Volcanoes to Kona

We left volcanoes and headed towards Kailua-Kona for the 2nd half of our trip.  Our first stop was Papakolea, better known as Green Sand Beach.  It is one of only 4 green sand beaches in the world!   You have a couple options to get there.  1. You hike in 2.5 miles in almost dessert like conditions 2. You park in the parking lot at the end of the paved road and pay a local to drive you for usually about $20/person.  3.  You take your 4WD to it yourself.  We picked option 3.  Watching the people hiking was painful and the local shuttle wasn’t a whole lot better.  They had up to 6 or 8 people standing the the back of pick up trucks.  

Peeps standing in the back of a pick up truck. 

We are the blue dot!

A quick picture stop. 

Beautiful views from the drive. 

We made it!!

Headed down. 

Cool hike down. 

Green sand!!!!  It is from the olivine in the lava. 

Time to take a dip!  We hadn’t put our suits on because we didn’t think it was swimable. Wrong!  We had a jeepful of clothes since we were moving where we were staying so I swam in my clothes lol!

Time to head back. 

Next stop was South Point, the southern most spot in the US. 

They used to use this to lower fishing boats down into the water.  There is amazing fishing here for big pelagic fish. 

Beautiful coastline!  The water was the clearest I’ve ever seen. 

The water went up and down with each ocean swell. 

Ted jumped....lunatic!

This is the insane ladder you have to climb to get out of the water.  He said that was worse than jumping. 

Just in case anyone was curious. 

We continued our drive to Kailua-Kona.  Despite some fog and rain it was really pretty with macadamia and coffee farms along the highway (not really a highway but as close as you get here lol!).  Our last stop was at Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park also known as the place of refuge.  Hawaiians were ruled by the law of Kapu.  If you broke a Kapu the punishment was death unless you could reach a place of refuge.  There were 31 across the islands with 6 on the island of Hawaii. To reach this particular one you had to swim as it was surrounded by royal grounds that were Kapu to anyone other than royals and kahunas.  We took an excellent audio tour of the area. 

A model of a traditional temple, a heiau. 

Playing a little Konane, a traditional hawaiian game of strategy.  

 

The Great Wall.  12 feet tall and over 950 feet long it was built in 5 days!!!   It separated the royal grounds from the place of refuge. 

Hale o Keawe, a heiau that was used as a mausoleum to house bones of royals.  


The place of refuge. 

A Halau used to store canoes. 

Just a little driving left to get to our final destination of the night, a house in Kailua-Kona. 

We made it! Where do you eat on your first night in Kona?!

Kona Brewing of course!!!