The Big Island, boy was I excited to have my feet back on Hawaiian ground. So excited that I nearly left my luggage at the airport till Joshua said something. This may also be because the airport is not like any I had been to before. It is an outside airport. All terminals, waiting areas and baggage claim are all outside. After picking up our checked bags we were off to get our rental car. I was planing on just getting a small car but Joshua talked me into a Jeep. And I was very happy I did. I'll explain later!
We stayed at the beautiful Marriott Resort and Spa. The hotel is situated near shopping, golf courses, petroglyphs and other resorts and is right on Anaehoomalu Bay or A Bay if you cannot pronounce it. The water is calm here so it is great for all ocean activities except surfing. I met my now friend Jason while hanging out at the pool at our hotel. Even though he lives far away we still keep in touch.
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| Joshua kayaking in A Bay |
Through out our trip we spent time checking out different beaches. The big Island is well big and spread out and you have to drive to many beaches. It does not have the beach access like the other islands due to volcanic rock. Here is a picture from the plane.
Probably one of Joshua's favorite beaches was Kua Bay Beach. It was busy but had a lot of great waves for him to jump around in and use his boogie board. Hapuna beach was another favorite. It was large and not crowded.
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Kua Bay Beach
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Haupuna Beach
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Haupuna Beach
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We spent two days SCUBA diving with Jacks Diving Locker in Kona. We decided we were going to get our advanced open water diving certification since we did not want to have the class back home where the water is cold. Plus we booked a night dive which was needed for our certification. The first day of diving was beautiful. As we stopped at our first dive site we could see a manta ray about 100 feet on the bottom of the ocean. We all started jumping in the water after getting our gear on and seriously on the first dive my camera floods. Ugh! I hand it back to one of the guys on the boat and off I go exploring and seeing such a beautiful underworld. Yes I was upset my camera was a goner but mainly because I could not capture the beauty I was seeing. After getting back to shore I found a camera store in Kona and new housing and purchased it for the next day.
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| Dolphins swimming along the boat |
The second day was a long day. We did four dives with our last one being the night dive with the manta rays. Now this was already way cool but what made it better is that the world famous manta ray researcher who works for Jacks Diving Locker was on our boat with his daughter diving with us. He made us a great video from our dive for us to keep as well! Keller Laros knows all those manta rays by name he studies them so much. He is the man who saved the dolphin from fishing line a few years back. Dolphin Rescue Another great part of going out on the boats is seeing the whales. It is kinda like a two for one whale watching tour!
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| Joshua suited up for the dive! |
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| Manta ray dive |
Like I said earlier, I was so happy we rented a Jeep. To get to some beaches you had to drive on some very unmaintained roads. There was a beach with black sand and underground lava tubes for swimming called the Queens bath's that I wanted to see. It is not unusual to find wild goats roaming around Hawaii and the road to this beach was no exception.
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| Goats roaming freely |
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| Queens Bath, a lava tube near Kiholo Bay |
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| Watch your step. I almost did not see this cutie. |
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| Joshua found a dead puffer fish |
But the road to get here was nothing like the road to Green Sand Beach! Before getting to the beach we stopped at one of the two places called the southern most point in the US. The other is off Florida. The road to Green Sand beach is extremely unmaintained and a few times I thought our jeep was going to flip over. The beach is green as implied but does not show up well in pictures.
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| South Point |
When walking in the area above you must watch your step because there are craters or lave tubes in the ground made from the volcano.
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| Green Sand Beach |
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| Our trusty Jeep |
Our next big attraction is something I was very excited about. I was hoping that when I came to the Big Island I would time it with the lava flow in hopes of actually seeing it. Well it must have been my lucky day!! First we went to the park area where you can walk round and there is a little museum. And the amazing caldera. It was emitting gas and was huge. We walked through lava tunnels and explored the area. But we left after a few hours and drove down to an area where lava had been flowing and destroyed neighborhoods in the last few years. I happened to see a guy with a sign for a sunset hiking tour out over the lava fields. I did not want to spend the money but I thought about it and realized I was there and I did not want to miss out on an opportunity. So we signed up and off we went. We met the three other people from our group, one being Dan who I am still friends with to this day. I cannot tell you how amazing this hiking tour was. The lava was just flowing and flowing and was so mesmerizing to watch. We poked it with sticks and it would make a loud noise releasing the gas. I was surprised that the stick did not just melt. And yes it was hot but we were able to get pretty darn close to it. Driving back from here, I drove back to the national park area as it is open 24 hours. The reason I went back in the middle of the night is because the caldera glows at night from the magma below. It was beautiful.
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| Crater from Jagger museum |
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| Steam vents |
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| Thurston Lava tube |
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| Thurston Lava tunnel |
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| End of Chain of Craters Rd |
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| Homes not destroyed, Kanapala |
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| Kanapala Lava flow |
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| Kanapala lava flow |
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| Add caption |
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| Joshua playing with fresh lava |
And what trip would be complete without some local food, Hawaiian shave ice and waterfalls?
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| Rainbow falls, Hilo |
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| Onomea Bay |
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| 'Akaka falls |
Another great place to visit is Pu'uhonua o Honaunau or Place of Refuge which is an archaeological park and burial ground that you can visit. Right next to this is a great place to snorkel. Just up the road from that is Captain Cook monument, the place where he landed on the island.
My resources for planning this trip were the book Hawaii Revealed The Big Island and my Aunt Sue who loves Hawaii and visits it so much she should be a local. Thanks for all your help!
