Visiting the Big Island

Sea & Sand / Earthquakes & Eruptions

In late April 2018, we had the opportunity to spend a week in a suite at the Hilton Grand Vacations in Waikoloa. While not technically a ‘road trip’, we did drive a fair bit of the island. Here’s our experience…

Waikoloa

Or more accurately, Hilton Waikoloa Village. Took us 3 fights to get here and factoring in the time difference from the east coast, we were pretty wiped out. Of course, we’re together enough to get one celebratory cocktail before we forced ourselves out to do grocery shopping.

We were staying in the ‘King’s Land’ section and for some reason we drove 20 minutes to a KTA Super Store for groceries. Later in the week we would find there was an Island Gourmet Market only 5 minutes away. John blamed GoogleMaps. Anyway, the Island Gourmet Market was pretty bougie, in the way you might want a grocery store to be bougie.

Exploring the resort

We figured checking out the resort would be a good way to spend the morning of the first day, so after breakfast we went for a nice stroll.

We headed down Waikoloa Beach Dr. to the resort proper on Waiulua Bay, and then were able to follow the beach south to ʻAnaehoʻomalu Beach, where we started to make our way back, getting back on Waikoloa Beach Dr till we came to the King’s Highway Foot Trail, where there are supposed to be Petroglyphs…but we somehow completely missed them. Walking along the lava rocks was pretty cool though.

Walked over 5 miles – a good start to our day!

Anyone else feel awkward when strangers offer to take your photo?

Pololu Valley

Black sand beach!

It’s less then a mile from the look out to the far end of the beach, and the climb back out wasn’t terrible.

It felt super remote and wild down there. All in all a relatively brief but beautiful visit.

Kona & Kua Bay

We had a sunny day, so we wanted to get some beach time.

First, we decided on lunch, courtesy of Humpy’s Big Island Alehouse. We walked around a bit on the strip there, seeing if there might be some interesting place for some potential ‘Night Life’ activity, but that would have meant a 40 minute trip (one way), and we decided against that.

About 25 minutes north of Kona is Manini’owali Beach on Kua Bay. A beautiful beach with the clearest water we have ever seen. We got there in the early afternoon on a Wednesday so it wasn’t crazy busy.

Corinne was able to get some sun (she is not a huge beach person), while John enjoyed some body surfing. He even had a sea turtle for company for a bit!

Papakōlea Green Sand Beach

On recommendation from a friend who’d visited before, we took the 2 hour drive south to visit the Green Sand Beach, nestled in the remains of an ancient, dead volcano.

It was near full sun by the time we got there, and it was a 6 mile out and back trek to get to the beach (if you don’t have a vehicle that is rated to handle that trail, and we didn’t). John regretted skipping sunscreen on his calves.

We did bring towels and had swim wear under our hiking clothes, but by the time we got there, and spied the sketchy ladder to get down to the beach from the rim, we opted to make our return trip.

Yeah…it’s green(ish), the ladder was near where that yellow Jeep is

Kilauea

We made a point to visit in the early evening so we could observe the caldera after dark. This was absolutely a Corinne intervention, as it never occurred to John to factor in the prospect of seeing a glowing volcano and he had originally planned on visiting this earlier in the day.

We passed some steaming vents on the way in, which was pretty neat. This is the first time we’d ever visited any sort of geologically active anything, and so there was definitely a certain amount of ‘OoooH!’ factor going on. We didn’t know that the future would have Iceland’s, Yellowstone’s & Idaho’s own volcanic wonders in store. The ‘OoooH!’ doesn’t diminish.

There are some neat educational exhibits inside the Jagger Museum on site and it’s worthwhile to check them out.

The size and scope of the caldera, the mix of blasted, volcanic black terrain and the tenacity of life in the face of it were humbling. Queue Jeff Goldblum and “Life…uhh…finds a way”

It gets pretty brisk up there as the sun goes down. Reminder to bring a flashlight for the walk back to the car if you visit at night.

…and then it blew up

Well, not at the caldera, but a new fissure to the south. Mad respect to the residents of this island, where you live with the reality that you can have an eruption in your neighborhood.

This was the day after we had visited Kilauea, which was now closed to visitors.

We were having lunch back near Waikoloa when the accompanying earthquake happened. Nothing too dramatic there, but we definitely felt it.

We didn’t have phone service so had not realized friends and family were worried about us for hours! What are the chances of an eruption RIGHT after visiting!?

Hapuna Beach

We made a late morning visit to this beach late in the week, just a 15 minute drive from the resort.

Again, early on a weekday so not very busy. Very pretty beach, and they had some volcanic rocks with caves in them at the southern end that we explored a bit, but ultimately didn’t spend much time here.

Akaka Falls

Made a point to spend some time exploring the eastern part of the island.

Akaka Falls themselves were impressive, but for us the most fantastic part of visiting it was all the incredible flora they had in the park

Wailuku River State Park

While on the eastern part of the island, we swung through Hilo to visit this park. Everything is so beautiful, even on a cloudy day.

Dining

We had a several memorable dining experience’s during out stay.

While planning for the trip, we booked a waterfront table at Kameula Provision Company. The view was unbeatable, including the sunset views on the way back to the car.

We, of course, had to do the Luau via the Legends of Hawaii, which was part of the resort activities. Big communal seating/dining style so we met some new people. Overall, it was a unique experience. Corinne may or may not have had a few too many cocktails!

Our last night on the island, on recommendation from some of the resort staff, we visited an awesome Italian eatery. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be in business anymore, possibly a victim of the pandemic. The food was absolutely delicious.

We honestly feel like we barely scratched the surface of Hawaii. We’ve talked over the years about returning to visit some of the other islands, and we think it will happen, but no definite plans in the near term

This trip was not as well planned as our future trips would be. We have also forgotten a lot over the years. Continuing this blog for future travels will hopefully solve that problem!