Big Island Hawaii part 6

Dec 8, 2007 - Volcano, Punalu'u, South Point

Last day in Hawaii, with a lot of ground still left to cover before the red eye flight out from Kona at midnight. This journey to sunny South Point turned out to be my favorite day of the trip. We had an extra passenger too; Will picked up RC at the Hilo airport from an early bird flight from Honalulu.

We didn't get very far before we noticed that some bum had broken into the jeep the night before. They had cut the plastic side window and stole a loaf of bread, box of granola bars and a bottle of water, ...and broke the glove box latch. Strangly, the hole wasn't big enough to crawl through or reach anything, so he must have finally realized that the windows were just zippered.

As usual, the Hilo sky was overcast this morning, but we wanted to swing by the volcano again for another look.

journey to south point

introducing today's new passenger, Robster

much better view of the Caldera today...

..from Kilauea overlook (1.4 mb video)

prickley flower

Caldera moonwalk (7.3 mb video)

a map again, for your bearings

sulphuric smoke show in the crater..

..from Halema'uma'u overlook (4.8 mb video)

a typical offering to the volcano god, Pele (1.8 mb video)

has Pele perished?

Pele's picnic

RC stuck in a rut

moonwalk 2 (3.6mb vid)
climbing on the lava ridge (7.4mb vid)
sure sign of life (1.2mb vid)

sulphur

Robster on a pedestal

Willie finds an alcove

alcove wall

an intersesting find

A very 'other worldly' spot here; especially with cloud cover misting out the horizon and sky. Unfortunately there was no lava to be seen, and all attempts at angering Pele into erupting were in vain. Apparently, the only lava to be seen on the island was restricted to helicopter access.

We loaded up the jeep and headed down the coast in search of Punalu'u, where we were told they kept the turtles. We were overdue for these turtles.

-Welcome to the "Southernmost bakery in the USA"-

A good place to stop for a ham & chesse sandwich, some gooey pastries and some gift jams.

Just watch for falling 30lbs tree husks in the front yard; I watched 2 fall in the time it took to eat a sandwich
(1.2 mb video)

the black sand beaches of Punalu'u
(1.6 mb video)

we spotted 5 of these tame turtles

..touching them is illegal

time to put the top down

-Journey to South Point-

We didn't really know what to expect down at South Point. The Budget rent a car map indicated it was off limits to rentals, so we knew it must be good. We also knew that the fabled 'green sand beach' was around there somewhere, but as usual, this hot spot was unmarked, but asking around proved very rewarding, once again...

2.5 miles of happy plodding (10.3 mb video)...

..until this sprang into view (0.9 mb video)

located in little sheltered cove (1.2 mb video)...

..down a rather steep embankment (1.5 mb video)..

...we found the green sand's of Mahana bay...
(1.0 mb video)

greener than it looks..more olive really
(1.4 mb video)

looking up the cliff (1.5 mb)

another small step

frisbee anyone?

(2.2 mb video)

A really really nice spot, could have spend an entire day here, but ended up with only a couple of hours. Warm waters, with a nice late breaking surf, which was perfect for body surfing. A 40' cliff was also available (at right, above) for good long jumpers.

So back up the 'offroad' we went, nearly getting stuck in a rather deep puddle this time. But we made it out, and though the afternoon was getting late, we continued in search of other South Point specialties.

a fishing contraption...? (1.2 mb video)

Willie takes the plunge (3.3 mb video)

dodgy looking ladder (2 mb)

water tube (1.6 mb video)

the 'real' southpoint (1.7 mb video)

southernmost rocks in the USA (1.6 mb)..

..with 3 amigos standing by them

the sun was sinking at the South Point native burial grounds (1.1 mb video)

the road north

moo

This pretty well concluded the events of this, the last day of the Big Island Hawaii trip. A relatively short trip back up the western coast to Kona followed, with no further stops, until we found supper, in a seaside Kona grill. RC had an earlier flight out, so we dropped him off and then went to work cleaning a week's worth of mud and grime off the jeep, inside and out. It took two passes through the car wash, plus a 40 minute scrub, but i believe we successfully removed the evidence of our 'extracurricular' use of their jeep. From there we bid farewell to the land of milk and honey, and jumped on our midnight flight out to Phoenix, and then, the following night, another red eye flight home.

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