After staying in Hilo for a few days, we are heading back to Kona. On the way back, we decided to stop by a couple of cool places:
Punalu’u Black Sand Beach
Black beaches are usually found near volcanoes, as the sand is composed of volcanic minerals and lava fragments. You can also find sea turtles here! One of the pictures below is a shy sea turtle saying hi with its hand from under the water. We were choosing between going to the black sand beach or the green sand beach because we only had time to go to one of them. As cool as the black beach was, we really should have picked the green sand beach! Due to poor research and planning, we did not know that the Big Island has one of the 4 green sand beaches in the world. Well, till next time!
Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park
Another stop we made is to the Pu'uhonua O Hōnaunau National Historical Park to learn more about Hawaiian history and culture. You get to see the hut and some cool sculptures!
We have another 3 days on the Kona side of the island, where we planned to spend our time on different beaches. We had to return the rental car because those were the only days the car was available. For the rest of our time here, we mostly used Uber to get to different places (as long as you don’t go too far, it doesn’t get too expensive). It is such a small island that we happened to have the same Uber drivers twice, and we also got to meet some interesting people who live on the island. We met a retired firefighter, a chef and a school teacher, and the people here are super friendly that they would share their whole life stories with you!
Catching the Waves - Magic Sands Beach
This is a beautiful beach, with soft white sand. As you can see in the video below, it has good waves for those who like to play with the board!
Snorkeling - Kahalu’u Beach Park
One of the activities that I looked forward the most was snorkeling!!!! And This is a great place for it! (So as the Honaunau or two steps next to the national historical park) We didn’t have anything to take underwater pictures, but you can see a lot of fish from above as well! We saw so many fish that I would normally see in an aquarium (might not be the exact species, but that was how I felt), and it was an amazing experience! There are also a lot of sea urchins around, so be careful to not get stung!
Sea Turtle “Hunting” Part I - Anaehoomalu Bay
Sea turtles is my favorite sea animals, and yes, I actually have key chains of sea turtles! Needless to say that I want to see a real one! I looked online and found a couple beaches that claimed to have sea turtle sightings. This one is called the A-bay or the Anehoomalu bay. It is quite close to the Waikoloa village, which is a super huge fancy hotel resort, so you can go check that out if you have time! But, I am only here for the turtles!!! Turned out I did not see any sea turtles here, but it is a beautiful beach with lots of corals (pictures below). It is quite rocky, so I don’t recommend swimming, but I heard from other people we met along the way that there are a lot of fish and sometimes sea turtle in the water.
Sea Turtle “Hunting” Part II - Kiholo Bay
Both the Uber driver and another person we met at the A-bay told us that Kiholo bay is the place to go for sea turtle. I decided to trust the locals, as this is probably my last hope of seeing a real sea turtle. It was getting a little later in the day, which decreases the chance of seeing them! (Sea Turtles are usually seen between 11am to 4pm, when the sun is strong) The Kiholo Bay can be accessed through a trail by Highway 19, and it took us about 30 mins to walk from the trail head to the beach. After reaching the beach, you make a right and start walking all those lava rocks. AND…. drum roll….. THERE THEY ARE! Sunbathing on the rocks across! I was able to capture one that was going into the water (See below). We did not have swimming stuff with us, but we can see through the water that there are again a lot of fish AND sea turtles in the water!!! This looks like an amazing place for snorkeling because there are fewer people with a lot more fish plus sea turtles!! If we had come earlier, we would have been able to 1) see more sea turtles and 2) walk all the way to the end to get closer to the sea turtles. Oh well, till next time!!
Coffee Tour - Mountain Thunder
One last thing we want to do is coffee tasting! To be honest, we have been having bad luck getting good coffee around here, so we were quite skeptical about this. Anyways, we picked one of the many coffee roasters here based on online reviews and recommendations. This place gives you a complementary tour and coffee tasting, so you could come here and not spend a dime if you don’t buy anything! We did end up buying some authentic Kona coffee beans to try (and they are good, and expensive!).
This concludes our one-week relaxing vacation in Hawaii. There are definitely more you could do on the island, like swimming with dolphins, manta ray night dive, etc. For those who plans to visit, note that Christmas is their busiest time of the year, and everything gets booked out! So plan ahead! Aloha!