Tales of the South Pacific - Hilo, Hawaii (The Big Island)

 Cruise Day 13

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Today is our last stop in Hawaii and we are in Hilo on east side of The Big Island.  We had nothing planned for the morning, so we slept in and took it easy until around eleven when we decided to go into Hilo.

Our last stop in Hawaii is Hilo on the east coast of the Big Island.

Our plan was to take a taxi into Hilo and visit the large Farmer’s Market they have there, but as we walked out of the terminal a person at the information desk said there was a free shuttle ready to leave so she walked us out and we were on our way to the Farmer’s Market.

This is a map of the Hilo area.  Our ship is docked off to the left with the Hilo Farmer's Market in the center, and OK Farms outside of town on the left.

The Hilo Farmer’s Market was huge with one area of fruits, vegetables, coffees, teas and many other edibles.  The other side was full of craft articles, clothing, jewelry and souvenirs.  We walked around for a while checking things out and Val found a small shoulder bag to use when she didn’t want to carry her big bag.  I bought some banana nut bread that looked very good.

 

Right next to the Farmer’s Market was the Kula Shave Ice stand that we were told was the best Shave Ice in Hilo.  In case you’re wondering, I am not misspelling it, we were told many times by the locals that it is shave ice, not shaved ice.  Rather than try to explain it, here is a description of what shave ice is: “Hawaiian shave ice is a fluffy, snow-like dessert made by shaving a block of ice into fine flakes, which are then soaked in sweet, colorful syrups, often flavored with tropical fruits like pineapple, mango, and guava.”

Val and I shared a small Rainbow Shave Ice that had a mix of syrups and fruits and was topped by homemade coconut whipped cream.  It was delicious, but we were glad we got a small one as that was almost too much for both of us.

When we got up this morning, we went out on our balcony and the sun was shining directly on us and it was hot, so we thought we were in for a very hot day, but it turned out to be pretty pleasant.  As we wandered around the Farmer’s Market it was warm, but certainly not too bad, especially in the shade, and there was a breeze that was cooling.

Val had found a local farm called OK Farms that gave tours, so she had signed us up for that.  It was at 2:00 and we finished up our shave ice just after noon, so we had quite a bit of time to kill.  We looked for a bench in a nearby park to relax for a while.  Unfortunately, there weren’t many empty ones in the shade so we walked over to the nearby bus station and found a place to sit.  The bus station was also where the taxis were available, so at least we were in the right spot.

After sitting for a while we thought, why wait here in town, let’s just get a taxi out to OK Farms where the tour started and wait there.  We quickly found a taxi and were on our way.  When we arrived, no one was around so we found ourselves a nice bench in the shade with a wonderfully cool breeze and sat down to wait.

This was a working farm, but it was Saturday, and everything was closed so we were all by ourselves.  After a while, the owner drove up in his truck to unload some boxes and we talked to him for a bit, and he told us someone would be here soon to get ready for the afternoon tour and then he left.  As I said, it was a nice spot to wait out in the country, so we didn’t mind at all, it was much better than sitting at the bus station.

Finally, at 1:30 a lady named Rose, who would be our guide, arrived and started loading supplies into the van we’d be riding in for the tour.  Other people on the tour started trickling in and it was almost time to get started, but several people had gotten lost trying to find the farm, so we left a little late.

There were twelve of us on the tour, but we fit comfortably in the van.  The OK Farm is 1000 acres, but only about 350 acres were actually being farmed.  They have macadamia nut trees, but their main crops are coffee and fruits.  They also have spices and some other things as it is very diversified.  As I said yesterday, the farm doesn’t look like a typical farm with neatly laid out fields, it’s more kind of helter skelter, but in this tropical climate that seems to work best.

As we drove, Rose described what they grew and pointed out various types of trees and plants stopping at several places to get a closer look.  We stopped by a waterfall where there was a pavilion looking out overlooking it.  We drove on to another waterfall called Rainbow Falls that also had a pavilion and Rose set out a picnic of nuts and fruits for us.  We learned how to crack macadamia nuts with a special nutcracker that would supply the 300 pounds of pressure it took to crack the hard shell of a macadamia nut.  They were freshly picked and dehydrated nuts and were very good.

We're off on our tour.

Looking down into Hilo.  You can see our ship docked off in the distance.

Another waterfall, here we were served a delicious snack of macadamia nuts and various fruits.

Cracking macadamia nuts.  You needed a special nut cracker as it took 300 pounds of pressure to get through the outer shell.

She also served fresh star fruit, rambutan, logan, finger lime, lemon drop mangosteen and some others I don't remember the name of.  All in all, it was delicious, and we all enjoyed our picnic.  From there we were supposed to view some cacao plants that chocolate comes from, but the gate was locked since it was Saturday.  Val and I had already seen these plants in Ghana, so we didn’t really mind.  Next, we did a short hike where Rose pointed out some of the spices that were grown on the farm and gave us leaves to see if we could identify them by their smell.

We took a short hike to see some of the spices that were grown on the farm. 

Cloves

That was the end of the tour, and we were running late because of the people arriving late.  Val and I were concerned because we had made arrangements with the cab driver to pick us up at 3:30 and it was already 3:45, but I gave him a call and he said it wasn’t a problem, and he would wait.

It took only a few minutes to get back to the farm building and we were relieved to see our taxi sitting there waiting for us.  It took about 20 to 30 minutes to get back to the ship, and we were back in our room by 4:30.

We loved our tour on OK Farms and had a great time.  Kudos to Val for finding it as it appears it is not really well known; even though it wasn’t too far from downtown Hilo, our cab driver didn’t even know where it was, and we had to give him the address.

Val and I got cleaned up and then watched our sail away from Hilo out on our balcony as it was another beautiful, balmy evening.  It was dinner as usual, and the casino was open again so that’s where we headed after dinner.  I did surprisingly well and left with more money than I came with, but Val had a terrible night.

We sail away from Hilo.

Five of the next days will be sea days so we’ll have some time to recharge our batteries.  We have spent six straight days in port in Hawaii, so some relaxing sea days are certainly welcome.