Hawaii - The Big Island

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Day 1 - Friday, The arrival
After an 18 hr flight from London with a two hour break at LAX we arrived at Kona airport on the Big Island. As we came in to land all I could really see was lengths of black lava stone, it was like landing on the moon! As we came off the plane onto the tarmac the thick air wrapped around us instantly… this is always a tale tale sign that it’s holiday time.
Kona airport is like nothing I have ever clapped eyes on, it’s looks like a couple of huts with the luggage carousal all out in the open by the roadside. Our bags came out a little slowly but I think this was all to prepare us for the Hawaiian way of life, take things easy.
Our next stop was Alamo at the airport, these guys were not as friendly as everyone else we’d met so far, but they were quick and to be honest when it’s taken you 18hrs to get somewhere efficient is what you need. We then set off for our 311 apartment at Kona’s Magic Sands resort. It looked kind of basic from the outside but when we entered the apartment it was all decked out in island furniture, it was clean and the sound of the crashing waved beneath were awesome.
We decided to go and explore the famous Ali’I Drive street and get some food… We ended up in Bubba Gumps. I had the coconut shrimp which was really tasty - highly recommended. After Bubba’s it was time to get some sleep. One thing that did startle us was the amount of police cars in the area… more to the point the police cars look like private cars with a single cone shaped blue light on the roof! So, look out for these guys as I get the feeling it’s quite easy to get pulled over as the top speed seemed to be 15mph…

Day 2 - Saturday, Farmer’s market to Kayaking
As soon as we stepped out of the apartment what hit us straight away was the sweet scent of the island, it was a mixture of fruits, flowers and coffee… I have never smelt anything so delightful, as we moved around the island the scent stayed the same apart from getting more intense in the jungle areas. Enough of that for the time being; we decided to have breakfast at Lava Java on Ali’I Drive which was really good, we had breakfast there a lot and it was always consistently good.
After breakfast we took a walk down to the farmer’s market, it wasn’t very busy at all. Produce for sale included tropical fruit and flowers, and assorted island gifts. I ended up buying these hair ties from one stall sellers because he was soooo nice, I couldn’t not buy anything from him. Next stop was the KTA supermarket, there was so much fresh food on offer here, we decided to purchase groceries for us to make our own lunches. We went straight back to the apartment to make our lunch to take with us to Kealakekua Bay State Historical Park. The drive to Captain Cook was relatively easy, we parked up at the park and ventured out on the rocks to have our packed lunch, we went quite away from the other day trippers as we perched on the black rocks I suddenly had a sense that there was something moving around us, as I looked closer, all I could see all over the rocks around us were black crabs! This really startled me and woofed down the last bit of my sandwich and begged my boyfriend to finish his quickly so we could go to a less crab infested area… We ended up deciding to rent a kayak and to venture to Ka’awaloa Cove to snorkel around Captain Cook monument. On our way to the kayak rental at the park we happened across this spider , could anyone tell me what type of spider it is? I asked a local but they replied “it’s a spider”, when I laughed and said “yeah, but what type” they replied “yellow spider”.
I have to admit I was terrified of kayaking, I have never done anything like this before, I hate being in water that is deeper than my own height and I was concerned about seeing a shark… I know it’s stupid but I think everyone has a fleeting thought along this line when they’re in deep blue water. Anyway, after a slight panic I calmed down enough to spot some spinner dolphins making their way towards us - it was unbelievably exciting, they came right up to our kayak and one of them even kind of came out of the water, he looked like he was looking at me… I know this sounds daft but I looked at him and he looked at me from a side. After this I was not scared of anything at all, we got over to the cove and dived into the water for some snorkelling. We saw parrot fish, Moorish Idol, and lots of other pretty fish I can’t name, we also saw all kinds of coral that I’d never seen before. After a couple of hours we kayaked back to the bay in super kick time, it was a great work out. We got dried and headed off to Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historic Park , the drive there is a little desolate through lava fields. Can anyone tell me why there is a sprinkler system on most lava fields? Is this to cool it down? Once at the park we took lots of pictures of palm trees, and then spotted some green sea turtles, so whilst respecting their space we zoomed in with the camera and took a few snaps.
That evening we went to a local hangout Quinns for dinner. The food was good.

Day 3 - Sunday, Beach and Stargazing
Great day! Started off with the usual breakfast at Lava Java’s we then went to Old Kona Airport Recreation Park, the water was too rough for us to go in, in fact their was only one snorkeller out there. After an hour we then headed back to the apartment for a lunch on our lanai which over-looked White Sands beach. After lunch we had to change into our warm clothing as we were heading off to do some star gazing at the top of Mauna Kea. We did this tour with Paradise Safaris, they collected us from Buns in the Sun and then we drove all the way up to the visitor’s centre, this took about 1 and a half hours as the road is not great at all. At the centre I ended up buying a jumper as even though I had lots of layers and a ski jacket it on I could tell I was going to freeze as soon as the sun went down. We also stopped here to acclimatise for 40mins and had our dinner which the tour company provided - it was really nice food, great home-made brownies. We then continued our journey to the top of Mauna Kea where the international telescopes are. We watched an amazing sunset above the clouds and then went down to a private area to look at the night sky. We saw the space station being chased by the shuttle, a satellite, Jupiter and it’s 4 moons, they pointed our star constellations that we could look at through their powerful telescopes and we could also see the milky way so clearly. I’ve been to western Australia and have seen the milky way there but nothing prepared me for this view, it was awesome you could see so much of it. If I’m honest the cold got to me, so for anyone planning this make sure you wrap up as much as you can. After the telescopes we were given hot beverages and then it was down back to Kona. We got back around 11ish. We were very tired so we just went back to bed.

Day 4 - Monday, Big day
My boyfriend accidentally deleted all of the pictures we had taken so far whilst we were on top of Mauna Kea so I insited that after our usual Lava Java breakfast we went back to Captain Cook, and Pu’uhonua o Honaunau to take the pictures again, this was actually a good thing as this time we managed to stop at St Benedict’s Painted church along the way… I’m not deeply religious but what a wonderful church this is, do not miss this jem. After our backtrack we went to grab take away sandwiches from the Coffe Shack in Captain Cook , we ate these on the way to the Mac Pie factory where we pigged out on pie for desert. We then decided to head to Manini’owali , this beach I believe is said to be the most perfect crescent shaped beach on earth. Well it was certainly beautiful, fine white sand, and turquoise water, really picture perfect. There were a few locals here so I imagine it was a very good beach. The water was fine for a bit of a dunk but the current was quite strong. We soon packed up and headed off to Hapuna beach. Which everyone always raves about, we thought it was alright but no where near as nice as the lovely Manini’owali beach.
After we got enough rays we headed north to catch the Pololu Valley look-out before sunset… It was a great drive through small towns, pastures and winding roads, would really recommend this trip. Once we got there the view was stunning, we decided not to hike down because we didn’t want to get caught in the dark. So, after a few photos off we went to our final stop Waimea. The drive there was also equally stunning, there was hardly anyone else on the road so it really did feel special. The sunset on the way was beautiful, and we saw some stunning houses high on the hills.
Once in Waimea we had some trouble finding our bed and breakfast, Ahh The Views - we soon got some great directions from the ladies at the Chevron garage and made our way there. The bed and breakfast was awesome; we stayed in the sun room which shared a bathroom with the stream room. This I thought would be cool but in hind sight I think I will always opt for the private bathroom. Derek the owner was a fabulous host, his variety of breakfast goodies is just incredible. I will never forget his homemade cookies. The view from his terrace to the sugar cane fields billowing in the wind was quite a sight. The night we arrived we had dinner at Merriman’s which was great food and good service - but the restaurant was not busy, and the feel was a little formal. Being in Hawaii a few days now we had got used to the very laid back, friendly service so being served in a much more formal manner was quite a shock. I almost felt like we shouldn’t have been in there. But then food was really good I could have eaten there again!

Day 5 - Tuesday, The long drive
After a big day yesterday we had another one in front of us, so we got going straight after breakfast. Our first stop was the Kohala Forest Reserve, as we parked up and started to slap on the sunscreen we were met by a police officer who informed us that we would be trespassing if we carried on further and he would have no choice but to read us the riot act… Well, I was a little peeved off at this as my guide book advised that this walk was perfectly legal… So, we left rather quickly as I didn’t fancy getting arrested. We headed on through to Waipi’o Valley, I think we were a bit soft because we didn’t do the trek down although we did start to hike down but then thought better of it. We did get some stunning pictures though. We stopped off at this place called Tex drive In which is famous for its Masaladas , we got lunch and desert here, ate it in the sunshine and planned our next steps. Next Steps: reach Akaka Falls next, we found the walk through the tropical forest just as stunning as the falls itself. Next we headed to the Pepe’ekeo scenic drive but stopping off just before at What’s Shakin Smoothie hut for the best fruit smoothies I have ever ever had!! I also bought some nice flowers from here. After the scenic drive we headed to Hilo.
Hilo was much bigger than I expected it to be, the massive tree it is famous for was mind blowing. I loved all the natural remedy shops and supermarkets everyone here seemed to be really in tune with themselves. I did do a little bit of shopping, I purchased this great 20’s necklace from a shop called ………. If you go lookout for the lovely printed dressing gowns, just gorgeous. There was a really good internet place in Hilo we spent some time in, I think it was called Beach Dog or something like that. The guy there was very helpful.
We then decided to make our way to our next B&B which was, the Volcano Teapot cottage, not this place was not tricky to find because of the owner’s great directions! It is located just outside the Volcano park, and I must say out of all the places we stayed this had to be one of my favourites. You have the cottage all to yourself, it’s décor is so lovely, just like a cottage inside. The detail was outstanding, the cake Anoinette left for us was so tasty. We loved everything about this place, can’t fault it at all. Gleefully we were staying here for 2 nights, so we really settled in. The only thing I couldn’t work out is that the fridge was not restocked with breakfast and milk goodies after the first full day… So, on our second day we ran out of mile and didn’t have any bagels… I wasn’t sure if this was an oversight because everything else was so perfect.
The first night we went for dinner at Thai Thai just down the road, the food was really good.

Day 6 - Wednesday, Black beaches
After a lazy morning we headed to the gas station to fill up before going on to the Volcano National Park. I picked up some stunning postcards, one in particular caught my eye, it was a picture of a black sand beach called, Kaimu. I decided I definitely wanted to visit this beach. We headed off to the park first to find out about the lava flow and what it was doing, we had heard report that the lava flow was currently the most visible and active it had been for a while. This kinda scared the hell out of me because to be honest we’d watched a dvd this morning that showed the flow and how close you can get to it… it looked pretty fierce, and I didn’t fancy getting that close to it, but my boyfriend was really keen to go and check it out. Also I’d heard how tough the walk over the old lava field is and that it was at least a 4 hour one way trip to the actual flow. And by the time you come back it is pitch black… After having a chat with the ranger we decided that we would come back around 4 to do the crater rim road drive, check out Thurston lava tube and then head down the road that takes you to the lava field which we would then have to walk over the old lava field to the flow. As we had a few hours spare I managed to persuade him to drive to Kaimu beach. So glad we did that, at first we ended up going the wrong way as you literally come to a junction with no signs… The wrong way ended up taking us on a road that meandered around an amazing iron wood tree forest that hugged the coastline. Every now and again you would see a few cars parked up with no sight of it’s owners, I think they were all in the know of a trail that would take you to a great beach. If you come down this road check out the houses, they were so cool, some of them were hexagon shaped all made out of glass. What incredible views they must have. We turned back after a while and drove in the opposite direction to reach Kaimu beach… I was stunned when I arrived because at first it was nothing like the postcard, I soon learned that since the image on the postcard had been taken before the original Kaimu beach disappeared into the ocean and new lava flow devastating the area. We had to walk over a lava field to the new Kaimu beach, it was a realatively easy walk . Once near the shoreline we saw all the new coconut and palm trees that had been planted. We got to the beach before anyone else and it was incredible. I’d never seen a black sand beach like this before. The waves were crashing down on the shoreline, it was quite a sight. It soon started to rain quite heavily; it was still so warm though it was a nice mix! The rain cleared up quite clearly and it was back to the heat of the day. We could also see from this coast to where one of the lava flows enters the sea as we could see the smoke billowing on the coast.
We went to Pahoa to have lunch at Ninny’s, it a Thai cuisine restaurant and I must say it was the best Pad Thai I have ever eaten! Everyone who likes Thai food must eat there… but beware if you order it hot it will be very hot! After lunch we made our way back to our cottage to prepare for our volcano lava flow adventure. We took our torches and jumpers and drove on to crater rim road. The views of the cauldrons were awesome, worth stopping to see. I didn’t think a lot of Thurston’s Lava tube; I walked through it but could have missed that one. We soon got on to the road that takes you down as far as you can go until you have to get out and walk over the lava field. The walk over the lava field was if I’m honest good fun but pretty scary at the same time. There were lots of people with mixed lava walking abilities so it was a little frustrating when others would simple hop by you quickly. We got in between the first and the second marker and installed ourselves on top of a large bit of lava. I was really pleased we weren’t going to carry on to the actual flow as the walk was hard enough getting there in daylight let alone what it would have been like in the dark! I thought the view of the lava coming down the hill and into the water was so much better at dusk then when it went completely dark. The huge surprise of the evening was that I found it a lot easier to walk back over the lava field in the dark than in day light! I think it had something to do with not having as much choice of where to step because with your torch you really only had a limited path!. It’s so important that you remember your path from where the park’s illuminated stickers end as I heard a story of a guy getting lost there for a week! I have no idea how he did this as there are so many people around with torches… Having said that there were a lot of daft people there entering the lava field after dark with no trainers, no torch and I event saw two women and one man holding their babies in their arms, and they themselves didn’t have a torch or anything to help them guide their way. Couldn’t believe it.
We left the lava field at the right time as it started to really pour down with rain by the time we got into the car. The drive back was pretty quick and we were very happy to get back to the cottage.

Day 7 - Thursday, the end of the Big Island…
We woke up very early today as we were catching a flight to Maui, our Big Island adventure had coming to an end. We drove back to Kona to the airport, the road between the Volcano area and Kona had lots of twists and turns. I was so sad to leave the Big Island, I really didn’t expect to like it as much as I did.

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Photos

Spider
Anyone know what type of spider this is?

Green Turtle
Pu uhonua o Honaunau

Green Turtle
Pu uhonua o Honaunau

Green Turtle
Pu uhonua o Honaunau

Comments

[travelbuffs]

u made it!
I remember you checking out my Hawaii blog. Glad you made it too! Looks like you guys had a blast!

[fafa]

Hawaii
We had a fantastic time, thank you. I didn't want to leave, how lucky they are there to live amongst such beautiful scenery. Would love to return one day.