Day 5 (August 23, 2022): Coffee beans… lava rock… black sand… and volcanoes!

Kailua-Kona, where we are staying, is the hub of Big Island and is located on the western side of the island.  (Hilo, the other large centre on Big Island, is located directly across from Kailua-Kona on the eastern side of the Island.). Today, we decided to drive down the west coast and up a part of the eastern side.  The objective was to visit a black sand beach that we visited on our first trip to Hawaii in 1997.  But once we got there, we decided to carry on to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, further up the east coast. Big Island really is big!  It is just 83 miles from Kailua-Kona to the National Park, but it is two hours of driving in each direction.  Add in stops, and it literally took us an entire day to do the trip:  we left Kailua-Kona at 8:30AM and arrived back at the hotel 7PM (including a stop for a quick dinner).

When people hear of Big Island, their first thought is usually “volcanoes”.  Volcanoes have literally shaped life on Big Island for centuries.  There are two volcanic centres on Big Island:  Moana Loa and Kilauea.  Kilauea is the volcano that has garnered the most media attention in our lifetimes, and is still the most active.  Lava flows from both volcanoes have left a stark impression on Big Island, as they spilled out of each of Moana Loa and Kilauea and rushed down the slopes toward the sea.

Apart from the black sand beach at Punalu’u and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, we stopped at Puuhonua O Honaunau National Historic Site, to learn about the life of early Hawaiians, did a snorkel at a cove adjacent to the National Historic Site, and saw a couple of other sites.

Our time on Big Island is quickly drawing to a close, as we leave for Kuai tomorrow afternoon.  There is so much to see on Big Island, we have merely scratched the surface. 


Today’s distance covered on Big Island (the blue line). 

The drive from Kailua-Kona to the Natonal Park was, to us, marked by three key things:  coffee groves (and small businesses advertising their coffee for sale!), volcanic coastline, and lava fields.

Lava flows are indiscriminate. Like forest fires, they devastate one area for centuries, but an adjacent area (like the green patches above) can be untouched. 

Tsunami warning signs make one realize how vulnerable a place like Hawaii is to tsunamis resulting from underwater earthquakes in the Pacific..

Having visited Punalu’u on our first visit to Kona, it impressed us so much that we just had to go back! It is so unique. 

The sand is truly black!  We have visited other places described as black sand beaches, but nothing compares to the very black, coarse lava-rock sand of Big Island!

Our second turtle sighting on Big Island!  He (or she) was enjoying the heat of the black sand.

Trying to be “Hawaiian surfer dude” cool. 

Water lilies and a stunning tree at Punalu’u. 

Entrance to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. 

The park’s visitor centre. The park was super busy!

Kilauea caldera. 

Volcano steam vents on the caldera ridge.

The monitoring station is permanently closed, due to damage it suffered from the 2018 eruption.  It makes you realize just how powerful the eruptions are and how much damage they cause.

That’s a live shot inside the Kilauea crater today.  Fog prevented us from seeing this. 


Lava tubes at Kilauea. 

Giant ferns in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Pu’uhonua O Honaunau on the South Kona Coast, is a great place to learn about the early Hawaiian people and their way of life. 

A strategy game of the early Hawaiians.

Using hardened lava to make bowls.

This is a lava mould:  the hot lava surrounds a felled palm tree and hardens before incinerating the tree.

The bones of 23 Hawaiian chiefs are buried in a rock mound behind this fence. 

This is the Great Wall, built of lava stones in the 1600s.

St. Benedict’s Painted Church.  It’s known as the “Painted Church” because of the interior painting work of industrious Belgian priest, Father Jean Berchmans Velghe. 

The Painted Church has a statue to commemorate Father Damien Veuster. As mentioned in our August 21 blog entry, Father Damien died in a leper colony on Molokai, attended to his people.  He was sainted by the Catholic Church in 1995 as Saint Damien of Molokai. 

“Angel trumpet” tree

Oldest church in Kona, dating to 1820.