Driving Miss Karen

A blog about our travel

More Hawaiian Hawaii: Big Island Kona Side

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The big island of Hawaii is also called Hawaii (like NY, NY) so it gets a little confusing. The locals call it Hawaii island but most tourists just call it the big island (which it is). There is a volcano range separating the west side (Kona side-Dry side) from the east side (Hilo side-Wet side). It’s all much less touristy and much more rural than Oahu which we like. We spent three nights on the Kona side and just did one big bucket list item, ate a lot of good food and relaxed.

Bucket list helicopter tour of north side of the big island. Very cool but surprisingly hard to get really good pictures through the tiny open window and with all the maneuvering and vibration but it was a really cool thing to do. Next time (hopefully) a door’s off tour! A lady on our flight lost her iPhone out the window so we all sent her our pictures.
Hawaii island has a very cool coastline due to the lava interacting with the ocean
The north is covered with steep inaccessible valleys. This one holds a 2000′ foot waterfall which is a trickle in the dry season but a torrent when it rains a lot
The helicopter tour starts along the beautiful west coast and continues to the steep valleys in the north
The northeast shore is much more cliffy with its own waterfalls
Remote living on a black lave beach. The pilot said the folks who live in this house leave once every few years for medical stuff using helicopter transport. Crazy right?
The tour continues along the northeast shore with its giant cliffs and black sand (lava) beaches. It’s all so beautiful but feels very remote and primeval
We did mundane stuff like stay at a beachside Marriott and eat yummy Kalua Pig (similar to Cuban lechon) and Loco-moco (rice, hamburger, fried egg, gravy)
Giant marlin and canoes were part of the nautical décor
Our free (actually at no additional cost) Mai-tais. Yummy!
Excellent shave (not shaved) ice. Coconut was the best but green apple and pineapple were also very good
The Marriott was very nautical with a stuffed world record Marlin, a nice restaurant, and shave ice on-site. The beach was pretty but small and rocky and the water wasn’t super warm

Jose

AKA Alfred

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