Cruisin' the Big Island

Ok, OK, I am sorry. The trip has been hectic and I have been neglecting my loyal readers. I will endeavour to catch up ASAP!

Our first day in Kona started with breakfast in the unit followed by a chat with the 'Activity planner' at the hotel. He suggested we go for a drive south of the island and have a look around. I had wanted to go kayaking around Kealakekua Bay, which is a short trip south of where we are staying, but the surf was too rough and all beaches had been closed on the western side of the island. The surf was really big, it looked a good 10 to 12 ft around Kona.

So if we couldn't kayak we did the next best thing and drove. Kealakekua Bay is quite big and the memorial is on the northern side of the bay, we could only drive to the southern side so you can see it in the photos as the white dot in the distance. Why not walk around to it you say? Well the cliffs tend to get in the way, this is a very new island (geologically speaking) so the terrain is very rugged in places and there are some big drops down into the sea.

The road down to Kealakekua Bay was a bit if a squeeze at times but the Impala handled it no problem.

It's a long story but in a nutshell Capt. Cook arrived in Hawaii and was greeted as a God, he hung around for a while and then left but one of his ships snapped a mast so he then came back to make repairs. There were some issues with the locals around the theft and burning of a long boat (they wanted the nails to make fish hooks) which ended badly for the Captain, turns out that despite all his sailing skills he couldn't swim. Even when he was dead he was still highly regarded by the natives as his bones were distributed among the local chiefs who believed they held Cook's spirit.

Hawaii is known as the Big Island but you could drive all the way around it in about half a day. The roads are pretty good and well maintained but can be a bit bendy in places. There are a few farms on the island growing coffee (apparently Kona Coffee is quite famous) and running a few cows, nothing on a very big scale of course but that doesn't stop the locals from driving massive utes and 4x4s some are even made higher by jacked up suspension.

After Kealakekua Bay we continued south and started passing some lava flows. There are 2 types of lava flows the very hot and fast moving Pahoehoe lava and the slow moving relatively cooler a'a lava. A'a lava looks like dirt pushed along by a bulldozer and is really rugged. Pahoehoe lava is flatter and cools to be comparatively smoother.

The southern tip of Hawaii is also the most southern point of the USA being about 300 miles further south than Key West in Florida. It is also the site of a big wind farm.

A bit further around is Panaluu Beach. This is just like any other Beach except the sand is black. The beach was formed from lava hitting the ocean and cooling quickly not from rocks breaking down. There are very few white sand beaches on Hawaii, most are grey or black. There is a green sand beach as well which is caused by the formation of peridot crystals.

This island is a geologists dream. There are so many different types of rock caused by slightly different conditions - lava cooling quickly, lava cooling slowly, lava spitting out of a volcano, lava oozing out, lava hitting water, lava coating trees, etc.

Panaluu Beach is also a nesting ground for a number of types of sea turtles and when we were there six of them were resting on the beach before coming up to lay their eggs.

After hanging out there for a while we hopped back into the chariot and headed home.

Back at Kona, 2 significant things happened:
1. I drove on the wrong side of the road. Lucky it was a quiet street and David in the back said very calmly you are on the wrong side of the road. I then noticed the monster ute coming at me - then it became slow motion ... 'Oh dear' I cried (or words to that effect), the wheel spun to the right, my passengers screamed in terror, I screamed in terror, we careened over to the right side, and then it was over. It wasn't really close at all, I just scared the hell out of myself and the bloke in the monster truck just thought I was an idiot.
2. We officially became one of the 'People of Walmart'. If you don't know what that means have a look at our brothers and sisters in the photos on this site: http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

Dinner was at the Outback Steakhouse in Kona, a bit cheesy but a good feed.

After that it was back to the unit and rest.Read more