Highs and Lows of Hilo

Steve and I had dreams of travel problems in the night so while I was showering this morning, he checked our bookings for Honolulu. Our hotel was booked for the 3 April instead of 3 March.
After some scurrying around and scouring booking.com, we found somewhere to stay that is cheaper and looks nicer than the original accommodation – result!
We decided to stay reasonably local today so wandered into Hilo.
Hilo is the capital of Big Island. It’s very small for a capital, more like a medium to large town in the UK. The high street is very quaint, all low rise and nice little arty shops.
Hilo has a hippy, laid back vibe. There is a Japanese park next to a small island linked by a bridge, where people run, do tai chi, feed the birds etc. It’s lovely.
The low point is the homeless issue. Driving through Hilo, you don’t really notice it. Walking you do. There are your usual drunks and druggies but there are also people who seem harder to categorise. People with rucksacks who walk purposefully but then you see them again and again, they’re not going anywhere.
One young Hawaiian woman particularly stood out. She was standing on the grass by the road with a small red rucksack, looking as though she had just stopped for a moment.
When we drove past several hours later on our way to see a waterfall she was still there on her own. All her stuff in one tiny rucksack.
The akaka waterfall is about half an hour’s drive outside of Hilo. Drizzle had set in so it was a bit of a grey old scene that met us. The waterfall drops dramatically through thick rain forest. The jungle here is pretty much impenetrable. The only way to see it properly is via a helicopter. Well done Hawaii for keeping it untouched.
Our last evening on Big Island was a busy one involving more accommodation booking and rearranging as another impromptu checking of flight details revealed that we actually arrive in Oz on Sunday and not Saturday as we thought. Oops! In our defence, it’s very confusing with all the time zone changes, but I do think senility is setting in!
Thank goodness we took heed of our dreams.