Earlier this summer, we decided we wanted to do an early winter trip to some place warm. We’ve talked about going to Hawaii for a couple of years and decided why not. We’ve never been and wanted something that was quite a bit different than our trip to France and Italy last year. That trip was basically non-stop sight seeing and travelling. It was great. This trip was intended to be a lot more laid back.
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We connected through Vancouver. The International terminal at Vancouver is really quite nice. Lots of options for eating, shopping etc. Once you get through U.S. customs in Calgary, there really isn’t much in the way of amenities, so it was nice to grab a quick bite while waiting for our connecting flight. We flew our favourite airline, WestJet which we like a lot. We were a little disappointed with the flight from Vancouver to Kona (Big Island). There was no entertainment system at all on the plane and the food service was only pay for sandwiches etc. The flight was fine and we got into Kona at 9:30 pm. Kona is a quaint little airport with only a couple of baggage carrousels. It felt great to get off the plane and be greeted with 25 Celsius degree temperature.
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We picked up the rental car and headed to the Courtyard King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel. They were running short of rental cars at the Thrifty so they upgraded us to a Mustang convertible which was very nice.
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I booked a week at a condo. The minor problem was that I messed up and thought we flew into Hilo which is on the east side of the island. Instead, we flew into Kona which is between a two and three hour drive
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We did not relish the idea of a two plus hour drive in the dark after being on a plane for 7+ hours, so the first night was spent in Kona. By the time we got to the hotel and checked in it was 11:00 pm. The only thing we could find open for dinner was Denny's which wouldn't have been our first choice. The food was actually pretty good. Either that, or we were starving.
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After a quick stop at a
Jamba Juice for breakfast, we headed south. The weather was overcast but not raining (yet). We drove south through some quite varied terrain. I turns out the island of Hawaii has
eight different climate zones. We saw everything from tropical rain forest, to baren volcanic waste land, rolling farm land and variations in between. We drove through Volcano but didn't stop at the national park. It was getting late in the afternoon and we hadn't had anything to eat so I decided we should just push on and check into our
condo and hopefully get a chance to swing back to see the
Volcano later in the week.
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We met Dan, the owner of the Condo who was very nice and recommended the hotel to stay at in Kona. He gave us a quick tour. It's a great space and the photos on the website don't do the place justice. We're right on the ocean with a salt water pool at our disposal.
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The condo that we're staying at is about 30 minutes south of Hilo in a fairly rural area. We headed into Hilo to get some groceries and a bite to eat seeing it was almost 3:00 and we had covered quite a few miles since breakfast.
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One of the great things about travelling with a smart phone and access to the internet, is the ability to find little out of the way places that really only locals know about. We use both Urban Spoon and Around-Me to find restaurants and occasionally other things to see. That, coupled with the best navigation app Waze, we feel pretty confident striking out and discovering out of the way places.
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The first discovery of the trip was a pizza place called
Pizza Hawaii. Located in a strip mall on the main road through Hilo, it would be easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. It's a small place, probably does most of it's business through take-out but it did have maybe eight tables or so and a pretty decent menu. We ordered a large Boardwalk which had Mozzarella cheese, bacon, ranch dressing, ham, tomatos, onion, mushrooms, shredded parmesan cheese, basil, oregano & green onions. It was really good. Toppings were fresh, very flavourful and the crust was pretty much perfect. We stuffed ourselves and still had leftovers to take back to the condo.
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Our condo is right on the ocean. There is a path that stretches in both directions that is a public space. There are not a lot of people who walk by, but there are a few. Occassionaly with a dog or two in tow. There isn't a beach close by, it's very rocky which makes for some spectacular waves crashing on the shore.
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The weather hasn't been perfect. Don't get me wrong compared to home, it's fantastic. In the seven days that we've been here, we only had one day of sunshine. The rest were either overcast or rain and overcast. The temperature is warm so it's not bad. Not far from the condo is
Ahalanui Beach Park which is a spring fed pool that has a sand bottom. It's man made with a break-wall between the pool and the ocean but it's a very pleasant 32 Degrees C (90 F). Sitting/floating/swimming in the hot pool in the rain was a nice way to spend an hour or so.
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We spent an afternoon walking around the "down town" area of Hilo. There are still some charming buildings and we got a sense of what it was like many years ago.
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We stopped for lunch at
Cafe Pesto which is in a turn of the century building with what look to be original fixtures, floors etc. Lunch consisted of a burger for Deanna and the fish special for me which was a crab cake, shrimp and a salad. The quality was very good and the atmposphere was very nice. I would recommend it if you're in the area.
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We saw a sign for a Christmas Craft fair which caught Deanna's eye. It was very busy with a collection of vendors selling everything from hand made crafts and food to typical mass market stuff you would see at any market. Deanna picked up a nice wall hanging, horse themed of course
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Close to downtown Hilo is Rainbow Falls. It's a nice little area, not spectacular as far as Hawaiian waterfalls go but if you find yourself in Hilo it's worth a stop and a quick wander around.
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We finally got some sunshine on Saturday. We started the day wandering around the
Hilo Farmer's Market. It's quite a unique market full of food, crafts and products of all shapes and sizes. The fruit and vegtables looked very fresh and generally not that expensive.
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Given the sunshine, we decided to spend some time at one of the local Hilo beaches.
Onekahakaha Beach Park is very close to the centre of Hilo and is a very family oriented beach. Being Saturday, there were lots of people around with kids playing in the water. It was also a very popular place for birthday parties. There are a number of pavilions that I assume anyone can book. It's a great place for a party.
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Lunch today was at a local diner called
Ken's House of Pancakes. It had
lots of good reviews on Urban Spoon. It was just ok. Deanna had a chicken curry sandwich and I had a BBQ pork sandwich. Not bad, not fantasic. It might be worth another visit to try something else. I'm not sure we'll have time or not.
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After lunch we headed out of Hilo to
Akaka Falls. It's a very popular place with an easy walking path to the falls. The walk is very nice, through some very dense rain forest with lots of flowers, trees and foilage of all shapes and sizes. The falls are beautiful, cascading into a huge pool. Very much worth a visit.
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We stopped at a fruit stand on the side of the road on the way back from the falls. You know we live in a digital age when even a small family fruit stand has a
website. The fellow there was very kind telling us about the fresh coconuts, pineapples and bananas that came from the farm. Deanna enjoyed some fresh coconut.
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Around the corner from the fruit stand and near the highway is the little town of Honomu. It used to be a sugar cane company town with a theatre, restaurants and stores. Now, it looks like it's mostly a tourist town and a commuter town for Hilo.
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Oh and that Turtle cloth wall hanging? It's coming back home with us
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No trip to the Big Island of Hawaii would be complete without a trip to see Volcano National Park and the star attraction of
Kileuea. The volcano has been doing it's thing for millions of years and recently (1983) has been very active. A person could spend at least a week exploring the park. We had a few hours which we spent at the visitors centre, the
museum and a two hour hike through a rain forest and across the floor of a crater. It's quite fascinating and probably a great thing to see at night when it is dark. We didn't see any magma (that needs to be said in the voice of Dr. Evil.), but apparently it is possible to get within sight of it.
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The aptly named town of Volcano is close to the park. It has a few small shops and restaurants. We stopped for sandwiches that were really good. Fresh baked bread, lots of veggies.
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On the way home we stopped at the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm/plantation to pick up a few things to take home for friends and family. I'm not much of a macadamia nut fan so much of it was lost on me but it's always interesting to see businesses like this.
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Our last meal was at Lemon Grass in the town of Keaau, which is about 20 minutes away from our condo. It’s a family run Thai/Vietnamese/Chineese restaurant. We had some deep fried wontons, Pad Thai, Basil Chicken and some rice. It was really very tasty.
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And with that, we bid Aloha to our first week on our Trip. We enjoyed our week with a nice balance of sight seeing and just taking it easy. The weather could have been sunnier but the temperature was nice and we didn’t get *that* much rain. The forecast in Kaui is looking sunny which will be great.
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