Big Island aka: Hawai'i, Hawaii Island

Waipaio valley (on NW side of island)…just breathtaking!

The Green Sand Beach (on SE side of the island). Imagine a beach made out of peridot crystals…amazing! It’s hard to get to, but well worth it!

The first outpost at Mauna Kea. You can actually see the milky way! Talk about putting you in your place in the universe…that will do it!

Hapuna Beach – just a nice fun beach!

Puako Beach – great snorkeling and I saw several sea turtles.

I used The Big Island Revealed as my tour guide – it was well worth the money for this book! The first three are my favorite places I’ve ever traveled.

My sister & I recently returned from The Big Island. What I loved most was the little towns that are peppered between the vastly different landscapes of the island and the different view points of people’s lifestyles that lived there. Hilo is a great city and some place I could definitely see myself living… even if it does get more rain than Portland!

Eruption update:

Kilauea – specifically Halema’uma’u – has been erupting for several weeks now, spewing out a steady seeming stream of sulphur dioxide.

If you go around dusk, you will see that this plume is glowing red. After dark the red is very clear, and best seen from the Jagger Museum.

The road down the mountain is closed. Apparently an earthquake caused the road to rupture.

There is periodic lava viewing off highway 130.

About the vog. Vog is the product of the sulphur plume. It is somewhat prevalent around and about most of the islands part of the time. When the trade winds are going, it blows off island. Otherwise, it has a tendency to settle in the areas around Glenwood if not blanketing most of the island, sparing perhaps the northern tip at Hawi. It travels across to Honolulu as well. When it is bad, you can taste it. We had one bad morning of it at Volcano itself – otherwise, the plume tends to blow over to Kona or off island altogether. We used surgical masks when working outside when it was bad, and then someone brought us over charcoal filter masks, which did not prove to be necessary.

Whatever you hope to find in Hawaii, it is probably found on the Big Island.

If it is a party that never stops, with the white beaches and hotels with bar service on the sand, go to Kona. Pay for a fine hotel, and soak it up.

If it’s fabulous waterfalls and gardens of tropical wonders, go to the east side of the island, and drive through Honomu to Akaka Falls. Go in the morning when the sunlight is on the water. Have lunch at the pizza place in Honomu, and check out Glass from the Past and the Ohana Gallery. Nearby is Onomea Bay and the botanical gardens – not to be missed if you have a love of plants and flowers.

Great food is all over the island – it’s worth it to check out Hawaiian Regional Cuisine, and take a tour of the restaurants where these great chefs practice their art. On this island, there is lots of organic food, grass fed beef, and the best eggs ever. If you run around a lot doing things, you will get really hungry, and food never tasted so good.

Snorkeling? Honaunau is amazing. So much reef, so many fish.

The volcano! It is a show that never stops. How rare to see the earth being born. And these days, Kilauea has new tricks up her sleeve. Watch the lava at night. Stay at the Volcano – make time in your voyage for this place. You cannot expect to experience it if you have to drive back to Kona at the end of the day.

There are star parties up high on Mauna Kea. Look through telescopes and see the rings of Saturn, moons of Jupiter, star clusters, or maybe even a comet.

The Green Sand beach, black sand beach, and all the beaches all over the island, each different, each carrying their stories.

You do not come to Hawaii to lay on the sand like a stone, but to begin to feel and embody the spirit of aloha. You begin to understand the crazy sorrow the last Hawaiian princess had riding over the land toward Waipio, her land lost to usurpers, her heart broken, her life force ebbing away.

Oh, the music. The slack key guitar, the hula, the hula drums. The laughter. Laughter is alive on this island.

The island is alive. You can feel the ancients stirring, because time is different here. Maybe you will get to see the hula at Halema’uma’u. Maybe you will feel the earth rumble as Pele shakes her hips and pushes back her hair. Hawaii is only beginning.

I cannot recommend these places enough:

The Kona Tiki Motel – perfect 60’s motel on the ocean, the caretakers were incredibly friendly and there is a beautiful patio with a pool and breakfast every morning overlooking the ocean.

The Cliff House – in Waipi’o, absolutely breathtaking view, beautiful private two bedroom house. It’s just you and the ocean, you feel like you can see the entire Pacific laid out in front of you.