Traveling South

It's hard to believe we did all that in 2 and a half days and we still have 7 more to tell you all about! Today is(was) our first moving day and we decided to set a good precedent for how we'd handle all of our moving days. We got up and went for a run at sunrise. What's cool about Hawaii is that so many other runners do the same. We headed down Ali'i drive and it was magical. The light was perfect and everything is just so beautiful here.

When we got back to the condo, we decided to have a super leisurely breakfast on the lanai, when a pod of dolphins dropped by. The Big Island has spinner dolphins, which are super amazing when they jump because they spin around. We watched them for 20 minutes or so when the icing on the cake arrived on the rocks below, a wandering tattler! Needless to say, by the time we've got ourselves packed up for the next adventure, we are a bit sad to be leaving Kona, but the bittersweet departure is tempered knowing we are headed to volcano land next.

Since it is only 9 am and we have until 4 to check in, we decide it's a good day to check out some of the on land sights the Kona area has to offer: Coffee and other agricultural delights. We head up to Hololua to drive the Mamoloa Hwy South. Our first stop is delightful Blue Sky Coffee, where we couldn't resist buying our first pound of fresh Kona beans and enjoying their free yummy bananas. With the ample samples of chocolate covered coffee beans being handed out, I know we will be perky all day. We are disappointed to discover that Hololua, a cute artsy town, is mostly closed on Mondays, so we continue on driving the coffee road. Our next stop is perfect: Kona Joe's. We wanted to pick up some coffee for Joe Z for his super kind early early AM ride to the airport. Kona Joe's specializes in trellis grown coffee, which is a wine grape growing technique. The effort pays off in the taste of the beans. This is one of the prettiest farms we visit all day, sweeping views surrounded by happy Saffron Finches and Yellow Fronted Canaries. Delightful.

We continue down the coffee (Mamoloa) highway, but decide we are satiated on that frontier and pass over several more farms until we reach the turn off for Kealakekua Bay and drive the twisting road down to where we had snorkeled by boat the day before. En route, we discover the Kona Pacific Farmer's Cooperative. We loved this place. The grounds include all sorts of cool tropical farming exhibits, our favorite was the fruit tree walk, so many varieties of crazy fruits. I forget what they all are, but we got to taste many of them in the co-op store. The girl working there was very enthusiastic about sampling stuff for us, and we ended up buying quite a bit from her, including several types of chocolate macadamia nuts and Charlie's favorite muffin of all time: Soursop Macadamia. It sounds weird, but it is mind-blowingly good. We continued on down to the overflowing Kealakekua Bay parking lot, a site of some contention on the island as the state is no longer allowing kayaking without a permit in the bay, so as the tours have had to pull out, several entrepreneurial locals have stepped up with their own kayaks. Many tourists take them up on it and the kayak tour companies are pretty peaved. This is one of the reasons we opted to go on the boat tour, to avoid all this. Looking at the chaos and sign-age in this parking lot, I'm glad for it. We head on to the Place of Refuge, which on the crazy road we took provided for plenty of excitement.

When we arrive at Place of Refuge, I'm glad once again that we took the boat snorkel as the kayaking parking area here is insanely full and from the look of it, we would have bumped into every other snorkeler near the shore. This must be why the guidebook says "go early." We park in the National Park lot and enter the refuge. The Place of Refuge is both a restored ancient village and an important religious site. Ancient Hawaiian religion included a number of taboos, that if broken, could result in your execution. But you get one opportunity to outrun the army to the place of refuge where you can be purified and re-enter society. From what we learned, these taboos ranged from accidentally looking someone from the Royal Family in the eye to the sorts of crimes still punishable in the US today. The park is well worth visiting. We particularly enjoy the huge number of Ki'i carvings guarding the park.

After all this, we're starved, so we skip the Painted Church and a botanical garden we saw on the map, but not from the road. We pick the first place we see, a casual place that is struggling to choose between a store and a restaurant. The woman behind the counter suggests fish and chips because it's "ono," a word the guidebook uses interchangeably with local, so we order that. It's delicious. And definitely not what we get at home. We press on, we still have a long drive and plenty of things too see left today. Our next stop is the South Kona Fruit Stand, where we can't seem to resist loading up on fruit, even though we have a bag of lychee from the co-op, we get Brazillian Grapes, perfect tomatoes, and soursop.

For the next 45 minutes or so the road meanders through lava fields and forests. The guidebook describes failed development after development in this section of the island. Apparently because communities have organized to sue developers to protect the land and curb environmental impacts. It feels weird like we are driving through sacred land, but then you'll see areas that are clearly delineated for development that never happened. We stop at a surprise grocery store that seems to be in the middle of nowhere and though we want to get some supplies, we are so weirded out by the place that we end up not buying anything once we get inside. I remember that John, our guide from the birding trip, said not to hike off the beaten path in this area and think he's right. Our only other stop around here is the view point to see South Point and its wind farm. We were never going to be brave enough to try the off road drive and hike to get to the green beach there and now, I totally am not. I feel relieved when we arrive in Naalehu, which is a bustling town of happy people where every store boasts being the southernmost of its kind. We pick up groceries here and stop at the Punalu'u bakery, the island's favorite bread maker, to pick up Lilokoi Malasadas (to die for) and some bread for all the sandwiches we've been eating.

It's only another 15 minutes to the condo we're staying at near the black sand beach. We're staying at Colony One at Sea Mountain, which according to the guidebook was to be one of many, but a lawsuit intervened here as well. Which is fine by us, Colony One is awesome and feels more private than remote. We get checked into a cute little studio inside a town house near the pool. After we've unpacked, we can't resist the walk to the island's best black sand beach. It's about a ten minute walk and is rumored to be very popular with sea turtles. En route, we check out the swimming pool and are so delighted by it, we vow to get back in time to swim a bit before dinner. Sunset viewing won't be as essential at the south end of the island, but still we want to be back eating dinner by the time it's dark.

The walk to the black sand beach is fast and soon we are walking on its eerie shores. I hadn't expected to be so flummoxed by it, but with the diffused light, it's just downright strange to be walking on a matte black beach. We come across a lounging turtle, who is unfazed by everything as he enjoys the warmth of the dark sand. Charlie points out a pond for some possible birding and we head over to it only to discover it's like a reverse Monet or something. A scenic lily pond, with black sand at its shore and utterly dark water, we assume from the sand. It has a jaunty bridge that I would expect to be painted red, but it's just a faded brown, which goes with the overall darkness to the place and we assume is just a weatherizing issue. We spot a path and head further into the park. The trail is completely over grown, which we again just assume is a tropical thing. We reach the bridge we first saw and cross it, only briefly discussing how rickety the thing is. We continue on, through thicker foliage to a second bridge, this one seems even more rickety, but again we don't think much of this. Then suddenly we look up and we see a scene straight out of Spirited Away. We've come across one of the abandoned developments. All this landscaping was part of it and that is why it's so over grown, rickety, and unpainted. The development is huge, with big stair cases that have fallen apart and lights that may never have been lit. We explore this a bit and realize the only way back to the beach is through the final bridge. This time we hold our breath as we cross it. Whew.

We end our adventurous road trip day drinking Mai Tais poolside. The pool has a view of the cliffs below and huge waves hit every few minutes, making an incredible show of ocean spray. Bliss. Our photo album for this day is here.

Water Fun on the Kona Coast

Our plan for our last day in Kona was to take advantage of the island's best snorkeling spots. Originally we were going to go from land, but all the guide books suggest that it's really better to snorkel from a boat because of the lava's impact on the shores and reefs. After such an amazing experience the day before, we were more open to doing another tour and opted to call Seaquest because John's (our guide from the day before) wife works there. Plus when we called they directed me to their ad in the tourist magazine which had a $20 off coupon. We'd looked into doing a trip like this while still in Seattle, but weren't sold on it at all. And this company in particular has such a horrendous website that we'd dismissed them (seriously, if you are going to follow the link, consider muting the sound first). But in the end, we went for it as they were leaving right when we wanted to, they were going to the location we wanted to go: Kealakekua Bay, and they'd made a good impression on me between John and the phone discount offer that we were down to tour with them. The tour we went on set out from Keauhou Bay, which was a cool place to check out. It was an important spot for King Kamehameha III and there is an interesting cliff side path that has some family history. Plus we saw a new bird here, the yellow-beaked cardinal.

I am so glad we did! This was another incredible day and really so much cooler than they describe on their website. The boat you go on is a high speed motorized inflatable dinghy, the sensation of touring around on it is somewhere between river rafting and banana boating. It's wild. And so fun. We were having a great time just riding around for high speed sightseeing on the boat, when out of the blue a flying fish came up beside Charlie and I and soared along with us. It was one of the more amazing things I have ever seen. This is not a picture of the one we saw, I was too busy holding on to the boat to take a picture, but wow. It was with us for a few minutes. I couldn't believe it. A flying fish!

We went closer to shore to check out some sea caves, lava tubes and other blow holes. Our guide was an expert dare devil and took us into quite a few of them. In some cases, he could time it so we would motor in and get washed out with the waves. It was pretty exciting, plus each cave seemed to be formed by a different set of conditions so the lava rock features were totally unique. We continued alternating between high speed banana boating and lava river rafting down the coast to the Place of Refuge (more on this tomorrow), where we went in for our first snorkel. Wow. The conditions were so perfect. Never have I had such clear water and such a diverse array of fish. It was amazing. I took a ton of pictures with our underwater camera - see fish photo album - I was really impressed. We had about 30 minutes here, when our guide called us back for Maui Onion Chips, fresh pineapple, and some POG. We jetted up to our highlighted destination - Kealakekua Bay to snorkel at the Captain Cook monument, which marks where he was killed. If you can believe it, the snorkeling here was ten times better! Plus we got our first glimpse of the White Tailed Tropic Bird (more on this later). What a day. Sadly on the way back in, our underwater camera died while I was trying to photograph a lava tube. You are supposed to wash it with freshwater before letting it dry. So sad. But I was cheered up with a Ti leaf Angelfish from our guide when we returned to shore. What an adventure.

Charlie and I were shocked to discover that it was only noon when we finished with this. And we were equally shocked to discover that sunblock just doesn't last. You have to reapply it like every five minutes. My suggestion to anyone going to Hawaii soon: buy the spray on sun screen. You will spend a fortune because one spray bottle only lasts one day between two people, but you can reapply really effortlessly and that is just what you have to do. You have to spray yourself with sunscreen constantly. Charlie and I were both badly burned (despite our best efforts) after this boating excursion and then had to avoid sun for the rest of the day. Difficult to do in Hawaii! After much debate about what to do next, we decided to go back into Kailua-Kona town to the Kona Brewery. Two days earlier, we'd had sandwiches, but word on the street is the pizza is where its at. We decided we better find out if that is true or not. It's true. We got half wild mushroom (more like cremini with other vegetables) and half puna pie (which we affectionately now refer to as the fettuccini alfredo of pizzas). Both were decadent and covered with roasted garlic. Wow. And filling. We got this pizza at lunch and it fed us for dinner as well. After we walked around town again buying souvenirs until it was time for sunset on the lanai. Another perfect day. The rest of our pictures from this day are here.

Hakalau National Wildlife Refuge

What an amazing day. Definitely one of our favorites of the whole trip. We did so much that organizing these photos for this blog post took forever. I went ahead and made a few different photo albums, so people can just look at what interests them. We scheduled our big birding day for our second day on the island because we figured it would be the easiest day to wake up at 5 am. This was pretty smart because really we woke up at 4 am with no trouble and had plenty of leisure time before setting out.

This trip was a tour with Hawaii Forest and Trail, which we choose for several reasons, first of all as you can see from the sign there is no public access in the refuge, second you see way more birds with a guide, and third most rental car agencies frown on taking your car on the mountain road we drove on, yet Saddle Mountain Road as it is known is one of the more scenic on the island. It was totally worth the money. Our guide, John, was absolutely fabulous, our companions were equally enthusiastic about birds, and we saw nearly all the endemic Hawaiian birds. Best of all, I actually took this picture of the I'iwi below. I had one that was sort of my buddy and followed me around! You can see from my special I'iwi photo album, that I really got a lot of time hanging out with this bird. (Though please note, I do have a pretty good lens on my camera).

The I'iwi is one of the Hawaiian Honeycreepers and you can listen to the birdnote about them (and hear what they sound like) here. The I'iwi and other Hawaiian Honeycreepers dine on the Ohia blossom of the Lehua Tree, which of course, like most things in Hawaii, has a lovely romantic myth that explains why the blossom and tree name are different. The Lehua Tree only grows above 3000 feet and the I'iwi won't descend below 4000 feet in an effort to steer clear of mosquitoes, which really made going to see it all the more pleasant. Our guide John told us that the Lehua Tree grows at an extremely slow rate and the gigantic ones we saw were so tall that it really craned my neck to look at some of them. He believes that the Trees in Hakalau are "some of the oldest angiosperms on Earth." I had to look that up, it means flowering plants.

So we set off from Kona just after 6 am, and headed up Saddle Mountain Road, which truly was gorgeous, and made a quick stop at a golf course for birding (it really is amazing how many species of wildlife like to hang out on golf courses, when we were in Hilton Head there were Ibis and Alligators strolling the courses and Joe tells me he regularly saw monkeys on the courses in Malaysia). This golf course offered up quite a few beautiful birds including the endangered Hawaiian state bird, the Nene goose. See the golf course album here. Saddle Mountain Road was an interesting mix of pretty views, military outposts, and farms. The oddest thing for me was that this area is home to tons of wild farm animals. It kind of blew my mind really, since I have really only seen domesticated farm animals. Hawaii protects all its wild animals, so these can't be hunted or taken for food. We saw wild sheep, goats, cows, turkeys, and chickens. I know there are also feral pigs on the island as well, but they are damaging to bird populations so there are fences to keep them out of the area we were in. The most impressive of this whole bunch was a wild bull that we saw. He took one look at our van and seriously considered fighting it to keep his territory. I was kind of a bit scared! Nothing like the docile dairy cows I'm used to seeing! Our Saddle Mountain photo album is here.

Our second stop of the day was the Mauna Kea State Park, where we were able to have a snack, use the restroom, and meet up with another tour member. John took Charlie and I around to learn about some of the trees and tell us about how some of the birds have adapted to them. Plus we had white pineapple for the first time, wow that is good. The new tour member was Gerald from Austria. Charlie and I really liked him. He was on his third trip to Hawaii and only had one more Hawaiian bird left to see on his life list, so we were kind of setting out on the birder's equivalent of Everest to see that bird on the trip, which also meant we got a slightly longer tour. We arrived at the refuge around 9 am and set out on our hike. We started up high, and walked downhill for about two miles total, and then hiked back out. Though birding is a pretty slow moving activity, so it took us about 4-5 hours to do this hike, including a picnic lunch. We mostly stayed on a path, but also did some grassy side trips to visit specific trees. In the end we were incredibly successful, seeing nearly all the endemic birds including the one Gerald wanted to see. Our checklist for the day is below. When we got back to the van at the end of the day, John had ice cold towels to cool off with and lava cake for us to eat. So perfect. Plus he had us back in town in time for us to have our sunset dinner on the Lanai. Such a perfect day. Our Hakalau photo album is here.

Kohala Coast

Ahh. We are ending our trip in resort country. I’m hoping that finalizes our relaxation process. I don’t know if we will even leave the resort to be honest, but there are a few things around here to do if we feel up to it. Our hotel is actually located near a ancient fish ponds (read: birds) and a petroglyph field and there are free tours of it daily at 10:30, but we may be able to see this on our own schedule. Though we will be staying on a great beach for snorkeling etc, word is that Hapuna beach just up the way is the best beach on the island (and has been named by magazines as the best beach in the world), so we may want to drive up there for some of our fun in the surf. Doug said it has nice waves and to go early. I’ve also heard that it is really fun to visit all the resorts and see the grounds. The nearby Hilton has quite a lot of art and other cool stuff to see on the property. There’s a luau. Hmm. Honestly though, I am thinking of just camping at the resort beach these last precious few hours in Hawaii. Kiholo Bay is recommended for snorkeling. A water tour group is based at our hotel, so it won’t be too late to get on a boat tour. We can do a snorkel, sunset sail or rent a kayak from them.

The Puna District and the Lava Viewing Conundrum

Billed as the “real” Big Island, the Puna District offers a lot of great natural attractions and small town charm. I had planned on stopping here en route to Hilo, but given that this is where the lava flow is and that it is way off the beaten path, we may want to come here for the second half of our volcano day – or even most of our volcano day since we could also try again with the volcano when we are en route to our hotel in Hilo. The lava viewing site here is about an 1.5 from our hotel in South Point and we would want to try to see the lava in the evening. We could also drive here from our Hilo hotel if it comes to it, but there's a lot to do in that area too. Such problems for a girl to have.

The conundrum illustrated geographically:

What are the other cool things to do in Puna? Pahoa Town – a charming place to grab snacks or do a little shopping. People rave about the Mexican restaurant Luquin's here. Liloki margaritas for me and pigs raised by the restaurateur for the ultimate in locally grown for Charlie.

Lava Tree State Monument – dubbed "Pele’s sculpture garden," these are some cool petrified trees.

Mackenzie State Park – has an ironwood forest, therefore may have interesting birds.

Ahalanui Park – has a geothermically warmed pool for swimming.

Waiopae Ponds – awesome snorkeling at interconnected tide pools. Some of the best on the island.

Kahopo Pool – another geothermically warmed pool, way lesser known than the Ahalanui Park, couldn't even find a picture. Cape Kumukahi Light House - No picture of these either, but it's near the sea pool and is home to the world's freshest air.

Steam caves – naturally occurring saunas courtesy of the volcano. As cool as this sounds, it does kind of freak me out.

See all these things on the map: Another solution to our timing conundrum might be to just do the helicopter tour. People tell me it’s the best money you can spend on the island and it’s not as pricey as I would have thought. Flights leave every hour until 4:30 pm from Hilo. We miss out on the night viewing, but I don't know that we need it given we get so close to the lava. I'm still not sure how that would time out in our itinerary, but it would be cool. I also still kind of want to go kayaking and horseback riding too. And maybe on a catamaran. Yikes. No money for food on this trip! LOL.

Volcano Day

We are lucky to be staying so close by the volcano that we can spend a full day here. There are a ton of cool hikes, views, and even a winery. Oddly enough, the actual best lava viewing is outside the park right now and may make our day a little tricky since the best time to see that is at dusk. Note to self: bring headlamps and water. Lots of water. Maybe NUUN too. The lava viewing site is a conundrum actually because there is a lot to see near that lava viewing site that I had thought we would do on a different day. Hmm. More on that later.

Inside the park, there are two main areas to see – the Kilauea Caldera and the Chain of Craters Road. There is also a 30 mile round trip drive to a very high lookout on Mauna Loa, which could be cool especially since on route there is a hike that is supposed to be good birding.

Everyone recommends we start at the Visitor’s Center to get the scoop on conditions and watch a video, which really I could skip in favor of seeing the real thing. It’s a 30 minute drive from our hotel to the center. It opens as early as 7:45 am. It’s on Crater Rim Drive, where everything seems to be. Adjacent to the Visitor’s center are a number of trailheads and the Volcano Arts Center. I am thinking we will prefer more short hikes over one long one, in which case there is one trailhead here that could be cool, but isn’t my highest priority. It’s the Iliahi or Sandalwood Trail, a shady 1.5 mile loop with a view of the caldera.



Crater Rim Drive West of the Visitors Center boasts the most active volcanic overlooks. There are three and the closest to the steam vent is at the Jaggar Museum (no admission fee).

Crater Rim Drive East has two overlooks of an older crater, the Thurston Lava Tube, and the trailhead for the Devastation Trail, a 1 mile roundtrip out and back that I think we will want to go on because the nene (Hawaiian Geese) like it. I know we freaked out in that lava tube in Oregon, but I figure we will at least check this one out. I think headlamps will be better than a lantern.

Chain of Craters Drive – The old site of the lava flow. We could still drive down this, just to see and we might see some, and then stop at the Pu’u Loa Petroglyphs Trail, a 1.5 mile round trip out and back to a particularly good petroglyph viewing area. At the end of the road, we can still hike the 1 mile to the old lava viewing site. I’m not as sure about this though because I want to see the new site and there are other petroglyph fields and it’s a 40 mile roundtrip and would take at least 2 hours to do everything. There is a cool sea arch to see too though.



Mauna Loa Road – I’m not sure about the long drive up to the lookout. I think it is mainly for people who are going to backpack to the summit. I suppose if it’s clear it could be great? Two things on the road though that I do want to do: Kipukapuaula Bird Park Trail – a lovely shady 1 mile loop for birding. People have said “dress in khaki like a ranger and the pheasant walk right up to you.” Also cool sounding is the tree mold exhibit, where lava burnt a tree, but the hole is there. Nearish to here is the Volcano Winery, which of course we have to go to. It’s open from 10-5:30.


If we do prefer a longer hike, the 4 mile Kilauea Iki Trail through the crater sounds like a winner.

Birding the Hakalau Forest National Wildlife Refuge

The Big Island is one of the best for birding and we are not going to miss out! We have scheduled a tour in to the refuge with Hawaii Forest and Trail. The refuge is only accessible with a special permit and 4x4 vehicle. We are going with a naturalist to help us identify some of Hawaii's endemic birds. Endemic birds are those that are only found in one geography, so Hawaii's endemics are only found in the Hawaiian Islands and most are endangered.

This trip is going to be pretty hardcore. We meet at 6 am and drive 3 hours into the mountain, to go on a 4 hour jungle hike. I couldn't be more excited.

This is a map of where we are going:


This will not be the first trip of this type that we have arranged while traveling, but frustratingly the other 2 we have arranged were cancelled and we were left to bird on our own. We saw some birds, but never anything as good as what we can see on a trip like this. SO. This time I've got a plan B in place, I've been in contact with a local naturalist who can at least take us near the site if the trip falls through.