August 6, 2010-Day 217

Our flight didn't leave Hawaii until 10:00pm, so we decided to spend the day driving to North Kohala because we hadn't seen it yet. First we drove to Hawi and had lunch at Bamboo Restaurant. I don't have any photos, but I highly recommend it if you are on the Big Island. Then we drove to Kapa'au, where we saw this statue of King Kamehameha The Great. It is a duplicate of the better known one that is in Honolulu. Interestingly, this was actually the first one that had been commissioned to be placed in Honolulu, but it was lost at sea on it's way from Paris to Hawaii. After a second one was made and placed in Honolulu, they found the first statue, which they placed in Kapa'au.



After lunch, we continued on the road until it ends at the Pololu Valley Lookout. We hiked about halfway down to the beach, despite this sign:



It was worth it, though, for these views:







I know these are pretty similar, but I can't decide which I like better. What do you think?

Then we headed back to South Kohala along the Kohala Mountain Road, which is inland away from the ocean.







When we got to South Kohala, we still had time to explore a lava tube that we had spotted the day before. This photo was taken on August 5th.



We knew that we could walk through the entire law tube and come out the other side. Despite that, it was still pretty dark inside.



After walking a while, we finally found a way out.



Unfortunately, I was too short to actually be able to climb out and I was afraid that if my husband tried to pull me out, I would fall backwards, so I passed off my camera and climbed back down to try to find another exit. Here are a few that my husband took of me trying to climb out. I was really proud of myself for getting out by myself.







Of course, it was a lot easier once I passed off my camera and had both hands free to climb.

So, that is the end of my vacation photos. Finally! Hopefully I'll be able to catch up pretty quickly with my blog now.