East Coast of Big Island

The east coast of Hawaii 'Big Island' is as different from the west coast as you can imagine.

Around Waikoloa, where we are staying on the west coast, all of the ground looks as if it has just been dug up by a giant plough.  In fact it is not earth but lava rock - black, solid, sharp and largely hostile to growth of any kind.

The east coast on the other hand - the windward side of the island and on the damp side of the mountains, is a land of fertile green valleys and formerly (until 1994) full of sugar cane plantations.

Our first stop today was to look down into the Waipi'o Valley - a rather inaccessible but very fertile valley which has been farmed for over 500 years and which, it is said, could provide enough taro - a local root which is pounded to make 'poi' a kind of porridge - for everyone on the island.

It is a very beautiful, wide valley with its black sand beach.

From Waipi'o we followed the coast road towards Hilo, the capital of Big Island but a place which is rather out of favour with holiday makers, given its reputation as the wettest place in America - it has just 90 rain-free days a year.

Because of the amount of rain and the water draining from the extinct volcano, Mauna Kea (almost 14,000 feet) the east side of the island is like a dense and very lush tropical rainforest.