Hawaii islands (the Big Island)

Hawaii consist of eight islands; Ni'ihau, Kaua'i, O'ahu, Moloka'i, Lana'i, Kaho'olawe, Maui and the island of Hawai'i.

Why am I writing about Hawaii? Well, after traveling to The Big Island, I just fell in love to this place. The climate is very nice, typical for the tropics. During the wintertime it is wetter with lower 80s Fahrenheit: in the summer it is more drier with upper 80s during the day. So you don't have to worry about which season do go there. :) Anytime is GOOD.

After visiting the Big Island, we went back to visit Maui and now we are planning to travel to the island of Kaua'i. In this  post I will tell you about our trip to the Big Island and for the next post I will write about our Maui experience!

How was our trip on the Big Island

We had just the one kid at that time; Sophie, was 14 months old. We stayed in a very nice one bedroom apartment at Kona Coast Resort. This place was approximately 10 minutes drive from the Kahalu'u Beach Park. This is an amazing beach with lots of sea turtles. You can just enjoy the nice ocean and watch the turtles eating and hanging out on the rocks.

The other beach we visited was the South of Kealakekua Bay. It was a great snorkeling spot. My husband and I both love to snorkel and at this spot there we could see lots of beautiful sea life.

Very close to this beach was the Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. It is well worth to visit for a nice afternoon stroll. There are some nice remodeled huts and sculptures.

We made a trip to the East side of the island to Hilo but we didn't spend much time in the city. We went to a beautiful tropical botanical garden. This place was absolutely amazing. I never saw such a gorgeous, terrific flowers before. They were truly breath taking and I highly recommend a trip there!

There is a small waterfall which was beautiful and a fantastic trail where you can easily walk but there are some stairs so it is better to use a baby carrier instead of a stroller.

The other trip that we made was a one-and a half hours hike in the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park. I really like the Hawaiian names for things: for example: "kilauea iki" trail which was the trail where we walked. I have never been on a volcano before. It is absolutely fascinating to go into the crater. It was easy to follow the trail and it wasn't strenuous.

Here are some pictures from both outside and inside the crater:

 After this hike we went to see where the lava flowed until it arrived at the ocean. In 2003 the Mauna Loa volcano erupted and the lava flowed onto the park road which has been kept as a memento.  

My best memory from the Big Island was swimming with hundreds of dolphins in the ocean! Who doesn't love dolphins?! If you want to go watch a show at an aquarium you should know that they gave them a lot of anti-depressants and antibiotics in order to live in that environment  They are apparently very unhappy and in fact die much younger than dolphins in the wild. So, this is why I urge you to go to see them - and even swim with them like we did, in the free! It was amazing to hear how they are communicating and to have them around us.

The Big Island was magnificent and we spent a fantastic week there! I hope you will go there too as it was really well worth it.

(2009. November- 6 days)