Tiff & Jared's adventures

One island down, two to go. The Big Island was a great way to start the honeymoon! (Fun fact – honeymoon is a Scandinavian term for when couple first got married, they drank mead every night for a full moon cycle.) We flew into Kona at night and the first thing we did, typical to our traveling style, is go to Costco to get a cheap dinner. We got some garlic shrimp and a salad pack to eat at the airbnb – yum!

Tuesday

The next day we woke up early for beaches and food. I spent quite a good deal of time researching the best places to eat on the islands. For our first breakfast, we had açaí bowls at Basik Cafe which were bigger than my head. We ate on the deck and had a great view of the ocean! From here, we went to our first beach – Magic Sands. The waves were some of the biggest I’ve ever seen and it was crazy how bold people were in the water! We went in for a little and I honestly got a little scared – the waves were huge and frequent, so once you went under, you became a little disoriented about which was was up. I’m glad we got out when we did because the waves kept getting bigger – at one point we saw the lifeguards go out on their jet ski to rescue someone who had strayed a little far from shore. It was fun watching others in the water though from our safe vantage point on the beach.

For lunch, we drove five minutes down the coast to apparently the best poke on the island. We waited overall start to finish an hour in line but it did not disappoint – we got to try four types of poke, two sides and rice. It was my first poke and I enjoyed it (texture is still a little hard to get used to).

The rest of the day was spent running errands (getting groceries), and visiting other beaches. We drove a few miles down this rough gravel road to get to Mahaiula Bay and hung out there for a bit. We saw an endangered monk seal basking in the sun!

After the beach day, we went and got the biggest bowl of shaved ice I have ever seen. Talk about a good food day!

Wednesday

The next day we woke up early at the Airbnb (the sun sets at 6:30 – 7:00PM here which we did not anticipate so we’ve been going to bed early) and drove to Waipeo Valley. From the parking lot, we had to hike down ~1,000ft into the valley. Talk about the tsunami. The hike down gave Baldwin Street in Dunedin, NZ a run for its money on steepest street in the world. It was painful on the legs walking down and trying not to slip on the wet asphalt! After what seemed like eternity, we made it down into the valley and walked a little longer to a black sand beach. Since we started so early, we were one of the first people there which was amazing.

Once we got to the beach, there was a river from the valley running into the ocean that we had to cross to get to the other side of e beach. This must be done in order to do the full hike, which is about 20 miles round trip. We started close to the ocean where the waves were breaking but we veered off and started walking against the current at the strongest point. Not going to lie, it was pretty scary! The water was only a foot high but the rocks were slippery and we were getting tired fast trying to walk against the current. We ultimately had to turn back after about twenty minutes and gave up. We spent the rest of the time basking in the sun, and watching others attempt to cross it. I wish we were able to but after all that energy we didn’t want to try again!

The hike back up to the car was very steep and very hard, but it was cool to hug the edge of the cliff and see the valley below us get further and further away. After we made it back to the car and started driving back, we stopped at some fruit stands (aka tourist traps) for $10 “ice” cold coconuts! It was a fun experience though. We then stopped at Akaka Falls state park and did a quick half-mile loop to see the waterfall.

after the hard workout, we decided to stop in Hilo for some brews. First on the list was Hilo Brewing. The beer was decent (we split a porter) and it was in an industrial section of town. Yearning for better beer, we went to Ola Brewing and found it! We did a flight with beer, hard seltzer, and hard tea (which id never heard of before). The winner was definitely the dragonfruit lychee pink hard seltzer. After, we picked up some ramen and brought back to our Airbnb.

The drive to the Airbnb was pretty nuts. The host said the road leading up to it was filled (lol) with potholes and worse than any condition he’s seen in the past twenty years of living there lol. Honestly, we’ve traversed through worse roads so it wasn’t toooo bad. The destination was definitely worth the trouble though. It might be the coolest Airbnb we’ve stayed at – it was on a coffee farm and had an amazing porch overlooking the orchards (fun fact: coffee is a fruit)! We stayed here for two nights and I wish it could’ve been more.

Thursday

We woke up early to head to Volcano National Park – but not after some fresh coffee grown on the farm! Once getting to the visitor center, we decided to do a 45-minute ranger-led tour around crater rim, and a longer 4-mile ranger-led hike in the afternoon. The first hike was informative as the ranger told us about how the island’s biology and geology is always changing.

We then drove around the crater rim, and walked through the 600-foot long Thurston lava tubes.

“Lava caves like this are formed when a river of lava gradually builds solid walls and a ceiling. When the lava flow stops and the last of it passes downhill, a cave is formed.”

Then, we drove over to XYZ where we met the ranger (Steve) for our hike through lava fields. Steve’s a volunteer ranger who’s been visiting the park for decades and his love for the history and geology of the park really shone through on the hike. He pointed out various native plants, told us various mo’olelo (Hawaiian storytelling that’s meant to tell a deeper meaning), and told us about the history of lava eruptions in the park. The story he told us is a famous legend about the love of Ohia and Lehua (https://www.lovebigisland.com/big-island-mythology/ohia-lehua/)

We learned about fissures, lava ponds, lava trees, the different types of lava flow, and the eruptions that happened in the park. One fun fact was that Pu‘u ‘O‘o started erupted in 1983 and went on to last for 34 years. In fact, there was lava flowing in the park until May of this year so we were just shy of seeing it! The hike he took us on ended at the top of the Mauna Ulu and we had a beautiful view of the park and lava fields below. The crater was a little scary to look down and for that reason we were supposed to stay at least a yard from the edge! It was a great hike and one of the more memorable NP experiences with such a great guide.

Friday

Today’s the day we head to Maui but not before doing a few more things on the PowerPoint! We woke up early, said goodbye to the awesome Airbnb after brewing some more of the homegrown coffee, and headed back towards Hilo to OK Farms. And it was definitely more than just OK! We did a nice little hour and a half tour of the 1,000 acre farm with only one other person. The tour guide’s Ohana (family) has owned the farm for decades. They grow just about everything under the sun, even though it mostly rains on the Hilo side of the island. Coffee, pineapple, lychee, and lemons, to name a phew. We got to pick our own macadamia nuts, cracked a couple and ate them fresh – yum! And they tasted much more like coconuts before they are dried. We also tried mangosteen and dragon eye for the first time – too bad they aren’t in most grocery stores on the mainland. She then took us to a couple of waterfalls on their property which together power 20% of Hilo! Lastly, she drove us through ‘Spice Row’ where we sniffed cinnamon leaves, munched on some whole cloves (which left our mouths quite tingly) and picked some whole nutmegs. The cloves are also good for bug bites so I chewed it up and rubbed them on some bites I got, and the itching went away! All in all, SUPER informative farm tour.

We then made our way back towards KOA airport, but not before stopping at Mauna Kea for a quick detour. we climbed to 9,000 feet (didn’t have the time nor the four-wheel drive necessary to make it to the 13,000 foot top). The view was beautiful, the temperature was crisp, and it looked like we were standing on top of the clouds!

Now, we’re casually waiting in an outdoor terminal for our commuter plane to Maui. We didn’t know what we booked, but we’re flying a nine-passenger flight to OGG – hope we make it! It’ll be like our own private tour!

Update – we made it! It was amazing, basically like our own private tour with less than ten people and all the windows were open so there were amazing views the whole time!