Hawaii- Day 5

Today was our first full day on the Big Island. We got up early and drove to the other side of the island, about 3 hours, to Hilo for our Circle of Fire helicopter tour with Blue Hawaiian. Once again, M and I were fortunate enough to be able to sit up front near the pilot. We both liked this tour a lot more. We were able to see active lava flow and a Bed and Breakfast that was only accessible by helicopter because lava had destroyed EVERYTHING around it, including all the houses and roads.

After the tour, we drove to the macadamia nut plantation, Moana Loa. The smell was absolutely delicious and almost narcotic. Have I ever mentioned that white chocolate macadamia cookies are my favorite? Needless to say, I was excited about visiting the factory. We were able to see the storing process and buy lots of different macadamia nuts. Our choices included roasted garlic, toffee covered, coffee dipped, salted, onion, and some others that I don't remember. We bought a couple of them, but my favorite was the toffee covered. We bought a large bag, but they didn't last long. Oh, and did I mentioned it rained.

I'm not sure where we took these pictures, but we saw these trees everywhere and they were huge.

While enduring the rain, again, we went to Rainbow Falls, although we did not see a rainbow, it was still very pretty. From there, we went to Akaka State Park for a very short hike to see 2 breathtakingly large waterfalls, neither which were in reach, but were still something you would definitely see in a brochure. In all we saw over 10 waterfalls. I'm sure we saw a lot more, but I don't want to risk overexaggerating.... ;-)