National Parks With T

Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!

Aloha➢

My family and I took a cruise around the Hawaiian islands in 2019. We embarked in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Prior to embarkation, we spent a few days on land and explored Oahu. Using Hilton’s Hawaiian Village as our base, we enjoyed visiting many interesting sites before boarding the Pride of America. We spent a week on board cruising the Hawaiian Islands. Our first port of call was Kahului Harbor on Maui.

After Maui, we sailed to the big island of Hawaiʻi. On the big island we had two ports; the first was Hilo. At the port, we met our guide from Roberts Hawaii. He took us to Volcanoes National Park where we visited the Volcano House, the steam vents, Kilauea Iki and Chain of Craters. We stopped at Big Island Candies on the way back to port for some goodies. Back at the port, we hopped into a taxi to go to Rainbow Falls and Richardson’s Black Sand Beach.

When we got back to the pier from our Volcanoes National Park excursion, we took a cab to Rainbow Falls in Wailuku River State Park in Hilo on the big island of Hawaii. Rainbows can often be seen arching across the falls in the morning.

We arrived at midday, so no rainbows for us, but the lush foliage and rushing falls were still a sight to see. And being there after peak rainbow time meant we missed the tour bus crowds.

Rainbow Falls is called Waiānuenue in Hawaiian, which means ‘rainbow seen in water.’ The 80 foot falls flow over a lava cave, said to be the home of Hina, mother of the demigod Maui.

We viewed the falls from the walkway down below and then climbed the stairs through the tropical vegetation for a different view. There is another area of Wailuku State Park called the Boiling Pots, but we missed it this trip.