The 'Paradise' side of the Big Island

This past Saturday, a small group of budding volcanologists drove across to Kona, away from the comfort of Kilauea's fumes and toward the hot, crowded, beautiful, surfable tourist beaches. In any other situation I hate being the obvious tourist who doesn't belong, but in Kona, the natives stand out while the tourists swarm the landscape in cliche Hawaiian shirts and sundresses. That being said, it was wonderful to be so conspicuous!

We started the day at Punalu'u beach near South Point. We didn't stay long, but right before we left two sea turtles managed to make their way onto the shore. The closest we could get was 5 or 6 feet away. They didn't seem to mind us.

From there we continued the drive to Kona, and we arrived around lunchtime. We wandered in the dry heat for a while (it was definitely the stereotypical Hawaiian destination) and finally found a cafe place named "Bongo Ben's" where we had lunch (and all different kinds of tropical colorful drinks!)

After lunch we stopped at a classic ABC store - apparently there's one every few blocks in Honolulu - and Katie and I bought Hawaiian print sundresses to blend in with the tourists. There are all kinds of interesting and cheap souvenirs in those stores...which some of you may or may not receive...

Our destination then became Hapuna beach, a fine-grained, shallowly sloping, white sands beach about 20 minutes from Kona. We got there around 4ish, hoping that the tourists and small children would leave to eat dinner, and the beach cleared out within the hour. The waves were huge - at least, the largest I've ever experienced - at 4 to 6 feet tall. They were powerful enough to pull you under briefly into the sand if you didn't jump high enough or were trying to bodysurf.

This is a movie to illustrate both the height of the waves, Philippe's hilarious last-minute jumping, and Shaun's spectacular bodysurfing abilities (he's the one with long hair at the end that looks like seaweed).



And...after a few hours at the beach, finally, the sunset is gorgeous. From left to right: (top) Anson, Shaun, Josh, Philippe; (bottom) Karen, Katie, and me.

But, the adventure wasn't over. We spontaneously decided to drive all the way to the Mauna Kea Observatory Visitor's Center at an elevation of 9,200 ft, near the summit of Mauna Kea. It was freezing at the top, but we were courageous enough to stand in the wind to see a double star in the Big Dipper. Unfortunately the moon was bright and it was a little cloudy, otherwise we might have driven to the summit.

The big kick we got outta this stop was this sign that was posted near the door. Invisible cows...umm...what?


The drive was somewhat epic, in that we drove from sea level to 9,200 ft, back down to sea level in Hilo (we stopped at a 24-hr pancake house for snacks at 11 pm), and then back to 4,000 ft in Volcano. I must have been feeling better, because my ears tolerated the extreme altitude changes well. So there, Mom.