Big Island vacation, part 3 (of 3)

The last leg of our journey was exploring the southern section of the island and the main town of Kona.

The drive from Pahoa and through the southern part of the island through to our last hotel in Kona was going to be 3 hours long and we decided to break it up with a detour to see Papakolea, aka Green Sands beach, which is only one of 4 green sand beaches in the world! The beach is also just a stone's throw away from the southernmost point of the US so bonus that we passed by that destination too.

Green sands beach is about a 2.5 mile hike along a very dusty, windy stretch of the island. There are numerous paths to the beach, all of them made by 4x4s that brave the rocky terrain to get to the beach. In fact, you can pay for a local "shuttle" to drive you to the beach for $20 per person. Since the walk was flat, we opted to walk instead but saw lots of people stand in the back up of a pick up truck and bump along the road. The hike ended up being fine, albeit long in the hot sun. It hugs the coast though so at least it was very scenic throughout.

The beach itself is a pretty crescent shaped beach that's way down a cliff that you have to shimmy your way down to. It's not a good swimming beach so we had fun just enjoying the views and playing in the surf. The green of the sand comes from the olivite mineral that came out of the nearby Mauna Loa volcano, and it's much more olive-y than a true green. You have to look really close to see the green crystals in the sand.

Our 2.5 mile hike to the Green Sands beach.

We hugged the coast the whole time.

Lots of grass blowing in the wind.

Finally there! We're at the top of the cliff and we have to get down to the beach.

Getting down to the beach you have to make your way down these cuts on the cliff.

Looks greenish gold, doesn't it?

Cooling off after the long hike.

Time to go back!

On our last full day in Hawaii, we started off the day with a quick adults+Nora trip to a nearby coffee plantation. Kona coffee is super famous so of course we couldn't leave without sampling some! The coffee place we went to was called Holualoa Coffee Company and it was a very small, woman-owned and operated spot where we had a really good time. It blew away the other, more well established place we tried on a previous day.

After that, we grabbed the rest of the kids and made our way to Honaunau, aka Two Steps, for what was supposedly the best snorkeling spot on the island. Let me tell you - it did not disappoint! This was by far the best day we had snorkeling in terms of the abundance of tropical fish. I saw so many brightly colored fish. This is also the spot where Scott swam with spinner dolphins! The kids were a bit iffy about this location though because it took quite a bit of effort to go out, and the coral was very shallow in some areas, so much so that it worried them that they were going to get cut up. The preferred to play in the tide pools, but even there, little fishes were swimming with them.

To end our last day in Hawaii, we cooled off after snorkeling with some shave ice and when we got back to the hotel, did one last dip in the pool and hot tub.

We always love our trips to Hawaii and this time was no different. It was super fun for the girls to be old enough to do some water sports and longer hikes. In general, we also felt pretty safe since we didn't go out much and when we did, it was to open air places like the beach. It didn't feel really crowded either, probably because we went after the big spring break rush. All in all, it was a great trip after being shut in for over a year!