A Big Island Road Trip

I’ve said it before — and this is pretty groundbreaking stuff guys — but The Big Island is big. So big, in fact, that Heather and I often felt our butts go numb from hours logged in the car. While we were staying somewhere between Volcano and Hilo, we quite literally drove all the way around the island — from Kona to Hanoka’a to Mauna Kea to Puna.

However, credit for turning that road time from an annoyance into entertainment goes to our cherry-red Jeep Wrangler rental. Renting a 4WD meant we had the flexibility to stop wherever and whenever we liked — time permitting, of course (and never did I feel shorter on time than on The Big Island!). In this two-part post, I’m highlighting some of the attractions and roadside stops that kept us entertained as we hopped between volcanoes and manta rays. Often, these short stops were some of our favorite memories.

As you can see, even between stops  we logged plenty of fun time in our Jeep — we even slept in it one night. You can find tons of footage from our never-ending road trip in my Big Island video.

1. Punalu’u Beach Park

When my parents visited the same family friend Heather and I were staying with years before, they had texted me photos of sea turtles on a black sand beach. I was blown away by how lucky they were to spot such rare creatures up close and personal!

Then, I found out about Punalu’u Beach Park and realized they weren’t quite as lucky as I had believed. This beach almost guarantees sightings of the endangered turtles — we spotted three while we were there, and that is apparently a bad day. Hawaiian green sea turtles take part in an unusual turtle activity called basking; where they simply lie on the black sand and absorb the sun. Once we got over our giddiness at these beautiful animals and how totally unfazed they were by us, we turned out attention to another unusual feature of the beach — the blackest sand I’ve ever run my fingers through.

Photo by Heather Holt

Photo by Heather Holt

Photo by Heather Holt

Photo by Heather Holt

Pulling out of Punalu’u and heading West towards Kona, we did a major double take in the midst of a long stretch of road in the middle of nowhere. “Heather, turn around. I just saw a zebra.” She was skeptical, but acquiesced. We were rewarded with not just a zebra but also a donkey and a bison — my high school mascot! Luckily, Heather had dressed for the occasion.

Photo by Heather Holt

2. Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Park

This National Historic Park might not have caught my eye had Lonely Planet Hawaii not named it as one of the top ten Big Island experiences (loyal readers know I’m a confessed Lonely Planet junkie). I’m so glad it did, because this little side-trip provided a good dose of Hawaiian history, a heaping serving of beautiful scenery, and a good measure of silly fun.

Using a dial-in cell phone walking tour, the park teaches visitors about the ancient Hawaiian taboo system called kapu — a class structure that strictly ruled over ever facet of life. Kapu violators faced the ultimate punishment — death. The only way to escape that fatal verdict was to reach the sacred sanctuary grounds of the pu’uhonua by swimming through dangerous open ocean, fending off strong currents and sharks. If they reached the sanctuary, the same ground we were standing on, they were absolved of their crimes and could return to normal life. This went on less than 100 years ago — the pu’uhonua here was only abandoned in 1819.

The .5 miles walking tour brought us to ancient sites, showed us ancient games played by Hawaiian royalty, and led us through palm groves and by tide pools.

Photo by Heather Holt

Photo by Heather Holt

Photos above and below by Heather Holt

Photo by Heather Holt

3. Puako Petroglyph Preserve

This stopover was in the pursuit of one of the largest collections of ancient lava carvings in Hawaii — and it was a comedy of errors. Turning off of the main highway and driving through a labyrinth of resorts, we followed signs for the Petroglyph trail. Arriving in the dusty parking lot, we were hopelessly stumped — the signs seemed to disappear and a lone resort map provided no assistance. We followed a trail that hugged the coast for a while before reaching a local family who when we asked for help kindly led us to one petroglyph — one. Considering there were supposed to be around 3,000, we finally caught on that we were not in the right place.

Arriving back at the parking lot, we discovered the real trail, which we had to admit was pretty obviously located right in front of us. The only explanation, we decided, was that the trail had gone into a mysterious black hole when we were looking for it previously.

Photo by Heather Holt

Photo by Heather Holt

Photo by Heather Holt

To Be Continued!