Why I Loved Visiting The Big Island of Hawaii
Big Island of Hawaii Trip Part VII - Letters from a Wanderer No 8
Hello and welcome new subscribers!
Thank you for being here! This is the last installment of my posts about my recent trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, with an overview of the highlights. You can also read the first six posts in the Archives.
The youngest and largest of the islands of Hawaii, the Big Island offers everything from active volcanoes, gorgeous beaches, historical sites, dry desert landscapes, lush green tropical forests, and opportunities for wildlife encounters.
But when the opportunity to visit came up, I hesitated.
We first visited Hawaii in the early 1990s, when we spent most of our time in Oahu. At the time, the idea was exciting to me.
Growing up in Romania, we used the name Honolulu when referring to an unreachable place, a place from fairytales, so as a kid, I wasn’t sure it even existed. So, when my husband asked me in 1994 if I wanted to fly to Honolulu, I thought he was joking.
But when I realized he was serious, and Honolulu was an actual place we could visit, I didn’t hesitate. Of course I wanted to go! Even if for nothing else, just to send my parents and grandparents a postcard from Honolulu. I was giddy with anticipation to go to somewhere no one I knew has ever been before.
When in Honolulu, I convinced myself that I loved it. It was mostly true. But even then, I felt it was too built up, too crowded, full of tourists, and catering to tourists.
The beaches were all crowded; and they backed up against enormous hotels and resorts. On top of it, everywhere I looked, it seemed to be a construction site for more high-rise hotels and resorts. I didn’t hate it though, because it was something new, something different. Even if just about everything we saw and did was designed for tourists - we were tourists.
We found very few places we could get away from the crowds, even driving the entire island. A full week on Oahu was more than we could take.
So, a few days into our trip, we did the island-hopping they advertised at the airport, and flew to Kauai. That was an island I enjoyed much more. We stayed there overnight, in a cheap local hotel, and loved the experience!
The Na Pali coast was the most beautiful landscape I’ve ever seen! We hiked part of the trail along the coast in the thickest, wettest rainforest I could even have imagined! Soon after we entered the rainforest, it poured; We slipped and slid along the trail in a torrential rain, pouring on us more water than I’ve ever seen. But I loved hiking through it all - at least until the trail became too slippery and the rain prevented us from even seeing through it.
Still, when I hear the word Hawaii, I always think of Oahu first. And I’m not sure I want to go back. I know it is most travelers’ favorite spot, but everyone’s perception of the same place is different.
However, the Big Island is not Oahu. In ten days, I fell in love with it.
I loved its crystal-clear waters and gorgeous beaches, its unique volcanic landscape, and its lush rainforests and waterfalls. But most of all, I loved the island’s flowers, and even more so my encounters with the Hawaiian green sea turtles.
Ten Days on the Big Island
I believe most travelers read about their destination before going somewhere, and plan their trip. Occasionally I do, too. But most of the time, I prefer to only know the bare minimum about a place I visit for the first time.
I love the feeling of discovery that comes from going somewhere new you know nothing about. So, I learned nothing about the Big Island beforehand.
Of course, I knew it was the largest and youngest of the Hawaiian Islands. I also knew it was home to Kilauea, and a few more facts, but not much more.
So, it was an unexpected and pleasant surprise to walk out of the plane and not even need to walk into a building to get through the airport. Landing in the only outdoor airport I’ve ever been in started the trip off on a happy note. The perfect weather, the never-ending lava field, and especially the friendliness of people we came in contact with, added to the feeling.
Once we got in our rented car, we drove past an immense lava field the airport sits on. It was dinnertime, so we stopped at a tiny local poke bowl place. Another thing I knew about Hawaii was that poke bowls originated there. Since they are one of my favorite meals, and it was dinner time when we landed, we looked up the closest place to get one.
The GPS sent us through a neighborhood street into a commercial area filled with small shops. The place was a tiny, hole-in-the-wall fish market that also made poke bowls. Not a sit-down restaurant by any stretch of the imagination; there were no tables or chairs to sit at.
However, just outside, on the street, we found a bench to sit on and enjoy our dinner. It was the best - and largest - poke bowl I’ve ever had! Up until then, at least. A few days later, we stopped at another, even smaller poke bowl place, set up in the front yard of a local home. That one didn’t have as many choices, but they were just as good and the portions were just as large. And they had a few plastic tables and chairs set up in the yard.
During our first few days on the island, we drove up and down the west coast, stopping everywhere we thought was interesting. That’s how we found several white-sand beaches for a morning or afternoon dip in the crystal-clear waters of the Pacific, and a few National Parks and historic sites that offered a glimpse into Hawaii’s ancient - and not so ancient - history.
A few days later, we drove south to visit Hawaii Volcano National Park. Our timing proved lucky, at least for driving the 19-mile long Chain of Craters Scenic Road, since they closed it temporarily the day after we drove it.
The unique volcanic landscape, with smoking volcanoes and steam vents smelling like boiling vegetables, was an unforgettable experience. We even hiked into a caldera, through a dense rainforest. The stark difference between the lush green of the forest and the open black lava field made it a unique experience.
My favorite image of this area that stayed with me long after I left the island is the bright red flower of the ʻōhiʻa lehua tree, against the black lava field. They are one of the first plants to grow on new lava flow, and they have a special power to close up the pores they breathe through around harmful gases emanating from the active volcanoes most other plants would die from.
As unique and interesting as the volcanoes were, an even better experience for me was walking on a black sand beach, where I saw Hawaiian green sea turtles for the first time in my life. After seeing two on our first walk on Punalu’u black sand beach, when we returned the next day, we saw over ten of them climbing in and out of the water and interacting with each other.
In the Hawaiian tradition, encounters with green sea turtles bring luck. I don’t know if I had any other luck after, but that the simple fact that I could watch them for a while made me feel pretty lucky.
Our visit to Hilo and the surrounding lush green side of the island was also special. Walks and hikes to gorgeous waterfalls, scenic roads through lush tropical rainforest, all added to my newfound love for the island.
We drove across the island, where we felt in the middle of nowhere, ending up on Mauna Kea’s Visitor Center, then following the road to the north shore through empty countryside and tiny local historic villages.
The highlight of this road trip was the viewpoint on the north side of the island of Waipio Valley and the coast, reminding me of the Na Pali coast of Kauai.
Ten days on the Big Island proved to be enough to explore it, and sometimes even feel - almost - like a local.
We might not ever return to the Big Island - there are so many other places to explore - but I am grateful that I said yes to the trip.
With this, I will say goodbye to posts about the Big Island - for now at least. If you missed my previous posts, I wrote more in depth about the best experiences I mentioned above. If you are just joining me on this adventure, you can read them here:
Next, you can expect a post about a different destination, or about my thoughts on travel…
Thank you for reading, and Happy Travels,
All the best,
Emese
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Beautiful how you fell in love w/ the Big Island. Hawaii is so addictive.
Beautiful photos and a captivating narrative. A lovely post about Hawaii. Thank you for sharing your experiences.