Ahoy the shore from Hawaii (part 3 in a series)

Day three: Sunday October 11, 2009

During the early hours of the morning NCL’s Pride of America continued charting courses from the Port of Honolulu on the island of O’hua to the Port of Hilo on the Big Island. We awoke early in the morning before we had docked and ascended to the decks to observe our approach. We fetched breakfast items from the buffet on the Aloha café and found seats at an outdoor table in the aft section of the ship, where we listened to the port specialist describe the port. Hilo is located on the East (windward) side of the Big island, which usually gets a lot of rainfall. However, the skies were clear when we arrived. The Big Island is double the size of the other 7 Hawaiian islands combined and is increasing in size courtesy active volcanoes spewing lava into the seas.

Following breakfast we made our way down to the 3rd level mid-ship, which is where the gangway is located to debark in all ports (the area is designated by stars and stripes carpeting). We wanted to ensure that we would be among the first group to debark the ship to ensure we were placed on the first mini-bus shuttle to retrieve our rental car at the Thrifty car rental location at the International Airport. We did in fact make the first mini-bus and were soon on our way to Volcano National Park in our yellow Jeep Wrangler (which we nick-named The Beast on account of its license plate bearing the numbers 666). The Jeep was a great choice for the trip however it was a tight fit for the third passenger to enter exit the 2nd row seat. Enroute to the park we stopped to buy flashlights at WalMart (which we knew from advance research we would need to navigate the lower unlighted lava tubes in the park). We took the soft-top down in the WalMart parking lot and were able to leave it down for most of the day. The drive to Hilo takes approximately 45 minutes. Admission to the park is $10 per car.

The Big Island of Hawaii is situated atop a “hot spot” that releases magma from the planet’s core through weak spots in the planet’s outer mantle. Kilauea volcano is 4000 feet high and ranks as the world’s largest currently active volcano. While in the park we drove around Crater rim drive and along the Chain of Craters Rd down to sea level by the Holei Sea Arch where the road was closed by lava flow. It was amazing to see the stream vents, craters and to hike into the huge lava tubes, guided by our flashlights. We spent the full day in the park. Rain began to threaten toward the end of our visit so we reassembled the soft top on our jeep to begin the return trip back to the ship.

In evening we had dinner reservations at 7 in the Lazy J Texas Restaurant. Prior to dinner we went to the Napa Wine Bar for happy hour (a selection of wine available at half price). Dinner in the Lazy J Texas Restaurant was well worth the upgrade fee. They offer a fine selection of choice beef cuts, including NY strip, t-bone and fillet mignon. For appetizers, we ordered HUGE jumbo shrimps, oysters Rockefeller (served in a bowl of coarse sea salt) and crabcakes, which were all excellent. The one miscue was the lobster bisque, which was a bit too thick and not very flavourful. The steaks came with a choices of sauces—we ordered poivre and béarnaise and both were excellent. We concluded our meal with cheesecake for dessert and cappuccinos. Service was uniformly excellent. Still not having acclimated fully to the time shift and having missed the performance in the Hollywood theatre we decided to retire early to prepare for our drive on the Road to Hana the next day in Maui