Kohala Coast

After two short days on Maui, and a quick flight to Kona, we arrived on the big island.  Too early to check into our hotel, and a few hours at Hapuna Beach (no pics, we drove north to explore Kohala Coast.

I always think of Hawaii islands fringed with beaches.  Turns out that there are few sandy beaches and it's mostly rocky coasts.  There seemed to be only 30 sandy beaches on the whole island.  But rocks? Hawaii has rocks.

Onions got so excited to see fish!

In our guidebook, there was a picture of this shrine that looked cool at the northern tip of the Big Island.  So we drove and it became this dirt road.

So, at the rental car agency, we were offered a Hyundai Sonata, or a 4x4 truck with 800 miles on it.  We immediately took advantage of the trucks high clearance.  I have to admit I only drove through a couple puddles, on this first day...

Here we are at the northernmost tip of the Big Island.

We hiked (but could have 4x4 driven) the last mile to one of the King Kamehameha's supposed birthplace.  It was a square wall of rocks.

Like many things, you go and see something that kind of underwhelms and then you are surprised by something unexpected.  For us, on this first afternoon on the big island was driving the Kohala Mountain Road.  We decided to drive back to Kona a different way than along the sea and this is what we saw.

Just as the sun was setting, along this mountainside with green grass and the extinct volcano in the distance, it was the kind of drive that you have to stop and just take tons of pictures.

A perfect end to the first day on the Big Island.  It set the tone for the great days of exploration to come.