Big Island - Day 3

Day 3 was an earlier day; we were planning on driving to the other side of the island to get to Hilo for a Helicopter ride. We had breakfast (bread and butter and milk) and then drove off upward, towards a road that didn’t exist on Apple Maps: Saddle Road. This road essentially goes right across the middle of the island horizontally, making travel time much shorter from the previous circuitous path. We arrived in Hilo at 12 for a 2 o clock helicopter ride, and needed to find things to do.  One problem was that there was a cruise ship at port; all the major activities were full!

Our first attraction, and a very very cool thing(s) to see, was Banyan Drive. This is a road with lots of Banyan Trees on both sides, planted by famous people of the 50’s and 60’s. (think Amelia Earhart and Babe Ruth) These trees were enormous and there were a lot of them, making it quite an interesting thing to see. They were like organic skyscrapers.

After that, we hung out at a nearby garden named Queen Liliuokalani gardens. They were made in the Japanese style, and were a nice place to take pictures! After the gardens, we went out to Saddle road but took a different exit to go look at some cool waterfalls.

There were 3 sets of falls along this road; we visited all 3. They were quite interesting to look at; but we had to rush just a bit to get back to the airport in time.

We arrived at the airport and got ready. We listened to the orientation before heading out. I put on my Go Pro and took videos as we flew over the volcano and to the sea and a burning forest and also visited flew over a lot of falls. After getting out of the helicopter, I thought it was alright, but my dad thought it was the best thing. Looking back, though, it was quite overrated for its price of close to a thousand dollars. I think it would be a really good thing to see if there was actually a lot of lava flowing or erupting, but this wimpy orange glow was extremely overrated.

We drove back to our hotel, had dinner, and went swimming and exploring around the town.