Hawaii

The Wandering Adventures #3 - Hawaii March 2011
March 19
We left bright and early on Hawaiian Air for my first visit to the Big Island. The only downer is that early on in the flight I knew I was coming down with the dreaded flu bug. I just couldn’t get by it with all those germs roaming around The Manor. We were greeted with a beautiful lei, picked up our jeep and headed for the drug store to load up on flu meds and cough drops. Our condo is great. It is right on the Kona Coast just at the south end of Kailua where all the restaurants are. Our room overlooks the pool out to the beach. It’s beautiful! I love waking up to coffee on the balcony looking out to the ocean. Different mornings we have been treated to watching boogie boarders riding the waves, dolphins feeding, a fisherman throwing his net out hoping for a good catch and this morning a whale spouting. The trade winds are keeping us very comfortable. Thank goodness the flu didn’t keep me in bed. Being the Wandering Adventurers that we are and me not feeling so hot, the first three days were spent doing some driving. This is truly a big island and it takes lots of diving to see that various areas. The first day we drove down to see where my nephew, Bryan and his wife, had their wedding reception. What a beautiful area. We want to come back to this bay and do some snorkeling. It is a good place to see turtles. The beach where they were married was closed due to the Tsunami coming through last week unearthing some Hawaiian relics. While I’m sitting here on the balcony writing this, we are watching dolphins jumping and spinning! We continued our drive south to Kealakekua Bay and looked across the to see where Captain Cook had anchored. The Four Winds brings snorkeling boats in here. It looks like a good side trip for us sometime when we are coughing and hacking. Onward we went around the southern point to Punalu’u Black Sand Beach. The wind was blowing like crazy but it is such a gorgeous beach. We stopped for lunch in Na’alehu at a great little dive, Hana Hou, with formica tables and open air windows. Besides good food, it’s claim to fame is that it is the southern most restaurant in the US. Nyquil put me to sleep after a couple of card games.
Day 2 we drove north stopping at Kaloko-Honokohau National Park. It looks like a good place to spend some time learning about the Hawaiian culture but a couple mile hike over the lava flows to the ocean didn’t fit in with my low grade fever. We put it on our list for later in the week. Onward to Waimea and the gorgeous cowboy country with fields of grass blowing across the rolling hills. The cowboys were herding cattle here before the wild west was discovered. Waipi’o Valley was our excitement for the day. We put the jeep in four wheel low and headed down a winding, bumpy, 25 % grade road to the valley below fording a stream to a beautiful coastline. The beach was stunning with giant green cliffs and palms blowing in the breeze. On our way down we saw crazy people walking back up the hill huffing puffing and looking very glum. With wild horses along the road and the river running to ocean through the rich green valley it was a very picturesque sight to behold! For the trip home we took the northern road along the coast stopping in Kapa’au for lunch. This is the area where King Kamehameha was born. There is beautiful bronze statue of him in town that has a story behind it. It was ordered in Paris in the late 1800’s but the ship carrying across the seas was sunk on its way here. A replica was eventually made and is now in Hilo. Years later the original statue was found in an old warehouse and now stands on the north shore. We stopped for lunch at the hopping place in town, Blaine’s Drive In. They had everything from hamburgers to noodles to spam sandwiches and everything in between. The noodles hit the spot. We made it home for an evening of cards and popcorn before hitting the hay. I was still running a low-grade temp so Nyquil along with cough drops were my drugs of choice.


Welcome to Hawaii!



View From Our Balcony



Black Sand Beach




Beach at the End of the Four Wheelin' Road




Lunch at The Pond


Ra

Day 3 and still not feeling up to par we decided on another exploring day and drove across the island on Saddle Road. We drove by Mauna Kea rising 13,799 feet and is home to a number of observatories. Lava fields are everywhere on this island! We dropped down into Hilo and found a wonderful restaurant on a pond with open air windows and a nice view. After lunch we hunted up Rainbow Falls and Akaka Falls. This side of the island gets 200 inches of rain a year and is so tropical! Big red trees with bright red blossoms are in every ravine. Plants we know as houseplants are huge and gorgeous and crammed in so close together. The coastline is spectacular.