Experiencing The Near And Far: Hawaii Day 1: Volcano, Green Sand Beach, Luau, and More!

Vent in the crater at Volcano National Park

Yesterday was a wondefully long day. The purpose of this trip was stay/visit with my friend, A, from college while exploring the big island together!

A and I woke at 4:15am this morning, on the road shortly after, in order to reach Volcano National Park by sunrise. Our strict schedule filled quickly due to the number of activities that we wanted to fit in on the East/South side of the island. Below is our itinerary - I'll add more details/links later but for now enjoy the pictures :)

6:30am sunrise at Volcano National Park. Lava tube, hike, steam vents, giant crater. We ended up not being able to do the hike we intended to because we ended up in the wrong spot. It still made for a nice hike and turned out to have a better view of the crater than the trailhead we'd been searching for. We did manage to have enough time to find the Thurston Lava Tube in the middle of the rainforest before we had to hit the road.

8:30am hit road for green sand beach

Lava Tube

9:30am get sidetracked at an awesome black sand beach called Punalu'u where we see two giant sea turtles. It was significantly warmer at sea level and I felt elated to be in such a breath-taking place. (Photos at the end of this post!)

10:20am reach the south point of the island - Mahana Bay.
-- 1 hour hike to the Green Sand Beach (we were told it would take 2.5-3 hours! We must be speedy hikers :) ) Beautiful trek along the coast with numerous photo worthy shorelines of waves crashing against the rocks. I saw too many people making the hike in flip flops or dresses - do yourself a favor and wear tennis shoes. And suncreen while you're at it. (My neck is a little raw this morning! ) If you're not up for the long hike, locals will take you in 4wd vehicles for about $10 each way.

-- We enjoyed the beach, water, and well deserved re-energizing snacks while taking countless pictures. This beach could not have been more majestic. There are only two Green Sand beaches in the world. Here and in the Galapagos Islands. If it hadn't been for the unusually strong wind whipping the sand painfully into our skin, we would have stayed longer.

Finally reached the Green Sand Beach!

It's really green!

12:30pm finished the hike back to the car and drove to the most Southern point in the US. (Hawaii is the state closest to the equator - a little trivia knowledge for you)

1:30pm stopped at Pebble Beach, off the beaten path, on the drive to Kailua-Kona. Literally made up of all pebbles and violent waves rolling them around making the sounds a little more intense. The drive to the beach from the highway is super steep - you drop over 1000 feet in about 1 mile.

5pm arrive at the Luau after a quick shower stop at the hotel. Other than taking 45 minutes to get in - it was adorable and fun! Food was delicious - and they even demonstrated how they traditionally cook the pig on the islands. See the picture below of the beast after the process: They marinate and stuff him, light some hot coals, cover it all with banana leaves, protect everything with a tarp, before burying it under layers of dirt. After cooking all day - you have a tasty dinner :) We we able to see the sun setting on the beach before tiki torches lit and the show began. "Lava and Legends" took us through different cultural dances of the islands of the South Pacific. This is my cup of tea - I could watch shows like this daily and never tire of them. When they performed dances from New Zealand, my heart jumped a beat - that was where I first saw a cultural dance and brought back fond memories! The grand finale gave us a fire twirling Samoan man - damn - forgive me but that was hot in more ways than one!

After a local bar filled with dancing vacationers, I retired to the hotel and immediately crashed. (I tried to write this last night but it wasn't happening! )

Overall an amazing day. I can't believe the number of climates we saw in one day. A told me that the big island of Hawaii has 13 of the 15 types of climates in the world. I know today we saw: tundra, rainforest, desert, beach/tropical, snow on the top of the mountain, maritime, and probably more.

That's it for now! See photos of the black sand beach & more from the other experiences below. Aloha!