Bye Volcano House! You were aweome in the most national park lodge way.
Kilauea was also churning away. We went out to take one final look of the crater. Standing on the edge of one of the world most active volcanos and seeing it spit gas, steam, and lava is an experience not to miss. It really puts you in your place on this planet.
We headed down Hwy 11 which is a two lane rural highway through the southern part of the big island. A friend had told us of a beach park ( Hawaii is full of them) where the snorkeling is good and the sea turtles are abundant. It didn't disappoint
we decended 4000 ft from Volcano back down to the coast to Punalu'u Beach. It's one of the really accessible black sand beaches in Hawaii. When a lava flow hit the water, the obsidian rock cooled so fast it burst into tiny particles to create the black sand.
It's quite striking.
You want to just fill your pockets with it and bring it home...the black pebbles too. It's not only illegal, but highly bad luck...like cursed luck, to take black sand. Hawaiians are smart that way. It keeps their sand where it should be.
You can try and try to take photos of the beach but I think it's close to impossible to really capture it.
Then...you see these....
Green sea turtles. Now, I have a little history with sea turtles going back to the Loggerhead Hilton on Pritchards Island in SC. I combed the beach to catch sea turtles laying eggs so we could put them in a safer place. I haven't seen a wild sea turtle since until today.
There were just a couple on the beach this morning. Then we talked to a guy who was out snorkeling in the bay. He showed us where the turtles were feeding off to the side. There were at least a dozen surfing the waves and bobbing with the surf.
Hard to see but one in the photo is up for air.
We decided to break for the snorkel gear and within a few minutes, we were out in the bay and swimming around the turtles.
Not my image, but it felt kind of like this. Several times I was face to face with a 3 ft long sea turtle. Absolutely one of the coolest experiences here on the island for us. We have had a few high-five moments on this trip...this one definitely one of the big ones.
A quick word abort snorkeling we learned from a friend. When you get here, go buy some cheap snorkel gear. Walmart or target both sell them. They run $25-$40 a set. Keep it in the car at all times. There are public beaches everywhere. Most of the beaches have bathrooms or changing rooms and showers. You can be in the water in minutes. While tour bus people were gawking at the two turtles on teh beach, Kim and I were swimming with a dozen of them. Best advice we were given, hands down.
There was another cool part to Punalu'u beach....the forest. This edge of the beach was a crazy looking forest with a lily pond.
It was a magical morning.
Down the road a bit, we stopped into Punalu'u Bake Shop - the southern most bakery in the US.
We had a couple of malasadas which is kind of like a cross between a dinner roll and a donut. Very tasty.
A few more miles down the road, we hit the mother load of lunches....Da Poke Shack. honestly, this could be my last meal on earth and I would die happy. The flavors are sweet, and savory, and buttery. It's like the best sushi you've ever had 10x. Maybe an exaggeration, but there is no denying that poke has become one of our favorite altime foods. I'm gonna miss it...big time.
It comes with rice and a delicious dried seaweed sprinkle, a veggie side ( mine is kimchee cucumbers...Kim's is pineapple with Li hing powder (sweet and salty). The poke today was albacore tuna because the ahi were not biting this morning...that's how fresh. By the way, they won #1 best pick for Yelp in 2014. #1 for EVErYtHiNG!
And it comes from a place like this. let me just say how much I love the roadside food here on teh big island. Aside from the places like Da Poke Shack, there were numerous roadside Kona coffee shops, and my favorite, the roadside fruit stands. Today, I stopped at an unmanned stand to pick up what will probably be my last bunch of apple bananas ( about 1/2 the size of normal bananas). You just grab what you want and put the money in a lock box - honor system of course. oMG! I wanted to grab one of all the things!
We also stopped at a Kona coffe shop to fuel up for the rest of the ride. All the coffee here is Kona because that's the region. It's the only state in the us to grow coffee and it's all on the big island.
All along the way were small coffee farms like this one.
We have made it to our final destination at the Waikoloa Beach resort. our next 3 days will be sitting by the pool and sipping fruity drinks. Thanks for reading and being interested in our adventure. it's been fun to recount the trip each night. Not sure if I will write much more just due to the lack of travel on the island at this point. If something interstesing happens, I'll post.
Aloha!
No comments:
Post a Comment