Day 2: Beach 69
The first morning of our vacation started on Beach 69. My mom and dad pitched up a tent for shelter from the burning sun. Then we had quite an adventure snorkeling to another beach, which was a quarter-mile away. As we swam in the temperate ocean water, we spotted diverse marine life. My favorite fish was a cool looking rainbow fish who was wandering cluelessly around the abundant corals. It took us about fifteen minutes to swim to the other beach. There were numerous rocks surrounding the beach. In fact, my mom got two cuts from scraping herself against the rough surface of the rocks. When we got back to our beach, it was time for lunch. We ate Sushi and drank Guava juice in our tent. For desert, we snacked on marshmallow with a mango jelly filling. Last but not least, I played with my boogie board. A nice older boy showed me one useful tip to help me catch the wave. I didn't like big waves because sometimes they almost drowned me. Overall, the whole family had an amazing time snorkeling, eating, and boogie boarding at the beach!
Day 3: The Rainforest & Volcano
The Akaka Fall
The rainforest on the Big Island was the most amazing place to visit. On the way to the volcano, we made a brief detour to see the Akaka fall, which is located in the heart of the exotic rainforest. As soon as we arrived, we all applied mosquito repellent to fend off the bloodthirsty legion of bugs. Then we purchased the $5 ticket to enter the park. It took less than five minutes to hike to the waterfall viewing area. This magnificent waterfall looked like the biggest and tallest water slide in the whole world. I wished I could slide down from the torrential rapids! I borrowed my dad's SLR camera to capture these special moments together. You know what they say... "A picture is worth a thousand words!" As we moved on to take a look at the rest of the park, I got a chomp on my right hand since my dad missed applying mosquito repellent on my hands. The vicious mosquitoes also buzzed around my head throughout my trek, but they didn't bite me because I was protected by the repellent. Overall, I highly recommend visiting this park to see this exotic waterfall!
Hawaiian Tropical Botanical Garden
After viewing the majestic Akaka Fall, we headed to the most wondrous Botanical Garden. There were so many diverse tropical plants. One of the most interesting plants was the multitude colorful varieties of ginger. Although ginger comes in red, orange, yellow, white, purple, etc., my most favorite was the Golden Beehive Ginger "Honeycomb". It looked so cool because it resembled a real beehive! Above the ubiquitous ginger plants, the red firecracker flowers hang from the trees that provided shade for all the undergrowths. When I saw these firecracker trees, I felt that they were real Chinese firecrackers waiting to be lighted and popped! My most favorite plant was the dwarf pineapple. The meaty part of the ripe fruit was approximately 2". It looked really cute with a big spiky head. In addition to plants, we saw many wildlife. There were a really noisy group of exotic parrots. I wish they could understand me so I could tell them to "shut up" and start singing a happy song instead! Last but not least, we saw a beautiful cascading waterfall. A b
lack-crowned night heron (’Auku’u) perched on the rock facing the waterfall. I could imagine that the bird was as enchanted as we were with the natural beauty of the waterfall. Again, it was another "a picture is worth a thousand words" moment. Seeing all the diverse wildlife, the exotic plants and trees, and the cascading waterfalls make the amazing Botanical Garden special!
Our final was the awe inspiring volcano, or as they called it in Hawaii,
"Pele's Fire".
Day 4: Place of Refuge
We had a wonderful time touring the Place of Refuge.
Day 5: My Birthday on a Horse!
