The big island of Hawaii is the youngest and largest in the Hawaiian archipelago. It is almost twice as big as all the other Hawaiian islands giving it this nickname of “The Big Island”. This island it truly magnificent, one could travel through all the four different climate zones in one day, ranging from Wet Tropical to the Polar Tundra. There are two massive volcanoes on Hawaii, Maunakea and Maunaloa, rising to approximately 13,000 feet. These two peaks give the island a wet tropical side and drier much less rainy side.
We enjoyed three days on the big island, one day in Kona on the west coast and two full days in Hilo on the East Coast. Day one in Kona was our second tender port of this cruise and for us was easy as we just flashed our status cards and walked straight onto the tender, very nice. Again, with our travel mates, Ed and Dot, we hopped into our waiting Uber and within minutes we were in our rental car at the airport. The plan today was to tour the west coast all the way to Hawi at the top of the island and came down the middle spine back to the airport and then to the port. Our stops along the way included the National Historical Site of Pu’ukohola Ā Heiau, definitely worth a good hour plus visit here. They call this site the birthplace of Hawaii, the Stone Fort in the pictures is identified as Hawaii’s beginning, so pretty cool. We then headed north to the cute little town of Hawi, stopping here for a quick lunch. We did make an attempt to visit the birthplace of King Kamehameha I, but this road (if you can call it that) became almost impossible to drive without a four by four, we did get close though. Driving back down the spine offered us some amazing vista views along the way. After dropping off the car we did a quick walking tour of Kona, which so happens to be the birthplace of the Ironman Triathlon World Championship.
A few pics of our nice 120 mile drive of this port, hope you enjoy…
Kamehameha I birthplace just down a bit further.
Small town of Hawi
Most northern point of the island of Hawaii
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