Author: Tonia

We spent our last morning on the Big Island at the beach.  We chose a beach by the Natural Energy Lab in Kona.  This place was built in the 1970s at the time of the energy crisis and was hoping to harness power in the difference between the water temperatures at the surface and deeper below.  That didn’t turn out to be viable, but now there are large solar panels in place and the once water tubes are being used to raise abalone for commercial purposes.  The road allows access to this beach which has several tide pools created by the lava and a bounty of crashing waves.  The beach didn’t feel crowded, but definitely was being used by more locals than tourists.  When locals go to the beach, they come for the whole day, bringing grills, tents, large coolers…looks like a family bbq! In fact, one guidebook suggested tourists stay away from one beach on the weekends becuase it was very treasured by locals and you would definitely get the stink eye for crashing their weekend at the beach!

We got lots of sun and lots of pictures of waves this morning!

The rest of the day was spent souvenir shopping and getting ready for our flight out to Honolulu.  Dinner was a repeat at Kona Brewing Company, really the only place in Kona we would eat at twice.  I had the lasagna (the noodles were cooked in one of their brews) and Dan had another pizza.  Both good and delicious!

We spent a day on the Hilo side of the island, visiting waterfalls and the Mauna Loa nut factory/farm.  Hilo is much wetter than the Kona side of the island and there the rivers and streams flow straight to the ocean.  While on our helicopter ride, we saw so many small falls leading to the cliffs and cascading off into the ocean.  These are in the Waipio Valley, which one can drive down into, but it has a 25% grade!  So we stayed on the main road, from which you pass several small (maybe 10-20 foot) waterfalls.  There are no pull offs to take pictures of these pretty views either!

We got an early start because Rainbow Falls is named as such because of its propensity to create rainbows with the morning sun. Well, there was no morning sun this day.  Oh well, no rainbows for me, but the falls were still very nice.  Legend has it that King Kamehameha buried the bones of his father in the cave behind this fall.  From here we drove to Boiling Pots, a place further up this stream where, when the water is flowing strongly enough, bowls in the rocks look like boiling pots.  It must not have been rainy enough this week because the pots were barely at a simmer!  As you continue up this road, there is another fall to stop and take in right beside the road.  This one had pull offs.

Lunch was worth a mention. It was hard to find really good food on the Big Island.  Either the food was middle of the road or it was a chain.  We did give in one night and eat at Outback just because we knew what food we would be getting.  It was one of the better meals sad to say…Anyways, Cafe Pesto is an Italian restaurant in downtown Hilo and in an old building with a lot of character.  We had really delicious, thin crust pizza there. I had a mixed green salad there with a garlic herb vinaigrette that was yummy too.  I would recommend that restaurant. 

Then we headed to the Mauna Loa  macadamia nut farm and factory.  I know we can buy Mauna Loa nuts here, but this is where they grown them and produce them.  Fresh from the factory is never a bad thing!  The factory tour is self-guided.  But we got to see them make both flavored and chocolate covered products.  We shopped in the store and had the chocolates sent home. Good thing too becuase the small can we brought home melted during our day in Honolulu and didn’t reconstitute themselves very well.

After this excursion we visited ‘Akaka Falls State Park, which is home to a large waterfall and smaller cascade.  The drive to the park is through an old sugar plantation. The open fields still have sugar cane growing in them, just no one there to harvest it.  ‘Akaka Falls is visible from the parking lot, but it is only fully seen from the trail and its lookout.  The walk was nice and through a bamboo forest with lush vegetation. Many of these plants were Jurassic Park sized!  They grow awfully large ferns in Hawaii…’Akaka Falls is a 442 foot fall with several whispy side falls.  Well worth the sweaty walk through the jungle!  On your way back you see Kahuna Falls, which is actually a cascade, but the stream there at the fall was framed with vegetation and cool. 

After this waterfall, we went back into Hilo for some souvenir shopping. Dan picked up a ukulele amongst our purchases.  Then we had shave ice at Wilson’s by the Bay. A place you wouldn’t expect shave ice, but has recommended as being the best in Hilo.  So, we had to try it.  It was good, but the setting was odd — old bottles (not for sale), surfing t-shirts, some jewelry, odds and ends (some for sale and some not).  I thought their flavors were good. 

On our way back to Kona (2 hour drive from Kona to Hilo), we stopped at Laupahoehoe Point. This is where the tsunami of 1946 hit and wiped out a school.  A total of 156 died in this tsunami.  After the devestation, much of the town, but in particular the schools, were built topside to keep this from happening again.  The village was built right by the ocean at the base of a cliff.  A few homes are still down there, but the point was turned into a park.  At this point, we had run out of daylight to continue sight seeing, so we headed back to Kona.

We stopped in Waimea (not the same Waimea town on Kauai) on our way back for dinner.  While highly recommended in our guidebook, this is a very local place.  However, the service was friendly and the food was fabulous.  We both got the BBQ.  People in Hawaii can make brisket. What I had was delicious and Dan had the sample, which had brisket, pulled pork, and Portuguese sausage.  Huge portions and yummy!  Huli Sue’s sells Tropical Dreams ice cream and makes fantastic pies.  Tropical Dreams ice cream is made in Hawaii and has a higher fat content than most ice creams.  They only had chocolate, but that is all they needed!  I do believe that was the best chocolate ice cream I have ever had. So good. Diana, if it hadn’t been 2 am,  I would have called you!   Dan had the banana pie, which was so good with the chocolate ice cream. 

Another long day on the Big Island, but so much fun!

As eluded to in an earlier post, we visit a black sand beach, which is made of crushed lava.  I think we experienced lava from beginning to end while on the Big Island.  This beach was easily accessible (unlike the green sand beach…) and tour buses often made stops by while we were there.  People would flow off the bus and take a few snap shots of the beach and the turtles and then be herded back on the bus.  I am guessing they were on their way to Volcanoes National Park, so the beach was just a side trip.  But for us it was the whole day! 

We saw at least 6 sea turtles sun bathing and eating amongst the lava rocks on the shore.  Four turtles were taking very long naps in the sun and the tourists did not bother them at all.  On occasion one would open its eyes or move around a bit. The other two stayed in the shallow water eating away at the sea grass growing on the rocks. Dan has some video of one eating and he got some good stills of the turtles.  I love sea turtles. Did you all see Nemo?  I couldn’t help but say “Dude” every time I saw one!  These turtles were not a big as the ones we saw in Kauai, but they were much more visible. 

The black sand beach was wonderful. It was palm tree lined and the ocean was so blue and green.  Very beautiful and nothing like we’ve ever seen before. We picnicked at the beach and spent most of the day there, relaxing under the palm trees, keeping one eye on the ocean and one eye on the coconuts above our heads! 

On our way back to Kona, we stopped at Pu’uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, also known as the Place of Refuge.  In ancient Hawaii, laws were referred to as Kapu.  When there was a kapu on something, the penalty was death. If it was a serious enough offense, not only were you killed, but so was your family.  Even today, you can still see remnants of kapu, as many no trespassing signs incorporated the word on the signage.  So, basically death to those who do it.  There was a way to escape death, however. If you could reach the Place of Refuge before your chasers, then all was forgiven.  The setting was peacefully and a felt like a refuge. We saw and heard lots of birds here and saw schools of little silver fish racing to shore, leaping in and out of the water all in unison! Shortly behind them?  A big sea bird!  The sunset was beautiful from here as well.

Wednesday we headed out to Volcanoes National Park. We got there before the big crowds starting coming in, which was nice.  We toured the visitor center, got our park passport stamped, and did some gift shop shopping.  Then we headed out to start driving Crater Rim Road.  This road allows you to drive around the caldera, which is a big crater and sends lots of steam into the air.  The steam is caused by rain from the surface hitting the hot lava under the surface, releasing steam. 

We hiked to the sulphur banks.  Here you see where the steam has a large amount of acid, minerals, and sulphur in it, causing the rocks to turn a bright yellow/green color.  While it may look like eggs, it doesn’t smell like eggs.  There are signs everywhere in the park telling you that volcanic fumes can be hazardous to your health, basically telling everyone but healthy white males they shouldn’t proceed!  I ignored it and continued on anyways….However, part of Crater Rim Road has been closed for a while because the amount of fumes being emitted from the caldera makes that area way too harmful for visitors. 

Walking to the caldera overlook, we saw a field of orchids. I couldn’t believe that orchids were growing like wild flowers on the side of a volcano!  I don’t think anyone else took the time to notice the beautiful flowers either.

You could approach steam vents nearby and you could feel the warmth coming up from the earth crack.  There was a lot of steam this day because it rained off and on the whole time we were in the park, making for a cool, grey day around the volcano. 

We then descended down Chain of Craters Road to the Holei Sea Arch. Along the way we took a few detours, including a stroll through a lava tube.  A lava tube is left after a flow of lava travels down the mountain and then the molten lava inside drains out, leaving the shell of a tube (like a cave).  We brought our flashlights so we could travel to the end of the tube. The park has some of the tube lit and then a portion has been left as is, allowing visitors to continue on if they came prepared!  So we went another 334 meters into the tube to its very end.  Several times we didn’t think it could go on any further and then we found our way around.  I have to say this was a very cool experience.  At the end we turned out our lights to see how really dark it was.  Pitch black doesn’t even begin to describe it!

Back out of the tube and onto the road, we stopped at a view lookouts and drove through lots of old lava flows.  After 20 miles, we finally made it to the sea.  Here we stopped to see the sea arch. This naturally occuring arch in the cliff was caused by erosion from the waves.  Very awesome because the arch is right there, not off in the distance to view.

We walked about another mile or so down a paved 2-lane road, which had been closed. The reason?  Lava flowed over the road a few years ago!  Not far from here you could see where the new lava flows were happening.  The steam clouds rolling off the coast line are enough to make a sunny day grey. 

Heading back out of the park we made our way to where the new lava is flowing.  The county has the road blocked off (because lava is flowing over a portion of the road, so the road ends anyways) and you can park nearby and walk to a viewing area.  While we were not able to get to the area where the lava was ground level, we could view the lava pouring into the sea.  This may be the coolest thing I have ever seen.  Actually seeing new land being formed in front of my eyes.  The darker it got, the more orange and red the clouds became.  Very awesome that the earth has this power to create anew. 

Oh, I forgot to mention you also needed flashlights for this adventure too.  To get to the viewing area, you had to walk about 20 minutes on lava flow. Not the easiest thing to do, particularly in the dark!  Someone twisted their ankle on the way out in front of us.  I don’t know how some people did it in flip flops!

There was so much wonderful stuff about this day. I’m sure I haven’t captured it all, but being able to experience the volcano from so many perspectives has been incredible.

On Tuesday morning we boarded the Atlantis Submarine for a diving adventure into the sea!  Since I can’t swim and therefore snorkeling is out of the question for me, we sat in a climate controlled submarine and went to a depth of 150 feet! 

This was a very cool experience. We were tendered out to the submarine and had to climb down the hatch from the top of the sub.  Once inside the submarine has large porthole windows for viewing sea life.  Just hovering at the surface we saw several types of fish.  Then they closed up the hatch and down we went!  We saw many types of fish, lots of coral, which looks completely boring in our pictures. But coral is very colorful if light could reach it. 

There were two shipwrecks to cruise by, which are providing homes to many schools of fish and star fish.  We even saw a sand shark sleeping by one of them!  They are one of hte only types of sharks that have a bladder that allows htem to stay submerged. Other sharks must keep swimming (everyone sing along — just keep swimming, just keep swimming…).  We saw Dory fish as well on our tour of the ocean.  No dolphins or whales, but lots of fish, and it is the closest I can come to scuba diving or snorkeling so I loved it!

We’ve had a few 4WD adventures while in Hawaii.  The first was a drive down to a beach here in Kona. The road was cut through a lava flow.  We weren’t sure how the cars were making it down there, but some where there when we got to the parking. The beach was very nice and quiet. It was a different type of beach than we had seen before.  The sand was course and chunky, consisting of lava and coral.  I found large pieces of washed up coral in the sand and some still looked like coral instead of white rock.  We watched the sun set and then headed back out since there is no lighting along the lava road….On the way out, we were stunned to see two girls on a scooter heading OUT of the park! Not sure how they  managed the big holes and dips!

Today we ventured down a paved one lane road toward the southern most point in the US — South Point, Hawaii.  Along this drive we saw lots of cattle and horses. Acres and acres of farm land.  Then in the middle of it all were two wind farms — one in disrepair (which looked very sad) and another in working order.  South Point is very windy, which makes all the trees bend in one direction, so an ideal place for a wind farm! 

A short detour off the road led us to Broken Road.  It is aptly named.  The road is broken and fell into the sea!  But the views from the end of the road were amazing!  The ocean was such an intense blue and green and you could see the cliffs along the shoreline.  Stunning!

Back on the one lane road and eventually it ended and turned into a dirt road. Generally the dirt roads are well marked, but this was a maze of intercrossing dirt paths that was supposed to lead us to a green sand beach after 2.25 miles.  After the first .25 miles, I couldn’t take it anymore!  It was almost impossible to know which path to take and which one was going to lead down into a 3 foot hole or up a steeply angled path to the more level area.  So we headed back out. Good thing because then we found the black sand beach….

On Sunday morning we got up early to take our 2 hour tour of the island with Blue Hawaii. It was amazing! The stark contrast of the two sides and then the volcano! Just amazing. Our pilot was informative and entertaining.

We saw the lava flow from above and could some orange glow. Bob gave us great views! We flew by Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa which have been inactive for a while. He liked to point out Hawaii is overdo for some major activity from these volcanoes!

We also saw breathtaking waterfalls. Must have flown by 50 small falls to get to the Waipio Valley where we saw several 1000+ foot falls!

So worth the air sickness. And I tried crystallized ginger and it didn’t help!

Pics to follow shortly!

We arrived in Kona about mid-day on Saturday. After spending a week on the Garden Isle of Kauai this landscape was quite the contrast. While we could see beaches and blue water, most of the land was brown or black and desolate. They get very little rain here so it is not lush like the East Side or Kauai. Still the landscape is spectacular.

We checked in to Kona by the Sea, which is more like a hotel than private residence but is nice and has its own private beach area (small but not crowded).

Got groceries, had shave ice, and then watched the sunset. Hawaiian Ice Cones here in Kona is great! This place chills the syrup which makes for a very cool treat!

For dinner we ate at Kona Brewing Company. The pizza was good. The location is way off the main road but that was ok.

Alii drive where we are staying is the equivalent of the Vegas strip with lots of hotel/resorts, touristy stores, and any activity you would like to book. Very busy on the weekends!