Bob, the man we are renting our house from, puts together adventure tours for his renters. We have been checking them out and have some wonderful pictures as a result. I’ll take you on a guided tour if you like.

First on tour one was Lave Tree State Park – beautiful!

The lava trees were created when a lava flow inundated a forest centuries ago.

                    

The sign explains what happened.

They have turned it into a beautiful park with peaceful winding paths that belie the tumultuous creation of the lava trees. Note the fissure

– there are many slicing through the park. Some are large enough to fall into so be careful.

The next stop on the tour was at Isaac Hail State Park where we hiked through a jungle  and watched the pounding surf.  The diversity and power of nature is wondrous!

The last stop on our tour was to Black Sands National Park. For centuries this was a wonderful local treasure – a beautiful black sand beach with towering coconut palms where local families swam, surfed, picnicked and communed with nature. Then Mother Nature let loose and covered the area with a blanket of lava 60 feet deep and miles wide.

The people were devastated but are now beginning to reclaim what was theirs. Hundreds of coconut palms have been planted and families are returning to the area.

Today Tom and I leave our Kona abode and head to the Hilo side of the island. Since check in at the new place isn’t until late afternoon, we decided to go back to Kahului Bay. We hiked it once before but didn’t take the time to stop and snorkel or explore the tide pools and the pretty little oasis just off the trail about half way to the beach. So we decided the area deserved a more thorough inspection.

We hiked in the shorter back way this time and is only about a half hour/two mile hike. Parts are a little rugged but over all not too bad.

 When we reached the bay we were pleasantly surprised that we had the whole thing to ourselves.  We started off by snorkeling. Not as spectacular as Captain Cook’s Bay, but it had a small reef with lots of fish, coral and urchins. It was well worth the effort.  There is a freshwater stream that flows into the bay which makes the water colder, so after a while we got out to warm up. Tom decided to sunbathe, and I

decided to check out the numerous tide pools.

A bit later I sat and just watched the ocean. As I sat there, I saw a whale blowing and gliding to the surface fairly close.  It then breached. This place has it all!!

Then it was time to hike back. On the way back, we stopped by the little oasis with its golden pools.

  

We washed off the salt in the freshwater pool then pushed on. Good bye Kona.

Hello Hilo.  This is a quick view of our Hilo house.

This is our backyard and some of  the flowers around the house.

Anthurium

These turquoise ones are beautiful and unique. I haven’t seen them anywhere else.

  

Orchids

Bromeliads

 

 This little guy is one of the Mongoose family that frequents our yard and eats the avacados.

We’re on an acre of land in a very quiet area. I think we’re going to like it here.

   Today we just about did ourselves in. We hiked two miles down to Captain Cook’s Monument. “Two miles,” you may say, “that’s a piece of cake for you two.” Oh contraire, this was two miles and 1300 feet down a very narrow, steep path over what another hiker called “giant volcanic ball bearings.”   It was also sunny and hot and we had lunch, towels, and snorkel equipment in our backpacks. It was tough!

None-the-less, we made it down. Just as we reached the flatter part at the bottom, I heard someone behind me call, “Is that Charli up there?” I turned around and there was Joan. She is the one who brought us beer when Tom buried the car – go figure. We hiked the rest of the way and then ended up sitting with her when we all sat down for lunch. It is a small world.

Anyway, once we got to the monument,

we donned our snorkel gear and hit the water – OMG!!!!!! This is one if not the best snorkeling reef I’ve ever found. The reef is huge and teeming with a massive variety of fish – from tiny to large and of every color. The coral ranged from white to rich lavender to brown with pink tips – stunning with urchins and anemone nestled everywhere!!!  Breathtaking!

Snorkeling, lunch, then snorkeling again and it was time to head back two miles and 1300 feet…uggg.  The hike down was bad, the hike up was way worse. By this time it was even hotter with very little shade to be found. Normally we walk at about 3 miles an hour. The trail is about 2 miles one way and it took us nearly two hours to get back up. With the heat and the height, we were stopping to catch our breath and get our heart rates back down every hundred yards.  The good news is that we made it without having to be rescued.

In retrospect, the hike was brutal but the snorkeling was phenomenal and definitely worth the effort. We’ll sleep well tonight!

There are sooooo many remote and beautiful places in Hawaii that most of our days entail a hike to one or more of them. Many of these hikes entail a beach and swimming/snorkeling, so in this post I will take you to some of those wild and picturesque places.

The first is Kua Bay, which was a pretty easy hike that ended on a small bluff overlooking bay.  This was a pretty easy day since we really pushed our limits the last two, and I only mention it because it gives a flavor of the life here.  We sat on our bluff overlooking the bay and ate the lunch we had packed while watching the antics of the “cliff diver” wanabes and the whales spouting in the distance. If you look very closely at the picture of the rock sans boy (thee center picture), in the distance very near the horizon directly behind the rock, you can see a small white spot which is a whale spouting.  I was pretty excited to catch it.

  

What a great way to relax.

The next day we traveled to the Place of Refuge. It is a beautiful national park and a place of reverence to the ancient Hawaiians.  The guide book first led us on a pretty wild and rough hike across a large lava flow along  the coast.

It is riddled with arches and blowholes – formations where the lava rock has been eaten away by the pounding waves and form underwater caverns which occasionally break through the surface of the lava flow.  As the waves rush in, the water rushes through the tubes and to the surface then rushes out again.  The sights and sounds are wondrous and amazing.

It was a pretty tough hike, but well worth the effort. 

We then went into the park area and found a picnic table and had our lunch while watching the ocean and the whales blowing and breaching in the distance – lovely.

From there we went on another short hike to the ancient city

and back to the reconstructed village. It seems that in ancient times the Place of Refuge was just that.  It was an area where people who had broken the law, were wounded in battle, or needed refuge for any reason could go to be safe.  It is now a quiet and beautiful national park.

  

Before we left we visited some of the tide pools along the edge of the beach area – the  perfect end of another adventure.