Escape With Us: Hawaii, the Big Island

Scott and I recently visited the big island of Hawaii.. This was our third trip to the islands; two previous trips to Oahu and one trip to Maui. We were gone ten days, and had a fantastic time finding so much to do and see. We were extremely lucky to stay with Lynn and Mike in their beautiful new Kona hillside home. Kona is on the western side of the island, home to the Iron Man Triathlon, and overlooks the Kona coast. Being located on the hillside means stable slightly cooler temperatures than at sea level, dry air and a fantastic view. When we were there temperatures were in the mid to upper 70s everyday compared to at the ocean front where it was in the mid to upper 80s, and it hadn't rained in two months (but did rain one night we were there). There is a vog (sulfur dioxide and other gasses emitted by an erupting volcano react with oxygen and moisture in the presence of sunlight...volcanic & smug = vog) that appears over the top of the Huualalai volcano (8,271) which is just east of Kona. It floats over Kona usually in the afternoon, shielding some of the heat of the sun. Sometimes you can only see it from a distance, what I mean is, you don't know you are in it, but when you are at the ocean and you look up, you see it covering the hillside.

This was our starting point for all our adventures. Rather than to blog day by day I am going to share our experiences by topics or excursions. Come along on our visit to paradise.

Hawaii, the largest of the Hawaiian islands has amazingly different topography and geography. Lush green rain forests, dry deserts to the north, rolling pastures, familiar deciduous plants, sunny sandy beaches, angry and sleeping volcanoes, and lava, lava, lava everywhere. We traveled to all points, north, south, east, west. Put on over 1100 miles and always enjoyed the view.

Lets start with Hilo. We traveled east to Hilo on a clear and sunny day, over the center of the state by the Saddle Road. This road started out as a desert as we traveled alongside the Mauna Kea Volcano, then became deciduous, then as we neared Hilo it became a rain forest. There is more rain on the east side of the island, thus the lush greenery.

View of a couple of Mauna Kea's observatories.

We visited the Pacific Tsunami Museum in downtown Hilo. This museum has interactive exhibits, lots of pictures from turn of the century Hilo, and a film of survivors stories from the '46 Tsunami that flooded the downtown area killing 159 people. The main story was in 1946 as the Tsunami was building, water resided, people ran onto the ocean floor to collect fish, then the Tsunami hit. All was very informational, and it was interesting to see how the area looked in 1946 and how the downtown area was rebuilt. More open land and parks along the ocean rather than residential homes. Admission cost $8.00 adults; $4.00 children 6-17.

Hilo

After a quick lunch we traveled 5 miles south of Hilo on Hwy 11 to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation. After a 3 mile drive along rows and rows of Macadamia trees (250,000 trees in the orchard) we came to the visitors center. There is a self walking tour with videos that explains how the nuts are cracked, processed, canned and shipped everywhere in the United States. During the week you can view the assembly line workers in the factory (we watched them hand place each nut in the center of a piece of dough.). Then we went into the store and sampled plain, chocolate covered, and toffee covered mac nuts (as much as we wanted). We then purchase some to take back to Lynn and Mike, a few gifts, and a bag for ourselves. The store was filled with people and we saw a individual from a Japanese tour group purchase what turned out to be two huge bags of nuts, well over $100.00.

We truly enjoyed the two places we visited but overall were not excited about the city of Hilo itself. It does have a nice bay which boasts a Japanese garden though we did not stop to walk it, but I did take a picture.

We then headed north through Hilo and along the coastline, then through the small town of Honomu to the Akaka State Park. There is a parking fee of $5.00 to park and then hike. The path is a half mile through dense vegetation that leads to two waterfalls.