A Volcano Trip

Hawaii Volcano National Patk is 90+ miles Southeast of Kailua-Kona, this is a day trip or an over night trip at best if you really want to spend quality time seeing all there is to see.

This picture is of Kileaua Caldera and the main source of the VOG that the Big Island has had to deal with for the last 25+ years.  There is a piston vent (a circular vent of lava that rises and drops like the piston in a motor) that belches Sulfur Dioxide into the atmosphere and at times closes the Chain of Craters Road.

 Also close by the main gate of the park is the Thurston Lava Tube, wear good walking shoes and bring a flashlight, it is a small hike along a paved path to the entrance through some wonderful lush jungle.  The walking path through the tube is uneven and puddles of water to walk through, but it is a great experience.

At the bottom of Chain of Craters Rd. you will find the Sea Arch, a lava structure that was carved by the ocean.  A little walk down the closed part of Chain of Craters Rd. you will find the lava flow from the 80's that has closed the road, (see below).

This lava flow closed the through route for this road and it reclaimed about a 20 mile stretch of road and land in the process.  In some places the lava is 6 to 8 feet deep.

The Chain of Craters Rd. is only open with the levels of Sulfur Dioxide are at an acceptable level and not harmful to people.  This trip is the one "Not to Miss" while on the Big Island, and is at least a two day trip to really experience all it has to offer.

Aloha, A Hui Hou

Favorite Snorkeling Spot

South of Kona is a Hawaiian Historic Park called "Place of Refuge". The Bay it sits by is called Honounou Bay, it is also known as "Two Step" because of the two steps built into the lava to get into the water.

This is a local favorite spot, and also very popular with the tourists too! It is very crowded on Friday, Saturday, & Sunday's, so we go usually on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday early in the morning.

There are usually one or two pods of Spinner Dolphins that use the outer part of the bay as a place to rest, do not swim out there because they are sleeping. The coral here is abundant and the tropical fish are plenty! It is a very beautiful place to snorkel and see the different types of fish. On the South side of the bay is usually several Honu swimming (they are endangered and you can not touch them).

This snorkel trip is a process, you leave early (7:00 AM) and drive South on Hwy 11, at around mile marker 109 on the right is the "Coffee Shack" cafe, great breakfast! We stop there to eat and enjoy the wonderful view of the ocean & live entertainment of Geckos feeding on guava jelly on the hand rails. After breakfast we head down to Honounou bay for a morning of snorkeling. By lunchtime were ready to head back home, but we don't go back the way we came, we head left out of the road leaving the bay and take the back road. We follow it until we get to Kealekakua bay and take Napoopoo Rd up the hill about 1/2 mile or so. On the left you will find "Kalama's" a little burger shack, has the best burgers on the island. This is where we stop for lunch.

If you do anything while here in Kona, this is one of the "Must Do" trips to take, along with the volcano. Still to come, "A Volcano Trip", "Hamaku Coast", & "Where to Eat in Kona"!

Aloha A Hui Hou

Oh the Places I've Been!

I have seen some absolutely beautiful places since we moved here!  One of the more beautiful places is Palolu Valley on the Northwest part of the island.

The Pololu Valley Lookout and trail head is at the end of the Akoni Pule Hwy (270) East of Hawi (pronounced Ha-vee) & Kapa'au, birthplace of King Kamehameha.  It is one of the most beautiful valleys in the whole state of Hawaii.


It is a 2.5 mile hike to the bottom of the valley to a back sand beach, it will take about 35 - 40 minutes to hike down, but the hike up is the killer.  I do not recommend anyone taking this hike that is not in very good shape, I have not taken it, and will not until I am in much better shape.


On a clear morning you can see Maui from Pololu Valley, most times it is just the top of the Haleakala Mountain that you can see.

Looking Mauka up the valley most times it will be shrouded in fog, on the clear windy days it is absolute gorgeous!

There are at times wild goats, donkeys, horses & cattle that are at the bottom of the valley and can been seen from the lookout.


Now on your way there you will have passed through Kapa'au and seen the statue of King Kamehameha on your right.

This statue was forged in Europe and was destined to be placed at the Iolani Palace in Honolulu.  But on the way here along the coast of Argentina the ship carrying it sunk and they thought the statue was lost.  They commissioned a new statue forged here in Hawaii and placed at the Iolani Palace.  Then they recovered this statue a short time later and brought it here where King Kamehameha was born and raised to honor him here.


Kapa'au and Hawi have some really nice places to eat, and great shops too!  This is a place that we return to every so often, just to explore!


Aloha & A Hui Hou,
Chappy

Where I Live

Aloha,

Welcome to a Hawaiian Life. What you will read here will be about my experiences as a California born & raised person who now lives life on life's terms on the Big Island of Hawaii. I moved to Kailua-Kona for several reasons:

1. The climate (Warm all the time)
2. The lifestyle (laid back)
3. It's not California!

I also have the goal of learning about the culture here, the "Aloha Spirit" and adapting it into my way of living, so I can become a better person.

We have been here now for two years, we have met and made a host of friends. Most everyone I know here I could call at a moments notice for help and they would drop what they are doing and come to my aid! The people here get to know you and not just invite you into their lives, they adopt you into their families! In Hawaii it is about "Ohana" or Family.

If you know Kona, you will know where I am talking about. I live right by Banyan's Beach, (aka Banyan's Surf Spot), on the Mauka side of Alii Dr. Just 100 footsteps from the beach! I can see the surf from my Lanai, I can hear the surf at night when we have a surf surge, and we have between 5 & 6 Honu (Green Sea Turtles) living right off the beach in the reef.

Our favorite hole in da wall place for Poke (raw Ahi Tuna mixed in herbs, spices, & sauce) is "Da Poke Shack"! We use Miller's Surf to rent snorkel gear for our family & friends who come visit. We buy our snacks & drinks at the Banyan Market, and we like to spend time at La Aloa Bay (aka Magic Sands) & Pahoehoe Beach Park.

We have walked 2.5 miles into Kailua Village from our condo, it is quite a hike, and rode the Keaheou Shuttle back, stopping at Alii Gardens Market Place, and all of the beach access points along the way! There are some really special little hidden beaches like Turtle Bay (choke with turtles at certain time of the day) that if you were not local, you would never find them!

I will share more detailed descriptions of our adventures in the future, so keep checking by to see where we have been, and where we are going to go next! The Island of Hawaii is over 4000 square miles and we will be exploring as often as we can!

Mahalo (Thank You) & A Hui Hou (until we meet again,
Chappy

How I Got Here!

It all started in The winter of 2008/09 when my Wife & I decided it was time to move from our rural little snowy town to somewhere warm and sunny. We lived in a little town in Northeastern California, (the forgotten part of California), there the Sierra Nevada's & Cascade Mountain Ranges meet. Our little cabin was at a mile high and we would get snow for six months of the year and summer usually lasted about six weeks!

In March of 2009 we took a ten day trip to San Diego to explore the area, and defrost from the long winter. It was determined on this trip that we were ready for warm weather NOW! In April 2009 my Wife took a trip with two girlfriends to Kailua-Kona, Hawaii for ten days. This is where it gets interesting!

Back in 1984-86 when I as serving in the US Navy I would make port calls at Pearl Harbor, Hi. After the first couple of calls there in Honolulu, I started exploring the other Islands. I stayed on Kauai, Lanai, Maui, and finally on both the Hilo side & Kona side of the Big Island (Hawaii). I fell in love with Kailua-Kona and after my lat trip there in 1986, I have always wanted to live there.

Anyway, back to my wife & her trip to Kona. She was there for ten days and absolutely loved it, actually, she fell in love with Kona too! She returned home to our little forest cabin with a bright idea..."How about we move to Kona?" she asked. We started really looking at the cost of living, where you would live, shop, medical, all the real issues of living. What we found was that it was just about as much cost of living in Kona as it was for our little rural town in the forgotten part of California.

Then we started to look at shedding 20 years of accumulated stuff, because our mountain life would not work on da beach. We had a three bedroom house full of stuff in every room. My father passed away in 2007, her father in 2008, and we had their stuff in our two car garage. It was alot of stuff and it possessed us!

By the middle of June we were going a little crazy because we had an obscure objective to move to Kona, but when? How? We had to make a decision and nail it down.

So, we were going crazy with the obscure goal of moving to Kona. So we sat down and started looking at dates. We came up with April 1, 2010 for our move, purchased two one-way tickets from Oakland to Kona, and then reserved a container to ship our goods, and scheduled our pick-up to be shipped.

Now we had a hard target and began in earnest with the "Give Away — Throw Away" plan to get rid of 20 years of stuff. If you came by to visit during this time, you would have walked away with something. Our friend Dan came over for dinner and won a stereo! Another friend won an entertainment center & flat screen tv, other friend won many other wonderful surprises!

In January 2010 my wife found our condo 100 footsteps from the beach on craigs list! Over the course of the next 46 weeks we removed over two tons of junk to the dump, and gave away everything else. We packed 37 boxes to take with us, (including our Select Comfort Bed), loaded up the u-haul truck on March 28th, 2010 and drove away from our forest house for our new life on da beach!

We stayed in a hotel in Susanville for a couple of nights and spent some wonderful time with our grandchildren before left. On March 30th we arrived in Oakland and delivered our boxes to the shipping company, returned the u-haul and delivered our pick-up to the shipping company.

On April 1, 2010 we departed on our flight from Oakland, CA at 7:10AM PST and arrive in Kailua-Kona, HI at 10:00 AM HST. When we left Oakland is was in the high 50's, when we got to Kona it was in the low 80's, man what a difference!