We loved Big Island! The second stop on our Hawaii trip was Hawai'i Island, known as Big Island. We were on Big Island for about 6 days, and we loved it. Daylen and I both agree that it's our favorite Hawaiian Island so far.
Big Island is the biggest island in the state of Hawaii, and also the newest. It is made up of five volcanoes, three of which are active, one dormant, and one extinct. Hualālai, Mauna Loa, and Kīlauea are the active volcanoes, while Mauna Kea is dormant. Mauna Kea is the highest point on the island. It is also the highest mountain in the world, even higher than Mount Everest, when measured from the base beneath the sea. Due to the constant lava flow, the island is also constantly getting bigger.
There are two main sides of the island, the Kona side and the Hilo side. The Kona side (west) has calmer oceans and a much drier climate. The Hilo (east) side has lots of rain and jungles, and rougher ocean conditions.
We took an inter-island Hawaiian Airlines flight from Oahu to Big Island. It was a fun, super short flight! When we landed at the Kona Airport, we walked on the tarmac to the outdoor airport. It was so cool that the whole airport was outdoors! We stocked up on some food for our AirBNB condo at Costco, and stayed in for the night. It was dark when we arrived, but I was excited to see what our view was in the morning!
The next morning, we explored outside of our condo a bit and drove to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Our AirBNB condo was right on the ocean and it was so cool! We loved staying in Kona, and would recommend staying there. As we got closer to the national park, we saw lots of lava fields.
First, we visited the visitor center at Kīlauea so I could stamp my national parks passport, and we could see a little about the park. Then, we went right to the Kīlauea overlook! It was so cool! I've learned a lot about the Yellowstone volcano over the years, but seeing an active volcano is a lot different. It was so barren in the Kīlauea crater.
Next, we headed to my recommendation of hike, the Thurston Lava Tube. I had been reading about it online and was very excited to hike through it. I wasn't disappointed! It was so cool! And, I loved seeing the jungle around it on the hike.
We headed back to our Kona condo, and got ready for our luau that night. We went to the Royal Kona Resort Luau. It was fun! We had lots of food, and watched the show right on the ocean. I'm not sure I'd do a luau again unless it was a special occasion, but it was fun to do for our first trip. We even got some leis! The Royal Kona Resort was beautiful.
We spent the next day snorkeling in a few spots in the Kona area. First, we went to Kahaluʻu Beach Park, a great spot for beginners. The snorkeling area is in a cove, and there are volunteers there helping beginner snorkelers, as well as plenty of signs and information. We loved seeing all of the fish there feeding on the algae!
Another spot we loved was Two Step Beach near Captain Cook. It was less of a beginner area, and quite a bit deeper than our first spot. I loved seeing the different corals in the reef and lots of cool formations of lava rock. I would love to snorkel here again! It's a perfect spot for snorkeling because there isn't any sand, just lots of reef.
We went back to our condo to eat and get ready for our big adventure on the island: Manta Ray Night Snorkeling. We booked with Hang Loose Boat Tours, and we loved them. I was super excited for this activity!
We met up at the Honokohau Marina in Kailua-Kona, and boarded a boat. They gave us some snacks, drinks, and a wetsuit top to put over our swimsuits, and we headed off! It was sunset, so the ocean was so pretty. We boated over to a spot past the airport where there were a couple of other boats in the water with snorkelers. After we saw a few manta shadows in the water, our captain decided this was the spot!
We were given some instruction before we hopped in the water. We swam out to some floating platforms with big lights on them in the water. At first it was a little scary to be out in the open ocean in the dark, but as soon as I looked down, I was so excited! They told us to expect about 1-2 mantas on average, but when I looked down I saw that there were 25-30 mantas in the water! Daylen and I swam out to a platform first, and the rest of the family was just behind us. We held on and looked down! It was so cool. I will definitely have a separate blog post all about our Manta Ray Night Snorkeling experience.
The next morning was Easter! The Easter bunny found Daylen and I all the way in Hawaii somehow, haha! We decided to have a beach / snorkel day, and swam a bunch. We went to Pahoehoe Beach Park, and had the whole beach and reef to ourselves. There were some cool new fish there that we hadn't seen before! We ended the night with a sunset dinner in downtown Kona.
On our last full day on Big Island, we went over to the Hilo side of the island. On our way we stopped at a Starbucks and got a cute little cup and saw a rainbow! Since there is lots of rain in Hilo normally, we expected a lot of it. But, luckily, we didn't get rained on very much at all!
We had two waterfalls to see in Hilo: Akaka Falls State Park, and Rainbow Falls. We started at Akaka Falls. My best friend had just recently gone there, so my mom and I looked it up before our trip and decided we had to go there. It was gorgeous! We walked through the jungle on a little path until we got to the big falls. We also got to walk through a really cool bamboo forest! The falls is so tall, and it was cool to learn about the Goby fish that climb up it.
Rainbow Falls didn't include a hike, but it was super pretty. We were able to see the rainbow created by the falls, and a couple gorgeous views while we were there. We also visited the nearby Kaumana Caves. If we had better flashlights, we could have gone into the cave, but we stayed close to the opening. It was so cool!
While we were in Hilo, we grabbed a bite to eat and went to the Hilo Farmer's Market. We grabbed some really cool souvenirs here, and were bummed we couldn't enjoy the fruit since we were leaving Hawaii in the morning. This was my favorite place to get souvenirs in Hawaii! I even got a hairpin that was made by hand with plants and shells from the island.
We also did a photo shoot on big island, with Photographers in Hawaii. I love these photos so much! They are definitely some of my new favorite photos of Daylen and I.
We ended the night at Kona Brewing Co, and loved it. They have really good pizzas! I got a garlic pizza that I really wish I could have taken with me. So yummy! We loved Big Island, and will definitely miss it.
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