Blogs from Big Island, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 9

And off we went.. Bit of a strange start to the morning as we learned the day previous that Taj had been elected sports captain for the following year - this meant that there was no way we were heading to the airport without first heading to school to the morning assembly to see Taj jump onto the stage and be announced.. Words cannot describe how proud I am of this little man, he struggles with sport having a muscle disease but he does what he can and has a go.. Proud is an understatement.. Then we were very quickly off to the airport - the boys singing the beach boys "Hawaii, Hawaii, let's go to Hawaii" along the way.. From Newcastle Airport we flew to Brisbane via Qantas.. I'm not a lover of these small ... read more

The Plan We've visited the island of Oahu many times, but never any other Hawaiian island. So last year when I got a call from Hilton Vacations offering six nights at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Kailua-Kona coast of the Big Island for a very low price we decided to take the deal. The resort is situated on the northwestern side of the island. We planned four day trips to see every part of the island, with the days for each trip depending upon the weather: - a short day to Kailua-Kona and surrounding area. - a short day to the Kawaihae Coast (northwestern side), as far as Hawi and the Polulu Valley Overlook, and then inland to Waimea and ranch country; - a medium length day along the Kona Coast (southwestern side) to the ... read more

One of the things I didn't know about Hawai'i is that it's actually made up of 6 main islands… and lots of little ones. Our first task, back before we left home, was to decide which two of these to visit – tricky! We eventually decided on The Big Island (actually called Hawaii) and Maui. According to my faithful guide book, The Big Island really shines for the adventurous traveller, which sounded like fun - so here we are. We also decided on Maui as it seemed to have a bit of everything – and that’s where we’re heading later on today! Another thing I didn’t know - and no amount of reading of guide books could have prepared me for this – was just how stunning Hawaii would be. This island has pretty much every ... read more

We arrived in Hilo today and when I looked out the window and saw only an industrial port, I won’t lie - I was disappointed, not to mention there were no hula dancers and where was my flower lei? Surely paradise was beyond the port… I admit we didn’t see the entire island. We headed for Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park passing Walmart, chain restaurants and car dealerships along the way until we finally reached lava land. While it is an intriguing landscape, it is not the prettiest. Still we enjoyed hiking around the huge crater and having a picnic with our group. Our guide was really terrific with explaining all things geological and the plant life. He took us to view a few waterfalls as well which were really very nice. At the end of the ... read more

Day 20 – Jan. 30, 2015 – Port of call: Kona, HI on the Island of Hawai’i – Weather forecast: partly cloudy – temperature: 75°F/24°C – actual: 84°F/29°C and sunny down at sea level but later in the morning up on the mountain the clouds descended on the peak Today we were required to use the tenders once again as there is no deep-water pier for docking on this side of the big island. Once ashore we met up with our drivers and the two twelve passenger vans that we would be using on our four-hour shore excursion entitled: Kona Coffee, Gold Coast & Cloud Forest Adventure. The official description stated that on the slopes of Hulalalai Volcano we would enjoy a 1¾-hour walk through a 70-acre tropical cloud forest sanctuary. Then enjoy a tour of ... read more