Into the hire car and time to navigate myself around Hawaii to Hilo. There's 2 main roads around Hawaii, so I decided if I took the north road to Hilo then I could take the south road on my return back to Kona. Stopped off a number of times on the way to see various sights including some petroglyphs (pictures carved into rocks). Also stopped off at Akaka falls where I went for a nice walk, and indulged in a scenic drive as I had some spare time.

Got up early to spend the day at the Volcanoes National Park. Started at the visitors centre and then drove all the way around the main crater. The lava flow evidence was fascinating and very impressive. It must be pretty frightening when it's flowing red hot. Drove to the end of the road taking me down to the coast and parked. The road used to connect but a recent lava flow in the Spring of 2003 means has stopped that and completely taken over the road for quite some distance.

Took the south road back towards Kailua. Stopped off at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, but sadly wasn't fortunate enough to see any turtles which are supposed to be living there. Also took a dodgy road to the south tip of the island just so that i could say I have been to the Southern most point in the United States!

Visited Kona Old Airport Beach park which was basically a car pack on the site of the old airport runway with access to the beach.

Time to return my hire car, leave Hawaii and catch my next inter-island flight to Maui.