Excerpt from www.mauinews.com
The seventh annual Tsunami Talk Story Festival will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. April 5 at Sangha Hall in downtown Hilo and includes dinner and talks by people who lived through the tsunamis, which inundated Hilo in 1946, 1960 and 1975. Visit www.tsunami.org.
Of course, one of the biggest annual events in Hilo is the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival April 12 to 18. The weeklong event includes exhibitions, live music, arts and crafts fairs and kahiko (ancient) and ‘auana (modern) hula competitions. It is mostly free, except for the hula shows.
Hawaiiana Live will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesdays in April at the Palace Theatre in Hilo with storytelling, film, music and hula. Cost is adults $5, and children free.
Other popular attractions are the Mokupapapa Discovery Center featuring a saltwater aquarium; and the Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens with Namaste, a white Bengal tiger. It gets fed daily at 3:30 p.m. and it’s a sight to behold. The children’s petting zoo is open Saturdays and botanical gardens abound.
Hike
with an expert guide in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, in the rain
forests, deep in remote valleys, and explore hidden waterfalls
Enjoy
a picturesque Hawaiian horseback ride through the Valley of the
Kings, a lush tropical paradise of jungle trails, waterfalls, and spiritual sites.
