We have been on the Big Island for a few days now. This is our third Hawaiian island stop (after Oahu and Kauai). It’s called the Big Island because it’s the biggest (and youngest) of the islands. All the other main islands we’ve been to/ are going to, would actually all fit in the area of the Big Island…a fun fact for you there. You can tell it’s a lot bigger as a lot of the places we’ve earmarked to visit are a good few hours drive away.

The flight time wasn’t quite as quick as Oahu to Kauai (a mere 20 mins) but it was only 50 mins so still a short hop. We stopped off at Wailua Falls en route to the airport as we weren’t flying until 5pm. Wailua Falls is a double water fall. You can’t actually get to it on foot so you have to make do with seeing it from the bridge above.

The Big Island

Our apartment is located in Kailua Kona which is on the west coast of the island. We can see the sea from our balcony, but there’s not a public beach there. Imagine waves crashing loudly against the rocks and that’s what it’s like.

Anyway we have had a fairly leisurely few days I would say since arriving.

Our first day we explored the nearby area to see what was close by. There is an area that’s about a 20 min walk away that had a lot of restaurants, bars and shops, then a bit further on from there is Kona brewery. Kona is actually a brewery that some of you may recognise as they do beers such as Long Board and Big Wave which you can buy in the UK. This being their brewery meant they had a lot of others to sample which was good.

Along the way to the downtown area we also saw a few of the local landmarks – Hulihe’e Palace, a former home for Hawaiian royalty, and Mokuaikaua Church, Hawaii’s first Christian church.

We also stopped and wandered around a local farmers market where I got to sample some local Kona coffee – another thing they are famous for is coffee!

On our second day we did a few beach/coastal walks on the west side of the island (which is about 45 min drive away). The first was a fairly leisurely stroll to Kiholo Bay, where the walk took you along the beach itself, the terrain being black sand and black rocks. It was very quiet as we’d headed out early to avoid the sun. You have to hug the beach as you walk, as beyond the beach are private properties.

The second walk was more of a coastal hike located at Hapuna Beach Recreational park, one of the top beach areas on the island, and named the Ala Kahakai trail. The trail itself is 175 miles so we only did a small section before turning back. The walk itself was nice as it meanders around the coast, but the most brutal thing about it was the heat. It was so hot and there is literally no shade on it at all. We therefore decided to walk for an hour and then turn around and even that felt very tiring.

We did see some interesting things along the route such as these amazing private villas with infinity pools, and a tennis club! There were a few courts in use and the standard looked pretty decent. I didn’t offer to join in if you were wondering. Ha!

Once we got back to the beach we went paddling. It’s a lovely beach and you can actually paddle quite far out and the water is still only at your knees. We’d wished we’d brought our swimming stuff but sadly we had to make do with knee deep which was still nice after the gruelling temperatures.

Luau at the Kona Royal Hotel

That evening we had booked to go to a Luau. Luau means a Hawaiian party or feast, and we’d booked onto one that was taking place at one of the local hotels, the Kona Royal Hotel about 20 mins walk away from where we are staying.

On arrival we were helped into the mood by receiving our shell necklaces. You could get a “tattoo” of a Hawaiian symbol (mine meant “fortitude” apparently) and get flower bracelets. It didn’t take long to get into the swing of things as there was a free bar serving cocktails and beer. Think we’d been there all of half an hour and we’d had two cocktails and one beer. We were definitely going to make good use of that throughout the evening. What was even better was there were waiters also bringing round trays of cocktails so we were helping ourselves to those as well.

There is a huge buffet which included a lot of local delicacies such as chicken in coconut milk, local fish, beef and lots of accompaniments such as salad, rice and pasta. The highlight of any luau buffet is the Kalua pu’ua which is a whole pig that has been slow cooked in an imu (an earth oven). It was all really good.

After the food the entertainment began which was a mix of music and dancing (hula and fire!).

The event runs from 4.30 – 7:15pm which doesn’t seem like long but they pack a lot into that. We got chatting to a couple who were on our table from Texas who were there on honeymoon and they were really nice.

We are spending the day at Volcanoes National Park tomorrow and hopefully there is an eruption of one of their two active volcanoes. More on this in the coming days

Lucy