Wednesday Oct 11
It was off to Hilo on the “Big Island” early this morning. We left home at 6:45AM for the 1+ hour drive to the Maui airport allowing extra time to re-fuel and drop off the rental car. All went smoothly and we were in plenty of time for our 9:25am flight to Hilo - a 20 minute flight.
Hilo airport is the fifth busiest in Hawaii (Dieter thought it was the second busiest after Honolulu) but it looks very third world - open air / not even air-conditioned. The only good part is that you did not need to bus it to the rental car depot - our car turned out to be a bit of an old bomb (a bit disappointing as our car in Maui was almost new). Anyway - we drove to the Volcano House on the rim of the Kalauea volcano for a 2 night stay. We arrived at 11:30am and of course our room was not ready so we drove one part of the crater rim road and stopped at the Jagger museum then had lunch at the hotel. By this time our room was ready so we settled in then went for one of the many walks - this one through the rain forest then past the sulphur fields.
Back at the hotel we drove about 1 mile to the military camp where this is a general store (thank goodness as you cannot even buy water at the hotel or visitor centre) - we stocked up on water, beer and wine. The had five’es on our (concrete) deck and dinner at the hotel - we both had fish which was excellent (opah / moonfish and Kamchatka). From the restaurant you could see the crater now steaming with a red hot glow.
Thursday Oct 12
It was our full day at the volcano - we started out by driving the Crater Road to the sea (and back as it’s dead end) stopping along the way at various scenic spots - in particular the lava tube. We had lunch back at the hotel then did the major crate walk - about 2 hours. We had dinner again at the hotel before driving the short distance to the crate rim to watch the crater up close after dark - you could see the lava boiling. Then it was off to bed.
Friday Oct 13
We got up early, had brekkie and packed up as we were off to the Kona coast this morning - it poured rain as we crossed over the island. By the time we reached the coast the skies had cleared to wonderful sunshine. We found our condo (Mauna Lani - about 1 hour drive north of Kona) easily and were able to check in early - around 12:30pm. Our first reaction on walking into our condo was WOW - one of the best ever. It has been totally renovated recently and was ocean front / golf course front. We dropped our bags and drove over (1 k) to our complex’s private beach club for lunch at a beach front bistro. Ah so perfect. After doing a bit of an ocean front walk we headed out to do the grocery shopping. We finally arrived back at our condo at 5pm - it was a bit of a frenzy to unpack the groceries and suitcases before settling into sundowners on our terrace - it was perfect sunset - enjoyed with a cooling G&T and Beer.
We stayed home for dinner of pesto/mushroom pasta and salad.
Saturday Oct 14
We had a lazy start to the day - enjoying fruit salad, yoghurt and coffee on our terrace while checking out the meriade of tour offering. The Hawaiian IronMan competition was on today so the main road was (partly) closed - as a result we had decided to have a beach day.
After lazing about watching our local wildlife - families of friendly quails (whom the cleaning ladies feed). We drove over to the Fairmont Resort (within our complex) to check out their restaurants then took a walk to the Petroglyf park. We then had a light lunch at the Fairmont’s beach front restaurant. Later we went snorkelling off our private beach - it was really quite good - not much coral but lots of fish.
We stayed home in the evening - sundowners, washing and steak for dinner.
Sunday Oct 15
Another day in paradise. We drove to Waipo Valley on the east coast and did a huge coastal walk - down a very steep road to a black beach then back up again - 45 minutes in each direction. For lunch we went to Mauna Kea for lunch on our return. From there it was a lazy afternoon and dinner at home.
Monday Oct 16
In the morning we did another drive to Punho Valley but did not do the walk. We had lunch at the Hilton before heading into Kona for our night snorkelling tour. The traffic into Kona was very slow due to road works - fortunately we had left in plenty of time. The snorkelling trip was amazing - we saw 10 manta swimming and dancing around. We got home around 9:30pm so dinner was a G&T and some chips.
Tuesday Oct 17
Last day on Hawaii - very strong wind still blowing. We went to the sate park with “ one of the best beaches in the world” and did a coastal walk admiring some amazing coastal front mansions along the way. We attempted lunch at the Fairmont but it was far too windy to sit at their beach front restaurant so we went back to our condo for a late (by this time) lunch. We spent the afternoon lazing and packing before having dinner at the Canoe House restaurant at a nearby resort (our resort shuttle drove us there and back).