Day 1- Our flight left Utah around 3:00 and we finally landed, rented the car, and made it to the rental place a few miles south of Kona on the Big Island by 11:00 local time.
Day 2- We had to start of the day by stocking up on groceries for our time at the condo. The rental had some snorkels we could use, so that morning we went to Kahululu beach for a little snorkeling.
We tried our first of many shave ices, this one from Scandinavia shave ice.
We ended the daylight hours at Hapuna beach in the sun and doing a little boogie boarding.
Day 3- We headed to South Point as our first stop. It is the southernmost tip of Hawaii, and therefore the United States.
There were fisherman fishing off the cliffs here. In the old days they would lower their boats down the cliffs and into the water. It is apparently good fishing grounds.
On the way out we stopped at this little local garden plantation. It said there was free chocolate. It turned out to be macadamia filled chocolate, so most of the family didn't love it.
Bananas in the banana tree.
Hayden loves mangos!
By the banana trees.
Coffee beans growing on the coffee plant.
Avocado!
Next stop was Punalu'u beach. It's a black sand beach where there are usually sea turtles sunning themselves. Luckily we arrived to find one laying out on the beach. Cones were set up to prevent people from getting too close. It's against the law as they're a protected species.
Beautiful water lily pond right next to the beach parking.
We entered the Volcano National Park next! It was windy and rainy on this side of the island.
Here are a couple pictures of the caldera. It sank hundreds of feet before the recent lava eruption. A lot of places were closed still at the park, and some are gone forever. There is no active lava flow anywhere in the park right now.
Straddling a fissure from the 1969 flow.
This blobby thing was a little fern that was globbed in lava flow.
Life always finds a way :)
More lava globs and splats.
This kid took off running across the lava field to find the end of the rainbow. He was quite upset when we had to stop him and tried to explain the concept of refractory light.
Here are the ancient petroglyphs. They believe some are dated back to 300 B.C.
Some of the natives still get to use this area as part of their religious ceremonies. They make those little holes and then put their new babies umbilical cords in them. Somehow cementing the child into the family.
The arch in the sun at the end of the road called the Chain of Craters Road.
We finished up this side of the island by visiting the Visitor's Information Station on Mauna Kea where some volunteers set up telescopes to stargaze. Here are some pictures that one of telescopes took. Then we got some hot chocolate. It was chilly up there.
Day 4- Magic Sands beach. Lovely soft sand, good water.
The lifeguard tower all decorated for Christmas.
Honaunau Bay for more snorkeling. A cute little sea turtle was munching in a tide pool while the tide was out.
At night we went on the snorkel trip to snorkel with manta rays. Josh was on board with the idea, until today. By the time evening rolled around he was so full of anxiety at the thought of it all, he was angry and insistent that he was NOT going. Unfortunately for him, we'd pre-paid and he was forced to go. You have to hold on to a rigged up surfboard with lights that attracts the plankton that manta rays feed on. While you float there looking down, the manta rays swim in barrel rolls up and around the surfboard. It was really beautiful. And good news, Josh actually enjoyed it! I didn't have a waterproof camera, so no pictures :( But my friend did her trip a few days before we did and caught some video, so here is a link to her video of the same things we did. Manta Rays
Day 5- Sunday. We drove by the Kona temple for a quick picture.
Then we had to head to the airport for our flight to Maui. We spent the rest of today flying, renting our car, and getting our groceries for the stay on Maui.
Day 6- We had to rent snorkel gear on this island. The Honolua bay up north had poor visibility, so we were told to try Ahihi-kinau reserve instead. We rented an underwater camera this time!
After a little snorkeling we switched over to Makena beach for a nice soft, sandy beach.
After some lunch we drove to the Nakalele blow hole.
In the evening we stopped by Lahaina to see the Banyan tree and walk front street. The banyan tree looked especially beautiful all lit up in Christmas lights!
Day 7- Tuesday morning started off waaay too early. We had reservations to see the sunrise on Haleakala. We woke up at 2:30 so we could be out the door by 3 am to make it to the summit by 4:30 as the website recommended. Boy was that early. And cold. So cold. But there were a few lovely sunrise moments in between the fog obstructing the view.
We decided to spend the rest of the day just recovering on beaches. The first beach was Keawakapu. It has nice brown sugar-like sandy beaches.
Then we tried Po'Olenalena beach. There is two sections of this beach separated by a rocky outcropping. I saw some people take the upper north trail to head to the northern more secluded section. I thought that was a good idea, so we followed. Not too long into our adventure there was soon a naked topped lady. Hmmm. Weird, but ok.... Not much after that we spotted 2 full nude dudes. Whooops! This is a clothing optional beach. We headed out of there and went back to the safer/family friendly southern section of the beach. While we were at that beach we saw a sea turtle swimming in the water. That was much better scenery!
Some of the ruins of the sand cities the boys made on every beach we went to.
We left that beach for some more shave ice at Ululani's. The best ever! Then ended up at Charley Young beach which wasn't too far from our condo. We liked that little beach. We ended there with the sunset.
Day 8- Today was the Road to Hana. We tried Puohokamoa falls, but the gate was closed, blocking off access. Waikani falls were really pretty. I'm the only one who was willing to make the hike to the bottom. The others just enjoyed the vista from the top.
We tried a little banana bread from the roadside vendor. Stopped by Waianapanapa state park. Beautiful rugged coastline with a little black beach and a blow hole. The winter surf was way too overwelming to venture into the water.
There was a little tunnel through the lava rock leading to the ocean that was fun to crawl through.
Day 9- It's our last day in Hawaii! We started it off with a morning charter to snorkel out by Lanai. The trade winds were really rough today so we had to head to Shark Fin bay on the west side of Lanai. We had a fun cruise back (thanks to my Dramamine) full of some rockin' waves that were splashing over the top of the double decker boat. I stayed up top with two other people to ride the boat waves in the splash. The rest of the family stayed at the bottom back part of the boat where apparently Josh cried a few times out of fear of the rocking waves. We tried to warm up at a sandy beach once we were back on land at Kaanapali beach. It was ridiculously hard to find parking, but we did. It was a long sandy pretty beach. But the trade winds were still so strong that it just kept throwing sand at us violently. Ouch. So we decided to leave, grab some delicious Ululani shave ice (the Haleakala flavor was my favorite), then swam for a little while back out our condo pool that had a view of the ocean. We left there when we found out the rest of the residents were having a luau starting at 5:00 pm. We then drove over to a nearby beach side park to watch the sunset. After the sunset we had to get ready to leave for our flight by grabbing dinner. Some of us had Costco pizza, and the others tried some new food from the local food trucks. McKinley tried the Japanese Ramen, and Hayden chose the Thai truck and ordered fried rice with chicken. Then it was off to the airport and time to say Aloha to Hawaii!
Our favorite thing to see here was the eel down there. Can you see it?
