Zach and I had about 5 days to go explore the Kona side of the island before our work trade and it was great! We went to 10+ beaches during that time and revisited a few along the way. After visiting the work-trade property last Thursday we headed through the small town of Hawi (pronounced like ‘ha-vee’) to grab lunch and check things out. I stopped in at the local crystal shop and got myself a Rainbow Flourite massage wand, which has turned out to be awesome! We then headed straight East to the Keokea Beach Park where we rested on the rocks and I had a chance to explore a bit. I found some strange creatures that I haven’t been able to identify:
The cliffs were also quite beautiful, but rain was threatening. We stopped for smoothies as we headed west toward the warm side of the island. We headed down the coast and stopped in Puako. We found a no-name beach to stay at overnight and watched the sunset.
We went out to the water the next morning to find 2 sea turtles. We then headed down to the first beach in town where we saw about 21 more! They were everywhere! The top image of this post shows seven turtles, can you find them? We headed into Waikolo Village which is a mall in a resort area. We hooked up in Starbucks and computed for awhile. In the afternoon, I got an urge to go see the petroglyph park.
It was neat to see all the petroglyphs and to take a walk through some of the more rugged lava terrain is fun! We visited the beach park right next to the petroglyphs afterward. It is one of my favorite beaches so far; it’s very pretty! The beach was black and white with chunks of coral and lava rock mixed together. I found Peridot (a type of green crystal) growing in the lava rock! (first image is Zach at the petroglyoh park.)
We were able to sleep just outside the entrance of Kekaha Kai State Park. The next day we headed into Kona and toured along the beachfront road to see if we could find a sandy beach. Most of the beaches we’ve been to have been anything but sand and I was surprised to see that many of Kona’s beaches are also mostly NOT sand as well. We found Kahalu’u Beach Park had a decent amount of sand so we stopped in to find that it was a great snorkeling spot! We had no snorkeling gear though, so we made a quick trip to go grab some and visit a farmers market as well. We went back and spent several hours swimming around looking at gorgeous fish and coral. It was great fun! Afterwards, we headed south not really knowing where we were going to stay for the night so we checked out Napo’opo’o Beach Park and parked as though we were staying the night. A huge graduation party started and tons of people showed up so we left without a clue of where we were going. Highway 160 is not wide enough for two vehicles and has 4’ ditches on either side; it was pretty weird to drive on! We pulled to the side to figure out where we were and a car going the opposite way pulled up to ask what the terrain was like ahead. This gave us the opportunity to ask the same question and we were told that the City of Refuge wasn’t too far down the road. I knew I wanted to go there so we drove on and found a little beach outside the park to stay for the night. We watched a few turtles before the sun went down. It was a strange night, because the locals kept coming and going for night fishing. Nobody bothered us though.
We left early because the beach was starting to get crowded and went straight to the Pu’uhonua o Honaunau (City of Refuge) Park. There was no one at the entrance so we entered without paying. There were Hawaiian buildings, games, carvings and more. The park is divided in two by a huge 20’+ thick wall that was built to divide the ali’i (nobels/royalty) beach from the commoners and kahunas (priests/shamans/witch doctors; they were all these things). The City of Refuge was untouchable by violence and someone could go there if they had committed a sin that woud have them killed. The kahunas would preform a ceremony and the person would get a new beginning.
We headed inland to see the painted church and visit the islands best food stand. We headed north to Kona and spent the rest of the afternoon at Lava Java for computing. We watched a gorgeous sunset and then spent the night at the news station. The next day was a lot of lying around at the Old Airport Beach. We went to the indian restaurant (not so great; it’s the only one on the whole island I think) and then the Kona Brewery. In the morning we headed back to Hawi to start our work trade!
