22ND - 26TH JUNE

We left the Volcano National Park feeling like we'd really see some wonderful things, it made up totally for the fairly dull week we'd spent at Arnott's boot camp. Our plan was to spend the remaining four days at camp sites on the coast and see some of the Big Island scenery we'd been treated to from the plane on the way in. Once again the Hawaiian way of doing things was annoying, we had to go back to Hilo to the State Park office (or the County Park office depending on what kind of park we wanted to stay at), and book the campsites which we wanted to stay at, paying in advance without knowing what they were like!! It turns out that all the State Parks we were interested in were closed for renovations!! Apparently there was some new law which forced them to upgrade their toilet facilities to make them disabled accessible - a great idea, but why do them all at once?? So we settled for County parks and we were advised that the one we had chosen was inhabited by local youths who

would hassle us, and the police would take too long to come to sort it out!!! Hmmm - not a great start! However, with a little perseverance we managed to agree on Laupahoehoe for two nights, and Kapa'a for two. Laupahoehoe was not so far from Hilo, so when we finally set off we decided to visit 'Akaka falls, one of many really tall waterfalls hidden in a lush green steep sided valley on the East coast of the big Island, and a beautiful setting! Things were starting to look up, and on the way back we found a roadside fruit stall and bought some delicious local fruit.

Laupahoehoe was approached down a long, winding track, and was quite a surprise to us all - set at the bottom of another valley literally right next to the Ocean our luck was definitely in!! The place was deserted except for one more tent, which turned out to be inhabited by some nutter that Paddy and Jill had bumped into on a