Now listen very carefully, I will say this only once –
We are on the island of Hawaii, in Hawaii, called the Big Island, so instead of referring to Hawaii and you getting confused that we were already in Hawaii, and wondering which part of Hawaii we are in, we are actually now on Hawaii, in Hawaii. Got all that ?
To save confusion, I think I’ll just refer to “The Big Island” and not have to go through all that again !!
Our flight today from Maui to the Big Island was in the middle of the day so we had a leisurely breakfast and a walk around the resort at Makena before packing up and heading to the airport.
The flight itself took about half an hour and you can almost still see where you have departed as where you are headed comes into view ! There is hardly time for the in flight “beverage service”. No sooner have they given you some fruit juice, they are back to collect the container !
Kona Airport is very relaxed – all the passengers waiting for the next flight are sitting out in the open – almost on the tarmac ! Any “buildings” are really just gazebos. We collected our luggage from the baggage gazebo and headed to the shuttle bus to go to the car rental centre. I think the lady behind the counter at Alamo tried to get us to take every make and model they had in the lot but finally we settled on our original “midsize” booking. Still, we then had a choice from the “midsize aisle” and this time we have settled on a Dodge Dart (yes, the Dart !) – none of that imported rubbish this time !
We headed a bit south first and drove around the nearby town of Kailua- Kona, then headed back north. Waikoloa Beach, our stop for the next 2 nights, was a drive of only about 30 minutes.
The Big Island is the youngest of the islands and the scenery is very much of old lava flows. The youngest areas of lava are that classic black, blobby look and they have very little vegetation which has developed, save a few bits of tufty grass here and there.
The older sections have a bit more growth but the only trees seem to be around the areas which have specifically been developed (the villages, resorts etc).
We are staying at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott. As the name suggests, we are right on the beach. It also has some lovely pool areas between the hotel itself and the beach. And as you can see from the photos, our room gives us a wonderful outlook for the setting sun !
We did that thing called relaxation this afternoon and had a leisurely swim and a drink beside the pool in the late afternoon.
After ooing and ahhing at the sunset, we had dinner in the resort restaurant. Tonight they were doing a Paniolo special.
Paniolo is the name given to the Hawaiian Cowboy. Cattle were introduced to Hawaii as a gift to the king and they multiplied quite rapidly. In developing a beef industry, they bought cowboys from the mainland and the name is believed to be an Hawaiianised version of “espanol” – there is no s in the limited Hawaiian alphabet and words must end in a vowel.
So it was the classic campfire meal of meat, mash and beans – only quite a bit refined. Adrienne had a steak and I had pork ribs. It also came with a tomato and crab bisque and salad for starters and an apple cobbler for dessert.
After a short walk around the pool areas, again we waddled back to our room with over full bellies.
Looks like tomorrow is going to be a walking day to burn a few of those calories !
And perhaps more of that thing called relaxation !