us to OceanView room, It is nearest to the Lydgate pond. Self parking is free and no resort fees. (Of course, it is not in the league with the real resorts)

Next time (if there is one, the 12 hour flight time from bean town is a strong discouragement) we will visit Maui and Big Island.