With only two nights on the Island of Hawaii (the Big Island) we wanted to see as much as we could in one day. Come along as we do some of Hawaii Island's unique experiences from seeing volcanoes, coffee tasting at a Kona coffee farm, visiting the Southernmost town in the United States, black sand beaches, wine tasting at one of Hawaii's two wineries, walking through a lava tube and lots more!
Just a quick note: Italy and Sicily lovers, I am travelling to Sicily in October on a Sicilian Food Tour and I would y'all to come along! Join me, our guide Carm and fellow food lovers on an amazing 5 day tour that takes you to some of Sicily's food highlights. Carm and her family are from Sicily and we will get to experience things that are normally only open to friends and family of local Sicilians. The cost for this food tour is $4,000AUD or $2649USD per person and includes all meals and accommodation. And incredibly, there is no single supplement because Carm says, "I don't discriminate against singles like me." Here is the website and the downloadable brochure and the outline of where we are going! And if you use the code NQN when booking (write it in the date field) then you'll get a bottle of Cerasuolo Wine from Vittoria, the only DOCG wine of Sicily. This cherry red wine variety is a blend of Sicily's famous Nero D’Avola & Frappato worth $80AUD.
Confession: Mr NQN and I are so used to using digital drivers licenses in Australia that we completely forgot to bring our actual drivers licenses to Hawaii. and in America they only accept physical drivers licenses so we were somewhat limited in our movements. It wasn't a huge problem on O'ahu which we have visited numerous times and there's plenty to do in walkable Waikiki. But given Hawaii Island's former name of Big Island, walking everywhere would not be possible. But never fear, because you can still see Hawaii Island's highlights with a whole day tour with Kailani Tours.
Our guide Ridge and the coach picks us up at 8:15am at the Outrigger Kona. Ridge is a native of Hawaii Island hailing from the Hilo or east side of the island. He starts by explaining the difference between both sides of the island. Hilo is the wetter side with much more local influence but not a lot of accommodation for tourists while the West of the Island with Kona is considered the sunnier side of the island.
Kailani Tours have a maximum of 13 people and today there are 8 of us. Most of the food and drink is provided and we will travel over 150 miles/240kms and see a half circle of the island. At this early hour they know what everyone needs and that's a cup of coffee. Coffee is inextricably linked to Kona where it is exported all over the world. We head towards Greenwell Farms, a Kona coffee farm for our first taste of Hawaii Island. The drive takes around 15 minutes past enormous lava flows that resemble vast swathes of black rocks. Over 10,000 years these will naturally break down to become black sand beaches.
Everyone gets a cup and helps themselves to around 10 varieties of black coffee. Some are flavoured with spices, other use reserve beans and they're distinctly different from each other. After the tasting we wander around the farm where Ridge shows us the coffee trees where there remains the green unripe coffee berries that will turn red when they are ready to be picked. Coffee beans here are always picked by hand which accounts for its high prices. What makes Kona ideal for growing coffee is the weather with sunshine in the afternoon and cloud and rain at night. These coffee bean trees are pruned to 6 foot/180cm height otherwise they would grow to 30 feet/9 metres tall.
Ridge then poses a question to the group: do we know whether a light or dark roast has more caffeine? It turns out a lighter roast has more caffeine and quips that decaf is basically "burnt coffee". We look at the machinery holding ruby ripe coffee beans and smell the waft of fermenting, sweet fruit. We eat our packed breakfast of ube roll, yogurt and a slice of pineapple and sip our coffee under the tree.
Our next stop is the southernmost tip of Hawaii Island where we will visit the United States' Southernmost bakery. During the hour long drive Ridge explains the history of Hawaii as we drive past an area called Captain Cook and was named after the English captain as he landed here. It was said that the Native Hawaiians first arrived here 200-400AD using just the stars, wind and waves. The nearest land mass was 2,000 miles away so that had to know that something was here.
Ridge explains that Captain James Cook landed here twice. The first time the native Hawaiians believed he was a god because their god had white sails and a ship 10 times the size of theirs. On the second return in 1779 he returned to Hawaii to restock when he was looking for the north west passage. Half of his men died on this voyage and once they saw them sick and bleeding they realised that he was a man and not a god. This interaction was less successful and he tried to kidnap Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii's uncle and tried to kill high chief Kalaniʻōpuʻu. What ensued was a battle where Cook was killed.
10-15 years later an English sailor Captain George Vancouver apologised for the erroneous treatment and gifted King Kamehameha six cows and a bull. Nowadays Hawaii island is known for its cattle ranching. Parker Ranch is one of the world's largest ranches spanning 130,000 acres (53,000 ha) across the island. The owners used to own two thirds of the big island and how they came to be is an interesting story. The King's daughter married John Parker whom the king considered educated and good on the land especially with cattle so he was tasked with being in charge of the cattle and that is how they ended up with so much of the land. Nowadays the land is governed by the Parker Ranch Foundation Trust for the benefit of the North Hawaii Community Hospital, Hawaii Preparatory Academy, Hawaii Community Foundation and the Parker School. The grass fed beef Parker Ranch beef fetches a high price here and is usually sold on the mainland. We pass by ranches and farms with livestock grazing under monkeypod trees. Along with cattle the island's farms grow mango, avocado and macadamias.
One of the most unique things about Hawaii Island is that there are three types of sand found here: white, green and black. Parrot fish are responsible for the white sand as they ate coral and digested out white sand while the black sand came from lava rocks over 10,000 or more years ago. And the rarest sand is the green sand of which there are only 4 locations in the world. One of these is the Papakōlea Green Sand Beach on Hawaii Island's south east tip. The green is caused by a very rare mineral called olivein found deep down in earth's crust. It takes heavy lava flow for the mineral to pop up. A trip to Papakōlea Green Sand Beach is an all day trip so alas we won't be seeing it but we are headed towards a black sand beach. But first a bakery.
We arrive at Nāʻālehu, the southernmost town in the United States where everything is branded so from the church to the bakery. Our stop is the Punalu'u Bake Shop known for their Hawaiian sweet bread and malasadas. Service is no nonsense - join the long line, order and eat in the outside eating area. We try a traditional unstuffed malasada, an apple filled one and a lilikoi or passion fruit one. These have been fried earlier in the day so they are firmer and denser than normal. I'd also suggest crossing the road to go to the food truck Aloha Mix and getting something to eat there.
Our next stop is only a few minutes away at Punalu'u black sand beach where a crowd is gathered watching the green turtles close to the shore. Occasionally a green sea turtle pops it head or flipper out of the water right near the crowd at the beach. Occasionally you might see a monk seal. Black sand is coarse and varied in texture and we watch a woman clean her frypan using the sand's grit.
The Island of Hawaii is an ever changing and growing one thanks to its volcanoes. Kīlauea, an active volcano forms 20 footballs fields worth of land every year and Hawaii island is the fastest growing island. But with volcanoes comes high risk. Any moment a fissure in the ground could open and lava can spew out. There are two types of lava in Hawaii: Pahoehoe lava is liquid and runny with a low gas and silica content while Aa lava is thick with a high gas and silica content. Lava flow can be as fast as 35 miles/56kms per hour.
We drive past Hawaiian Ocean View Estates - despite its name, it is one of the cheaper places to live as it is situated on top of an old lava flow on the slopes of Mauna Loa, the world's largest volcano. The houses are built on stilts and gardening proves difficult on top of lava flow. There is also no guarantee that there will be no more eruptions with two still active volcanoes on Hawaii Island (Mauna Loa and Kīlauea). In 2018, 700 homes were taken out by Kīlauea. Everyone from this island has their own lava story, its strength and power creating modern day legends.
The landscape shifts dramatically from the inky black lava flows to verdant greenery. The volcanic sulfur creates deserts like the Kaʻū desert where dying trees breathe in the sulfurous winds. And Hawaii Island has VOG, hazy air pollution caused by the volcanic emissions from the volcanoes that can affect people's health.
Now we make our way north towards the rainy side of the island towards the national park and Mauna Loa and Kīlauea volcanoes. We arrive at the Volcano Winery, the Southernmost winery and the weather has changed vastly. It gets cold here (down to 17F/-8C blizzard conditions) and we pull on the jackets provided. Ridge tells us proudly that Hawaii Island is the only place where you can snowboard and surf the same day and it snows at the summit of both of these volcanoes as well as on Mauna Kea. It's time for an outdoor wine tasting right next to the enormous cork tree. Volcano Winery is one of Hawaii's two wineries (the other one is in Maui).
While they do grow some grapes on the estate, the 5-6 feet lava rock under topsoil makes growing grapes a challenge so they mostly use grapes from California. The property is 64 acres and of that, 12 acres are used for grapes including symphony grapes and 1 and a half acres for tea and olive trees. We try 7 wines from dry to sweet where they use whole fruit in some. The most unique one is a dessert wine that combines tea with wine and is a nice riff on a dessert wine. We also try two of their teas: a chilled white tea with a peachy flavour to it and a hot Japanese tea. After this we eat our packed lunch of turkey on Hawaiian sweet bread with a selection of Hawaiian potato chips and muesli bars.
After lunch we have four stops in the national park and the first is the look out where you can see the magnitude of the Kīlauea crater. It's impossible to capture on camera and can only be really appreciated in real life. And this view will change as parts crumble - pictures show the view before the 2018 eruption.
The next stop is a must do quick stop for a unique experience where you can step into the natural steam vents. For the full experience stand downwind where it feels like a sauna inside it but once you step outside it is very chilly. We warm up at the gift store afterwards and if you're carrying your passport you can also get it stamped.
The next and last stop in the National park is the lava tube where we walk through Hawaiian rainforest in a circular trail. Native Hawaiian birds chirp and we walk through where the lava flowed. Thurston's lava tube was discovered by Loren Thurston in 1913 and is 600 feet long and up to 20 feet high and is illuminated from within to show the path that the lava flowed.
Our return to Hilo on the East of Hawaii Island means taking off our layers for the warmth of Hilo. We buy up souvenirs at Big Island candies, a locally owned candy and cookie shop owned by Allan and Irma Ikawa who were born here. The factory is also located here at the shop and staff hand dip toffees and cookies in chocolate by hand. The lovely staff offer samples of anything and are so friendly and helpful.
The chilli toffee is fantastic and unique and the shortbread is beautifully crisp and beautifully wrapped boxes of candies and cookies are ready to buy. It is here that we buy most of our gifts for friends back home.
Our last stop before heading home is at the picturesque Rainbow Falls. Legend says that the goddess Hina lived in the cave underneath the waterfall. Rainbow or Waiānuenue Falls is 24m/80 ft tall and almost 30m/100 ft wide and is surrounding by trees and wildlife. Up the staircase behind it lies the giant banyan tree.
"Have we seen all five volcanoes?" asks one of the passengers on the tour. The timing of the question is serendipitous as Mauna Loa, before shrouded in fog reveals herself as we reach the centre of the big island and the setting sun lights the sky a rich orange.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you often take guided tours? Have you ever been to Hawaii Island?
NQN and Mr NQN won a tour as part of a prize but all opinions remain her own.
Kailani Tours
Big Island Highlights Day Tour
https://www.kailanitourshawaii.com/
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