By Christa King
A friend and I have a dream. A dream of one day owning vacation property in Hawaii—a small house or condo to which we can carry our tired souls and rest in the spirit that pervades the islands. We plan to visit a different island each year in search of our perfect location, and in mid-January this year, we spent 10 days just across the street from Kahaluu Beach Park on the Big Island of Hawai’i.
After a massive search through what surely must have been every rental on the island, we found the Kahalu’u Beach Villas. I always worry a bit about online reservations, but these are lovely and exactly as pictured. The view is gorgeous, and we found what my friend called “the best snorkeling of my life.”
I love to cook and there is space for even quite elaborate cooking. The kitchen contains adequate pots, pans, dishes, etc. However, there were five different wine openers, one very bad set of knives and not a single wooden spoon. An interesting comment on priorities. The condo is also very well appointed with beach paraphernalia. The only real drawback is carrying luggage and groceries up three long flights of stairs. Quite daunting.
Kahalu’u is fairly central but out of the interminably slow Kona traffic and noise. It is definitely a resort location, lots of mainlanders and very little feeling of the more traditional Hawai’i, which I really missed. However, from this location, we were able to easily reach the Place of Refuge (Pu`uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park), Captain Cook, and many other small towns along the coast. We drove to Hilo and returned “over the top” on a misty night, driving through serene rolling hills near Waimea. We spent an afternoon lying on white, powdery sand at Hapuna Beach, and then the evening at the very luxurious Mauna Kea resort (just tell them at the guard house that you’re coming for dinner and they’ll let you in).
We drove toward south point at the bottom of the island and around to Volcanoes National Park. (There are no lava flows right now, and huge bursts of sulfuric acid—beautiful at sunset—limit the places you can visit.) On our way, we stopped for a long time at a wide place in the road and stood in awe to watch whales spouting and occasionally breaching.
We visited the beautiful Akatsuka Orchid Gardens (http://www.akatsukaorchid.com/) and drove through the weirdest landscapes, a bit like the darkside of the moon. You could see the age of the lava flows by the quantity of flora growing on top. Amazing. New flows look like liquid cast iron, black and impenetrable, but it’s a miracle what soon sprouts on that impossible-looking stuff!
Our most meaningful day was a visit to Laupahoehoe Point, a park that memorializes the lives of teachers and children lost in a tsunami in 1946. It was an eerie and touching morning spent reading the stories and looking over a thundering sea toward the dark cliffs in the distance.
The wonder to us is that every day brought such a range of experiences. We are definitely putting The Big Island on our list.
