Big Island - January 2019

Graham Parker on 28 January 2019
We arrived at Hilo, Big Island early. The flight was uneventful apart from the approach, which I don’t know if standard, but is similar to the approach to the old Kai Tak airport in Hong Kong. The aircraft approaches at around 45 degrees to the runway and it was great to watch from the correct side of the aircraft. The captain turns in at what looks like the last minute to flare out, bang on the threshold, for a perfect landing.

We made our way through baggage reclaim to the car rental desks. We had booked an intermediate SUV and we were given the choice of a Yute (which I would have loved to take, I used to watch Neighbours after all). Sadly, the rear was open and as we had 3 cases to transport, we couldn’t make them secure. So, we had to make do with the no less impressive Cadillac 3.6 SUV. Which was a lovely car to drive and tour in.

As we had time on our hands, we drove south to find the now dormant lava flows and had an amazing drive around the newly formed lava land forms. I’ve never seen anything like it before. We then began the short climb to the very aptly named town of Volcano, on the outskirts of the Hawai’I Volcanoes National Park. We found our hotel, a very quaint little chalet a short drive from a few local restaurants. We also had a quick run into the National Park, once again, due to the US government shutdown, the park was being staffed by volunteers and was free to enter. We spoke to one of the very helpful assistants who told us that trails were being constantly monitored and could close or open at any time. On the way back to the hotel we happened to find a local winery, where we sampled and subsequently bought some local wine.

We only stayed two nights, so one full day, we drove into the park, parked up and had a look around the trails, ending with coffee in the Volcano House hotel, on the crater rim. It was also worth noting that the visitors centre showing time lapse video of the crater collapsing was incredible to watch.

The following day we drove through impressive landscape over to the west coast and our final hotel at Kona, arriving late afternoon. The hotel was at the southern end of the Kona strip, bordered with the usual array of shops, bars and restaurants. After check-in we headed off north again to find recommended beaches and other sights. First to note is many of the beaches are black sand which is quite unusual, though we did find long stretches of yellow sand, and made a note to revisit.

We did notice a difficulty in getting somewhere to eat. We knew it would be busy, it was New Year week, but most places were showing at least a 45-minute wait. We always try and share our patronage to different restaurants, trying the local Thai, a traditional brewery/sports bar, and a specialist fish restaurant. The food was tasty and proportions generous. What was disappointing was the hotel restaurant was closed four nights a week, including New Year’s Eve, it not deemed high profile enough to be open.

Around 10pm on New Years Eve, we noticed quite a large firework display on the horizon, taking place over the large Hilton resort some 10 miles away. Unfortunately, no display was arranged in Kona, a local bar set a few rockets away at midnight, and that was it. It was chalk and cheese compared to our Sydney experience last year.

We took a drive back over to Hilo, right through the middle of the country, and such a contrast it was. Clear bright blue, warm skies on the west, climbing into the rain clouds over the highway, which stayed with us all the way to the coast, so much so we had to abandon plans to visit the Botanical gardens, as it was so wet. We decided to circumnavigate the island and return to Kona over the northern route, thankfully the further west and more miles we drove, the more the weather improved, until finally reaching the clear blue skies.

On our last day, we drove back to a remote beach we found, we got up early and drove past the airport the 7 miles or so to the Kekaha Kai Beach Park. We arrived early and bagged a good spot under a tree for some shade, and watched families play in surf, all trying to keep their feet in the shallows, as the large waves crashed down. Most impressively, we watched a couple on motorised surf boards which I had never seen in action before. It was great to watch.

All too soon it was time to leave the beach, get back to the hotel, and get packed. As the packed Boeing 717 taxied out to the runway, my wife looked out the window and mentioned it was just like leaving the moon, so barren and rocky was the landscape.

We left early for our flight back to Honolulu and lunch with a friend, before we did our time travel trick, back over the International Date Line, across the pacific to Hong Kong. Now we have the hang of the islands, we are already planning a return trip to watch the whales. Watch this space!