We spent out last morning in Hawaii jamming in a few more Hilo sights – Rainbow Falls, Pe’ePe’e Falls (no sniggering at the back) and Coconut Island, which is a very small beach attracted to the mainland by a footbridge. It’s been destroyed on numerous occasions by tsunamis and hurricanes (the bridge, that is) but … Continue reading
Mauna Kea, round two… We started today much like yesterday with a trip to Hapuna Beach – it’s probably going to be the last white sand/blue sea beach of the trip so we wanted to make the most of it and ensure our tans were as topped up as possible. This time we took the … Continue reading
Today we drove across Hawaii’s Saddle Road – a steep and windy route which cuts between the island’s two mountains, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa… More on those to come. The Saddle Road itself was once a pretty treacherous stretch but these days it’s just very long and very windy. As we’ve come to expect in … Continue reading
We didn’t achieve much today except the drive from Puna to Hilo, which is our base for the next few days. It seems to be a fairly typical Hawaiian small town, much like the others we’ve visited; lots of Art Deco and old colonial beach style buildings and all slightly worn around the edges – … Continue reading
As we’re in the heart of the Volcanos National Park – and because we wanted to see some real lava in action rather than just glowing in the bottom of a crater – we signed up for a volcanic trek today. Spent a lazy afternoon preparing for the strenuous evening by revisiting Kehena black beach. … Continue reading
< We spent today exploring Volcanos National Park, home of earth’s largest volcano, Mauna Loa, and earth’s youngest and most active volcano, Kilauea. There are lots of hikes and backcountry campsites throughout the park (which at 333,000 acres and counting makes it bigger than whole other Hawaiian islands) but there are also a couple of … Continue reading
One more snorkel session before we left Kona this morning, and we opted for Turtle Bay as it was nearest to the Air BnB. Car crime is rife in Hawaii – leave anything on sight in the car while it’s parked and you’ll get your windows smashed in. Sunglasses are apparently the hottest property and … Continue reading
Today is World Turtle Day, and it’s almost as if they knew because our day was filled with turtle sightings. This part of Hawaii is famous for its sea life and snorkelling, so armed with a fish-spotting guide and map of the best areas we headed off for a day of underwater adventure. We started … Continue reading
Despite the fact that inter-island flights only take about 45 minutes, we seemed to spend most of today travelling. Between checking out of the house, getting to the airport, checking in and doing security, most of the morning was filled with getting around. The flight from Honolulu, which is on O’ahu island, to Kona, which … Continue reading
As we only had one full day in Kailua, we wanted to fit in as much as possible and see as much as possible of this tiny patch of O’ahu. We were both up early again thanks to a combination of jet lag and sleeping in an open-sided hut, so we set off on a … Continue reading
Black Sabbatical 