stanbr

We first visited the Big Island on a cruise a few years ago and identified it as a place where we wanted to return. We stayed in a condo on Allii drive in 2016 and returned again this year for two more weeks in another condo a bit closer to town. We stayed at an AirB&B property with ocean view in Allii Villas.

There were some pretty decent waves crashing on shore when we arrived. Its amazing how much time one can spend sitting on the lanai just watching and listing to the surf. During the two weeks we saw lots of spinner dolphins and even a couple of whales from our apartment.

My wife has recently been learning to paint flowers in oil using the Bob Ross wet on wet technique. Allii villas grounds are full of vegetation and flowers. She had me photographing all kinds of tropical flowers and plans to use the photos as models for future projects.

A typical day starts out pretty lazy with a late wake up, relaxing with coffee and then breakfast around 10. Each morning I went for a walk the Ashton Kona by the sea condo complex where there was a beach access, leading to an infinity pool. This pool is fed by waves that crash on the rocks and splash into the pool. On rough days it was fun watching people stand on the edge of the pool and being blown backwards by the big waves. I decided to protect my camera and just photograph this activity rather than participate myself.

Shaking off atrophied muscles from three months of inactivity from winter, the daily walking eventually allowed me to stretch out my walks until I could go all the way to the Banyon tree park where the surfers play all day. The round trip was about 6,000 steps which made sure I got in my 10,000 per day.

Later in the day we dragged ourselves into the car to pick up some needed groceries like wine, salsa chips, saki, cookies, beer and Poke. On the way we would stop and watch the surfers and see if there were any sea turtles, then spend an hour or two at Magic Sands Beach, just sunning, reading our books, dodging errant volleyballs and watching the crazy kamikaze body surfers hurtling toward the rocky shore. Each evening we would bring our drinks down to the water’s edge to join the crowd to watch the magnificent sunsets.

As I read this I just realized we didn’t do much other than just hang around, happy to receive pictures of the huge snowfall back home. This two week period was a particularly brilliant time to be away.

We did do some driving trips. One day we drove north to Waikoloa village spent an hour at the beach and a drive around the village. We continued north to the village of Hawi where we drove down a hill and suddenly we smelled the most tantalizing aroma. It turned out to be a huge public barbeque with chicken and Pork ribs on an open fire. There were people lined up for a plate of ribs with rice and macaroni salad. By the time we finished our lunch all of the meat was gone. Someone told us, on Thursdays no one in Hawi cooks dinner they just come out to the Barbecue and buy their dinner.

We continued south on hwy 250 and crossed over the Kohala volcano. What a different experience, here everything is green and the land seems to be used for farming, cattle and crops. It was almost like we were in Ireland it was so green. The temperature dropped to 66 degrees and we went through lots of VOG. We arrived in Waimea and we continued to the lookout at Waipio Valley.

Another day we visited Kealakehua Park near Captain Cooks monument then visited the Place of Refuge where dozens of school kids were on a day trip. We continued our circle tour and visited the Painted Church then stopped at Joes Nuts farm where we had a long chat with the owner, a very colourful lady with a shotgun and half a dozen rambunctious dogs. Needless to say we purchased several bags of Macadamia nuts.

Another day we visited Greenwell coffee plantation and took the tour and then went to Kuloko Honokohau National Park to see the turtles and finished the day at the small boat harbour seeing all the fishing boats.

We also drove to Milolii village, 5 miles down a steep road. That road was just about as much excitement that I could handle. We took the jumbled and rugged stone path across old lava flows to the lovely sand beach on Honomalino bay. We found the blow hole at the far end of the bay and enjoyed an hour on the beach. On the way home we stopped at the coffee museum where we sipped Kona coffee.

Our flight home departed at 11:00 PM so we booked our condo for one extra night so we didn’t have to check out by 11am. That meant we could enjoy the last day, and have a full dinner. We left the condo at 9:00PM just in time to get to Costco to fill up the car with gas before heading to the airport for our return flight.

We are already planning our return for 2018

Here are hyperlinks to our photos from 2017 and 2016
2017 https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr...57680196244785
2016 https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr...57661724887863
Laurels Florals https://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr...57680182155985

Inakauaidavidababy

Thanks for taking me back. I can smell the smoke of CJ's Huli Chicken in my mind. Yum!

kanunu

Thanks for the entertaining trip report!
Not sure that I will be stopping in at Joe's Nuts Farm, next time on BI.... but it does sound interesting. Maybe I'll wear a Kevlar vest....
That local BBQ is the type of event that I would love to go to. Lots of Aloha there!
Seems like you had a real good time. It's even better when you know that they got a big dump of snow at home.
Happy planning for your 2018 return!

stanbr

Ah kanuna I should clarify Joes nuts. The lady actually didn't have a shotgun with her when we were there.

As I mentioned she was very colourfull and she told us a story about hearing an intruder in the middle of the night and armed with her shotgun apprehended drug dealers.

I thought I should set the record straight on my bit of humour.

Solo_wolf

Thank you for the Trip Report. I am planning a trip over there June 2017. Thank you for the Flickr photos - very nice. Stay Safe and safe travels to you and yours.