Today we got an early start (around 7:15 AM HST) because we planned a long drive around the Big Island.\u00a0 We started to the south again, but stayed on Highway 11 past the Volcano NP entrance and kept on going!<\/p>\n
Our #1 cache for the day was found at Wellington Wonderland a state park with a beach. Not much to speak of.<\/p>\n
We stopped at Naalehu Town for Portuguese malasadas at Punalu’u Bake Shop and a geocache.\u00a0 We were successful finally with #2 geocache for the day located in a Banyan tree. The malasadas were nothing special when compared to Tex Drive In’s that we had the other day.<\/p>\n
We drove to South Point (Ka Lae) the southern most point in the US.\u00a0 Two objectives:\u00a0 1) you guessed it a geocache\u00a0#3\u00a0and 2) a lighthouse.\u00a0 The N 18 degrees\u00a054\u00a0minutes \u00a0W 155 degrees 40 minutes.\u00a0 We took some surf photos, lava photos and a couple of signs\/monuments.<\/p>\n
Then we made our way to Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park.\u00a0 This was formerly a sacred place for the Hawaiian Royalty.\u00a0 It was a very small park and took about 15 minutes to see it.\u00a0 Cache #4 was found just outside the park on the way out.\u00a0 A plastic bag in a hole in a fence post!\u00a0 Pretty lame!<\/p>\n
We visited the other Painted Church on Painted Church Road near Keokea Town.\u00a0 Took a few photos for rural architecture.\u00a0 No cache here.\u00a0 Then on to Holualoa Town via the old winding road (Mamalahoa Highway) to get a cache in an old post office building.\u00a0 It took us a few tries to get the mailbox open and retrieve cache #5 for the day.\u00a0 A good caching day so far!<\/p>\n
Continuing on to Queen K highway for gas and through the lava fields of a very old lava flow.\u00a0 Then we turned off Queen K Highway and headed for Waimea to get a cache that we’d missed previously.\u00a0 It started to rain just as we were getting to the Parker Ranch where the Camp Tarawa Marine Monument and the geocache were located.\u00a0 Joyce hunted for #6 cache of the day.\u00a0 Then we drove home sometimes through heavy rain.<\/p>\n
It was about 5:30 when we got home and had Hawaiian dinner (Spam, corn, rice and pineapple and pears).\u00a0 Watched a little TV and called it a night around 10 PM.\u00a0 Thinking about an early rise to go and walk the crater in Volcano NP on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today we got an early start (around 7:15 AM HST) because we planned a long drive around the Big Island.\u00a0 We started to the south again, but stayed on Highway 11 past the Volcano NP entrance and kept on going! Our #1 cache for the day was found at Wellington Wonderland a state park with … Continue reading Tuesday (Aug 18) Around the Island<\/span>