We woke up and packed all of our beach and snorkel gear to prep for the morning. I was smart enough to pack a big beach bag and a soft cooler in my bag, and the ice packs we bought at Walmart were frozen and ready to go! We were originally going to make this a Volcano day in hopes of seeing the eruption, but a few days before we flew in, the volcano paused. So we decided it was best to recover from our long travel the day before — and get better adjusted to the time difference — by staying closer to the condo. First we set out to find the farmer’s market that we had heard about when checking in. It was in a parking lot of a strip mall that was about 10-15 mins up the road…and little did we know we’d be passing or stopping at that mall a lot during our week on the Big Island!
The market was small but cute! We bought some fresh fruit for the week and had fun exploring all of the little tents and vendors. We didn’t want to buy too much since we knew the week would go fast! After that, we followed directions to Kahaluʻu Beach State Park which ended up being only a few minutes away! We easily found parking and grabbed a picnic table for all of our stuff. We mistakenly thought when we arrived that this was the famous ‘Two Step’ beach, but later confirmed that it was not.
But… this was our first taste of snorkeling on the Big Island and it did not disappoint. I was very glad we brought our wetsuit jackets because the water was definitely too cold for me to have gone without. Owen even wore his every time, so that tells you how cold it was! This park had a nice, shallow entrance into the snorkeling area with mostly black lava rocks and some sandy areas. Walking over the rocks wasn’t easy! But once we were deep enough to swim, it was great!
As soon as we stuck our faces in the water we were surrounded by fish. The water was cool and clear, but the current and waves were pretty strong and choppy. We didn’t see anything super amazing on this excursion, but the variety of fish and the clarity of the water was amazing enough. I will say, however, that we both did get a little seasick while swimming. Nothing too bad (no throwing up) but enough to have us chowing on salty snacks and taking a break on the sand. Lesson learned — Dramamine was going to be needed even if we aren’t on a boat. 🙂
After we dried off and got our clothes on, we explored another beach on our way back to the condo. It was really beautiful with waves crashing right onto the shore! I think because we’re so used to our flat, sandy Florida beaches, we were just amazed watching the rocky lava coast here and the crashing waves. Kona is a really cute town — it reminds me of some of our coastal towns in Florida like Fort Myers Beach or Siesta Key. There are older homes and businesses speckling the streets and the water is never very far away. Of course Kona has the added lava rock and looming volcano ‘mountains’ surrounding it too.
After a short break in the condo, we headed north to Kua Bay, which was described as having “stunning beach, snorkeling, and sunsets.” We were excited to get our snorkeling masks underwater again and hopefully enjoy a nice sunset afterwards. The drive north was really cool — the landscape was like another planet and the nature park where the beach was located was very beautiful. We found free parking and headed to the public beach to see what we were in for. I’m guessing the beach and snorkeling activities were mainly for summertime, because there was literally no beach. Someone told us that as early as lsat week there was actually a huge half-moon of sand here, but the recent crashing waves washed it all away — something we learned was totally normal for the Kona area.
The waves were rolling in, however, and there were surfers, swimmers, and body-boarders in the water taking advantage of them. Owen and I briefly considered staying dry and just chilling while we waited for what appeared to be a gorgeous sunset coming in the next 1-2 hours…. but we couldn’t resist the waves. We have no photos or videos of our wave jumping because we didn’t bother trying to take the GoPro with us. We just scooted down the lava rocks and waded in. The waves were intense! Really the only way to handle them was to turn your back and “take the hit” or dive under and let them roll over you. I mostly chose to dive under because I was worried about hurting my knee or back so early in the trip! We played like that for about a half hour before getting tired, then walked back to the car to change into our dry clothes for the sunset.
Once in dry clothes and with our cooler in hand, we walked further past the life guard stand over to a peninsula of lava rocks to sit and enjoy the sunset. To our left we could see the little bay and all the people still playing in the waves. To our right those same waves were crashing against the rocks, fanning water into sprays of white droplets. Owen explored tidal pools and collected white pieces of coral that speckled the black lava rock. We took way too many photos and videos of the waves, rocks, sunset, and ourselves! The sunset was gorgeous and it was a perfect end to our first full day in Kona.
Afterwards, we searched for some affordable local dinner. We grabbed plates at a local Hawaiian chain in a strip mall — I got Kalua Pork and Cabbage and Owen tried his first Loco Moco. I loved mine but Owen wasn’t impressed with his. By the end of the trip we would determine that Loco Moco wasn’t his jam. 🙂
