COVER STORY
The terrain can CHANGE RAPIDLY, from thick rainforest to low shrublands and then a stunning, DESOLATE LAVASCAPE.
boutique shopping and the self-guided Lahaina Historic Trail, highlighting 62 key sites. Whale-watching in winter is exceptional.
Situated on the east of THE BIG Island Legend
With all those travel-sized chunks of lava laying around, you may be tempted to pick up a free souvenir, but bear this in mind: the Goddess Pele does NOT take kindly to having her land removed. Those who ignore this legend will
endure bad luck until her sacred ground is returned. In fact, mailing lava back is so common, there is a special department just to deal with all the ‘unlucky’ packages!
ISLAND, Hilo’s standout experience is undeniably Volcanoes National Park, home of active Kilauea, erupting since 1983. Where Haleakala excels in lunar land- scape, Kilauea is real beginning-of-the- world stuff. Start at the Jaggar Museum atop the East Rift Zone, overlooking the summit caldera, currently spewing sulphurous steam miles into the air as she vents like a restless woman bored with her daily routine. Small steam vents dot the volatile
terrain on the way to Thurston Lava Tube, a walk-through channel that once moved molten lava from the rift zone toward the sea. On the way back to the ship, showy Rainbow Falls and the Akatsuka Orchid Gardens, with the chance to purchase a vast array of cuttings to plant at home, are worthwhile diversions. Kailua-Kona’s precipitous shoreline, on the west of the Big Island, reaches up toward Mauna Kea volcano, inactive but no less imposing. But Kona ultimately
26 WORLD OF CRUISING I Winter 2012-13
means coffee, and there are plenty of outlets for stocking up.
insist that’s about 40 cents a cup, com- pared to more than $5 for inferior Starbucks java. Peaberry beans, the round “cherry” without the coffee bean’s characteristic centre split, are especially prized.
W
Slightly more pedestrian and far more common are 10 per cent Kona blends, still surprisingly rich and smooth. And what would a good cup of coffee be without a little sweet to go with it? Big Island Candies hand-crafts fine chocolates in appealing varieties such as macadamia nut, potato chip, and Hawaiian Crunchies. Hawaii’s personality turns lush on the garden island of KAUAI, earning its title through the extreme beauty and stark contrasts of 3,600ft deep Waimea Canyon, the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific.” Deep gorges and craggy buttes give way to verdant valleys fed by cascading Waipo’o Falls and Kokee Stream, where the binoculars you brought from home will be well worth the
hile 100 per cent Kona bean will set you back more than $30 per pound, local guides
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