Vacation 2018 - Hawaii - Big Island
Hawaii... a bucket list item. However, if my PPRF (Peer Pressure Running Friends group) had not talked me into doing the Kona marathon, I might of waited to go to Hawaii at a later time in my life. I figured it would be expensive. Let me just say that if you think Disney is expensive... well just triple that amount for Hawaii. :) But it was so WORTH IT! :)
My husband asked me what was my favorite thing about Hawaii and I told him I could not come up with just one thing. There is so much to see! And we did not see it all! We only managed to get in 2 of the islands and one was just a one day trip for a tour to hit all the high spots. I'd love to go back and visit all the islands and have more time. It's just an amazing place and so laid back!
Girls when we arrived in Kona .. 2pm (Hawaii time)
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| Getting our rental car... JEEP |
I was disappointed when we arrived at the Kona airport and started driving to our resort. I imagined I'd be seeing beautiful beaches and ocean. Instead we were seeing nothing but fields of black rock and sand. Barely any trees. It sure was not what I imagined. As I drove I thought to myself .... boy this is disappointing. But trust me.. it got much better once we arrived at our resort! There is a lava tube just a few miles from the airport that all the cars were stopping at. We finally stopped on our last day before going to the airport to leave to see what all the people were looking at. Our tour guide earlier in the week had told us that it was created in 1983 when one of the volcanoes erupted. Here's a picture of the girls at the lava tube. It was HUGE.
I'll try to make this post brief and only post a few of my favorite pictures. I took a ton. :>)
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| The first sunset we saw from our room the first day. |
This was our itinerary I gave the girls before we left on our adventure. I've added a few notes in blue. I'll add a picture or two from each day to keep this post short. :>)
Hawaii – Itinerary
Thursday – 6/21/2018… Leave for airport 4am BE READY ---- arrive in
Hawaii 2:05pm -
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| The struggle was real for some to get up (which girls said they never went to sleep when I picked them up at 4am). |
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Girls at Kona Airport when we arrived around 2pm (Hawaii time) ...... they are holding their bank card for their bank .... I can't remember why... they just said they had to get pic with their bank card for the bank. LOL
The view out our balcony.. boy were we excited when we arrived!
- Supper after getting settled at resort… Boat Landing Cantina at Resort ... right outside our room. We were tired from our long travel day, plus I had not slept any the night before we left due to my son's puppy being hit by a car. I was exhausted.
Surviving the plane ride.... ha 8 hours is a long time on one plane.
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Friday – 6/22/2018
… First full day at Hawaii -- Tour of big Island (Ultimate
Circle Tour) - Depart hotel at 7am ….
Return around 8pm …. Tour includes lunch…
Our tour was awesome!! We were with another couple from New Zeland. They were so interesting.. they have traveled the world! We were in a brand new Mercedes van. Our driver drove us completely around the whole Island stopping at all the high spots and filling us in on tons of Island history. It was an awesome tour. Paul from Essential Tours was great! We saw the following: Kona Coffee farm, Macadamia Nut farm, Hilalalai and Mauna Loa volcanoes, Punalu'u black sand beach, sea turtles, Kilauea volcano, Rainbow falls, Akaka Falls, Waipio Valley, and a tropical garden. And I'm sure I've left some things out. Here is the map of the Island showing the circle tour we did:
Info on some of the volcanoes we saw:
Kohala - the oldest volcano. The Waipi'o Valley use to be bigger before this volcano erupted causing the Northern part to collapse into the ocean in a giant landslide. This created stunning sea cliffs in the valley and also a monster tsunami.
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| The Waipi'o Valley |
Mauna Kea - tallest sea mountain in the world. It's taller than Mt.Everest! It's a dormant volcano.
Hualalai - Got Kona Coffee? This volcano is best known for the black gold that comes from it's slopes: Kona Coffee. It's active, but hasn't erupted for a while.
Mauna Loa - Largest volcano on the planet! It's very active and has erupted over 150 times, with the last one ending April, 1984.
Kilauea - has been erupting since 1983! it's the youngest of the 6 volcanoes on the Big Island. It's also the one causing the major damage right now.
So as we were touring around the Island, I said to my tour guide, "So basically at any time any part of this big island could erupt with a few fisher from a volcano". The whole Island is basically volcanoes. LOL
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| We did not see a rainbow the day we went, however most of the time you have to go early in the morning to catch the rainbow view from what I've read. |
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| So many pretty plants! |
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| Our New Zeland Friends... they were a hoot! |
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| We even drove 12 miles through the park. There were signs everywhere saying do not stop, but we could drive through. We only saw one small crack in the road from the current volcano. |
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| Check out those sea turtles behind us. This is at Black Sand Beach. |
Supper at Lava Lava Beach Club after arriving back at the resort.. it was packed! It’s directly on beach.. we had to wait for a table.
Saturday –
6/23/2018 … Race expo – meet
group at 10am for picture, relax before
Sunday’s race.
Dinner 6:30 pm … Huggo’s in Kona … on the water.. nice sunset view. Had some awesome raw tuna! Also saw a guy catching fish, cleaning fish, and eating them on the shallow water below the restaurant.
Sunday –
6/24/2018 … Race Day … Marathon starts at 5:30am, 5K starts at 6:45am
…………I’ll be up around 4am getting ready for marathon … so I’ll have you girls
up in time for your race! J …………
Race sucked.. see previous blog post.. ha Sunday
night after race Legends of Hawaii Luau dinner… 5:30pm The Luau was awesome. Great food and the dancers were amazing!
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| Girls at Luau |
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| We were greeted with real flowers. |
Monday –
6/25/2018 – Fly to Oahu (Honolulu) for tour of that Island … have to
be at airport at 5:15am … so probably leaving hotel at 4:45am…. Arrive back on
big Island around 8pm.
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| Headed out to airport |
Boy were we tired this day... or I was! Marathon day before and then we had to get up so early to get to airport... we had private tour of Oahu. It was nice that it was only the 3 of us with our driver. We were not on a set schedule. If we had not been so tired, we would have requested more things to do. ha Katelyn even slept during some of the drive on the tour. We saw many things.... Our tour started with Pearl Harbor. Due to structural damage no one is allowed to get off the boat and walk on Pearl Harbor. I was sad about that, but so glad I got to see Pearl Harbor. From there we begin our drive around the island.
We saw the following:
Dole Pineapple Pavilion, Scenic La'ie Point, Oahu's famous north shore beaches, Waimea Bay, Waimanalo Beach park, Legendary Oahu Surf Spots, had lunch from a shrimp truck, Tantalus lookout which you can literally see all around the Island of Oahu From Diamond head to Waikiki Beach & Chinaman's Hat from Kualoa Point State Rec Area. Plus some other things I'm sure I'm forgetting. It was another full day of island touring.
Dinner … at
Waikoloa village close to resort .. Waikoloa Luxury Cinemas .. yep they served supper and
you could also go to the movies… we only ate.
Tuesday –
6/26/2018 - Lava boat tour
-- We have to drive to Hilo side of
Island to catch boat - leaves at 4pm…. We may drive over the Hilo around lunch and
sight see some of that side of Island before Lava boat Tour.
The boat ride is very rough.... let me caution anyone that goes. We had several throwing up the whole time. We were hitting waves that looked 10-12 feet high in a metal boat! The trade winds had really picked up while we were there which makes it worse. They brief you ahead of time and tell you it's going to be bad, but until you get on that boat, you don't really know how bad.. ha At least none of us were sick. Jackie Ray’s Ohana Grill for dinner. It was great! Did not get to sight see on Hilo side (good thing our tour on Friday took is by there and hit the high spots) ... our GPS took us down a road that ended on a dead end. However, we got to see Paul Mitchell's son and had a good laugh in the jeep trying to get back down the mountain.
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| Fisher 8 ... the live volcano. We are on the boat heading to see the Lava. |
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| As lava flows into the ocean it explodes creating black sand & a lot of smoke.... new land forming. So cool watching this, but also sad for all those that lost their homes. |
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| Girls on Lava Boat Tour |
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| Red Lava flowing before it hits the ocean waters |
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| This picture of the other Lava boat out with us really doesn't show the waves as bad as they are when we were going out to the lava. We jumped waves 7-10 feet high.. in an aluminum boat! Several people were sick the entire time. When they said rough waters, they meant it. |
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| Supper .. oh it was so GOOD! |
Wednesday –
6/27/2018 – Rest… ha Manta Ray
night snorkel …. We have to drive to the harbor to load boat … leave hotel
probably around 3pm – have to check in at 5pm on boat. – returns 9pm
I let the girls sleep as long as they wanted this day since every day we had gotten up early. However, they were up by 9am and out in the water. They couldn't get enough of Hawaii either! I had a massage at 8am! Yeah me :>) We ended up ordering room service for supper when we got back to the room that night and a small pizza was $40.. :<>)
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| It was the only overcast day we had the day we hung out at the resort. And the girls still got sunburned. LOL |
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| Erin is ready to see those Manta Rays! I love traveling with her. She's so much FUN. :>) |
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| Katelyn was not liking the wet suit one bit. |
So we only saw 1 manta ray... We were disappointed in this. Several people had told us they saw between 8-10. Our captain did tell us that not every trip do they get to see mantas, so we were lucky to see one. It was amazing seeing that thing swim so close to us! Here's a little video I took with the GoPro. Excuse the angle and movement. I was trying to hold on to a rope and not float off and the waves were steady out in the water. Click the link:
Manta Ray Swim
Thursday –
6/28/2018 – depart L Shop at Kona until we have to drive to
airport around 2pm to catch 5pm flight home.
I stood on the bank where the world Ironman Championship happens. The beach there is beautiful! Kona is a cute little town. Lots of shops. We parked and walked around. The main street there is like their own Vegas strip.
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| A really cool tree in Kona |
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| Where Ironman happens! |
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| Girls leaving... booooooooo |
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| My cool bike jersey I got in Kona. |
What a vacation!!! It was a busy one. We tried to fit in so much that we never had any time to just sit and relax. I'd love to go back and sit with the wind blowing my hair and read a book surrounded by all the beautiful landscape. Hawaii is amazing. So blessed to be able to go! The ride home was AWFUL. Losing the 5 hours, a guy sitting next to me that went to sleep all over my arm rest where I couldn't put my food tray back up, my legs aching from sitting, and just not being able to get comfy, made me not sleep one bit! By the time we got to New Orleans and I had to drive home, it was bad. I could barely hold my eyes open! I've never driven that sleepy in all my life. Next time I'll have someone pick us up and drive us home. :>)
Girls when we arrived in Kona .. 2pm (Hawaii time)
It is a beautiful resort. We had an ocean view room. 
Pools at our resort. There were several!
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