I’ve been to Honolulu and Maui before, so I already knew that I love Hawaii. In my mind, it is my island paradise. (although to be fair, I have not yet traveled to other island paradises like St. Lucia or Bali). And for the longest time, I’ve been telling Sean that he slash we must go, because I knew he would feel the same way as I do.
We chose the Big Island over the other islands because we wanted to see volcanos, lava tubes, lush rainforests, thundering waterfalls, jagged lava fields, verdant valleys, sprawling pasture lands and be on top of the world and above the clouds. That’s a tall order! Not many islands will has as varied a landscape as the Big Island of Hawaii.
Hawaii is the largest island in the Hawaiian chain and nearly twice the size out of all the other Hawaiian islands combined. It’s huge. To drive around the entire island would take about 6 hours. Hawaii is also home to 10 (!) diverse climate zones, the world’s largest mountain (Mauna Loa), the tallest sea mountain (Mauna Kea) AND the southernmost point in the US. (Ka Lae)
We had to re-jigged our plans when Kilauea erupted. For safety reasons, we cancelled our stays in Volcano Village and Pahoa, which was too bad because we had planned to see Volcano National Park, check out lava flows in Puna, seek out tide pools, do the hike from Ka Lae to Papakolea green sand beach, and if we were lucky, encounter turtles basking in the sun at Punaluu black sand beach. Next time!
With those cancellations, we gained back 4 days. And that was great because it gave us more time up north in Kona, Hilo, Honoka’a and Waimea. There was no longer any pressure to cram things in at each stop.
Weather-wise, the leeward side (Kona) is different from the windward side (Hilo). If you like fun in the sun and dry, hot weather, Kona/Waikoloa/Kohala Coast will be your jam. But heads up! There is very little greenery there, although lots of lava fields. Also, the volcanic smog or vog blows towards Kona. It was a bit voggy on one of our days in Kona, but luckily, it didn’t trigger Sean’s asthma.
Hilo has the reputation of being the 2nd rainiest city in the US, and a lot of people may avoid it for that reason. I’m from Vancouver, so I’m used to it. Don’t let the rain deter you. Hilo and the Hamauka Coast is definitely worth a visit – if just for the jungly lushness of it! We only experienced one day of rain during our entire 9 days on the island.
Some observations:
The Big Island is not Oahu, so things close up early around here. We only came across one 24 hour restaurant here and the latest a grocery store stays open in Waikoloa is 11pm (Queen’s Marketplace)
Hawaiian-style plate lunches are HUGE. You’ll definitely leave the restaurant with a take out container. Big mounds of rice. Very meat heavy diet on the island. Not a lot of vegetarian options. We ate a lot of tuna and egg salad sandwiches for lunch and in between meals!
Speaking of containers, we didn’t see a lot of recycling options – at least, where we stayed.
There’s very little light pollution here. It’s pretty dark driving at night, but hey! Stars galore!
Also, the trees here! Banyan trees, koa (acacia) trees and trees that I dubbed broccolini trees, due to its appearance.
There are myna birds, mongooses and feral cats all over the island.
If you’re staying at the Grand Naniloa, there’s tons of coqui frogs residing in trees! At night, they make their presence known with the calls of “ko-kee, ko-kee.” Sean and I didn’t mind the noise at all, but we don’t live here. Locals, on the other hand, are not so much charmed by their 70-80 decibel choruses every night. (equivalent to a power mower or a kitchen blender). I think it’s soothing.
Life here is mellow and the locals are super chill and hospitable. It didn’t take us long to get onto “island time” at all. The Big Island is a great choice to leave your stresses behind.
And a week on any other Hawaiian Island is not enough to explore this entire island. But it’s a start. And incentive for us to come back and see the southern half of the Big Island…as well as re-visit all the places we’ve already fell in love with.
View more photos of our trip on my Flickr album!
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