East Coast Waterfalls

On our trip to the other side of Big Island yesterday we visited several waterfalls. The first was Akaka Falls, reached by a walk through a very lush rainforest area.  

At over 400 feet, the 'fall' is twice the height of Niagara - although obviously somewhat narrower!

The vegetation on the walk to the overlook for the Falls was extraordinary, banana palms and a very unusual variety of ginger plant.. (note also the not very well camouflaged gecko in both images).

 My book of Hawaiian flowers tells me that this is Torch Ginger and that because of its long, straight and stout stem, it is prized for its use as walking sticks!

This tree, below, was acting as host to a large 'castor oil' type plant which is familiar at home as the ubiquitous office plant that somebody buys and then it carries on forever, nourished by half drunk cups of coffee and tea.  This one looked healthier than most!

There was a large flowered white convulvulus hanging from many of the trees in dark green curtains.

A little further down the road and we came to a small outdoor restaurant/fruit stall.  The avocados on sale which had been grown on the farm were mind boggling - the largest were the size of small melons!!

The restaurant/fruit farm and house are for sale - via Sotheby's International Realty! (Any takers?  Nice sea view, good climate...)

The second waterfall that we visited, just outside the town of Hilo, was Rainbow Falls - no rainbows for us unfortunately - they are most often seen in the morning when the sun is overhead - but the falls are impressive, thundering over the edge into a boiling pool below.

The yellow hibiscus, growing by the falls,  is the state flower of Hawaii.

On our way back we crossed the middle of the island on a road which skirts the bottom of Mauna Kea, Big Island's largest (extinct) volcano. 

The summit - which at 14,000 feet has snow for much of the year - was hidden by low cloud.  On the roadside, however, we started to notice a frequently occurring wild flower..

David stopped and took these pics..

It looked like a wild orchid but we are awaiting confirmation from the experts!

And finally... this was our hire car for yesterday.. an upgrade, apparently, as the car we had requested was not available..  I must say that I had always rather fancied a sporty number (mid life crisis?) but there are issues... No photos, thankfully, but how does one get in and out gracefully and without jarring at least one hip??  Apart from crawling in and out of course which was tough on hot, gravelly ground!  (Any tips, Jen and Colin?  How do you do this??)