Hawaii (Big Island)

We flew from Kalalui, Maui to Kailua-Kona, the Big Island, on January 21and stayed at the Royal Kona Hotel at Kona. Arriving at 3 pm. we relaxed and visited local shops after dinner. The next day we drove around the north and west cost of the Island. Our first stop was Puukohola Heiau National Hisorical Site. This is the site of the Great Temple of King Kamehameha. There was a microphone ca. 1/4 mile offshore recording live whale calls, which as very interesting listening to the animals. Following lunch in Hawi we took the Kohala Mountain Road through lush range land as seen below.



Along the Kohala Mountain Road one enjoys beautful views of Mauna Kea. This is considered the tallest Mountain in the world from base to summit. Most of it is underwater. The elevation above sea level is 13796 ft. During the winter the top is often snow-covered. The summit houses many observatories.

Waimea Village and Mauna Kea.

We visited the town of Waimea, home of the Parker Ranch. We attempted to locate the
Parker Ranch Museum, and found out that the museum is now closed (the travel book info. was wrong). The Parker Ranch today consists of about 150,000 acres. It is still one of the largest ranches in the country. The Ranch was founded in the early 1800's by John Palmer Parker from Newton, MA. The Ranch is now in a Trust, and money from the Ranch now helps to support education and the local hospital in Waimea, also founded by a member of the Parker family. Horseback riding and tours of the Ranch are available for tourists.

Basking Green Sea Turtle

Leaving Waimea we headed back to the coast and Anaehoomalu Bay with hopes of seeing sea turtles. We spotted three Green Sea Turtles along the beach, two basking, as seen above and one swimming in the shallows along the shore.

Surf at Kona Hotel

The surf was still running high at the beginning of our stay in Kona, as seen above from the hotel grounds. The next day we drove south to Volcanoes National Park. Our first stop was at South Point (picture below), the southernmost point in the United States. This site is characterized by crashing waves into the large sea cliffs (photo below).

South Point

Lunch break was at the Pahala Bakery, the southern-most Bakery in the U.S.! Then it was off to the Punaluu Black Sand Beach with the hope of seeing more turtles. Four more green turtles were observed at the beach.

Punaluu Black Sand Beach

We spent the afternoon at Volcanoes National Park. There are presently two active areas in the Park. We did not visit the East Rift Zone where lava is flowing. There is no good area to observe the flowing lava because it is all on private land. We did see the smoke from the crater of Halema'uma'u within the Kilauea Caldera. Smoke from this vent can be see in the left side of the photo below.

Halema'uma'u Vent at Kilauea Caldera, Mauna Loa in distance

We went to the observatory museum along the southwest side of the Kilauea Caldera to view the smoke, steam, and glow from Halema'uma'u (above). Mauna Loa is observed from the Crater as well as from almost everywhere in the Park. Mauna Loa is the largest shield volcano in the world with its huge mass. It is 13680 ft. tall and had a small area of snow on the top. Cousin Linda was actively birding throuhout the trip and was constantly looking for the rare Hawaiian goose, the Nene. This and Haleakala on Maui are two places they commonly occur. We had no luck,"no, no Nene". At dusk we saw the glow from the crater (below).

Glow from Halema'uma'u Crater

We had a two hour drive back home to Kona arriving at 9:30pm. The next morning we headed to the northeast and eastern portion of the island. We first drove to the view point at Waipio Valley. The road to the valley floor is extremely steep and only 4-wheel drive vehicles were permitted.

Waipio Valley

This afternoon, we visited Akaka Falls State Park. This park is on the wet Windward side of the Island, just north of Hilo. Two waterfalls occur within the Park-Kahuna Falls (100 ft.) and Akaka Falls (442 ft.). The vegetation is the park consists of large bamboo, strangler figs, gingers, and tropical rhododendrons.

Akaka Falls

Our last night we met Andrea Lysy, a former student of Barre's from Mass. College. She is presently working in a government lab for the USDA. We enjoyed learning more about living in Hilo, the largest town on the island. We had a very pleasant visit over dinner in Hilo and drove to "home" in Kona over the mountain road of Mauna Kea.

We spent the last day on the Big Island travelling just south of Kona visiting the Harbor of Refuge, Pu'uhonnua O Honaunau. This is where warriors were absolved of their law breaking and returned to society. This is one of the most sacred areas in Hawaii.

We are now off to our fourth island, Kauai.