After a day of rest yesterday, we decided to spend our final full day on the Big Island exploring the one area of the loop we hadn’t made it to yet- the south side. Of course we brought our snorkel equipment, and this morning we headed out in our trusty Jeep to see what we could see. Our route took us straight through Volcanoes NP again, where it was crazy to think that just three days ago we were seeing a volcanic eruption, but today there were no telltale smoke plumes in the sky, and far fewer crowds. Here are a few interesting sights from our route:

Punalu’u Black Sand Beach

So I am in love… with this incredible black sand beach! We originally did not plan to stop here, as we had seen several black sand beaches on the island and we had some other snorkel beaches in mind for today. However, the audio guide we have been listening to as we travel the island recommended this as a stop, so we hopped out planning to only take some photos. Instead, we found this incredible black sand paradise! It is the largest black sand beach we have personally seen, and the trees and area around it were so beautiful. There were tidal pools full of tiny fish and crabs for exploring all over the beach, plus they had a roped off area for the Hawaiian green sea turtles where about eight turtles were sunning themselves in the sand. It was also a lifeguard beach with several people snorkeling, so we decided to go ahead and snorkel…

…and WOW! The snorkeling here was INCREDIBLE! Not only did we see schools and schools of colorful fish, the water was also chock full of sea turtles! We saw so many, we had to work hard to NOT get too close! The little cove felt like snorkeling in the most beautiful aquarium. We are in full agreement that this was the best snorkeling we had on the island. If you have ever dreamed of or desired swimming with sea turtles, this is the place for you. No special tours or guides needed- just bring your mask and snorkel and walk right off the beach in Punalu’u, and you step into a magical underwater world. The pictures don’t begin to do justice to all that we saw underwater.

Snack Time at the Punalu’u Bake Shop

Our next stop was the “southernmost bakery in the U.S.,” the Punalu’u Bake Shop. We had already been fortunate enough to sample their delicious shortbread macademia nut cookies, but the bakeshop had a ton of other fun flavors, as well as malasadas (doughnuts filled with creams and fruit flavors), and cool Hawaiian ice creams with flavors like ube, lilikoi, coconut and macadamia nut. Yum!

Hawaiian Words

We are learning new Hawaiian words every day, and we love how they are just sprinkled about mixed in with English everywhere here. Certain words seem to be used exclusively in Hawaiian (Oleolo), like aloha, mahalo, and keiki (children) here. I love that so many Hawaiian words don’t just refer to a specific English word, but instead refer to a whole concept. One of the menus here had a special section for “Keiki to Kapuna” (kids to seniors, but kapuna also refers to the concept of revered people with wisdom, which sounds much cooler to me than just being a “senior”!). Maybe my new moniker among the little ones in our family should be Kapuna Betsy. 😂

The Painted Church

The afternoon brought lots of rain and grey skies. We stopped in at Shaka Tacoz for their excellent fish tacos, and then headed over thru the town of Captain Cook and on to Saint Benedict Painted Church. This is a pretty little church with gorgeous views of the ocean built in the late 1800s. The priest who started the church in this location was a self-taught artist, so he painted murals inside using house paint, which gave it a really neat personalized interior.

Honaunau Bay “Two Steps”

Our final stop of the grey afternoon was the interesting little bay area formed out of lava rock, Honaunau Bay. The area here is well known for snorkeling and having spinner dolphins (which sadly we did not see). The bay has a lava rock shelf with “two steps” that the swimmers and snorklers use to enter into and out of the waters at the bay. Pretty handy! From the moment we stepped into the water, we saw an explosion of colorful fish and beautiful coral. We didn’t see any turtles here, but the variety and colors of fish were just wonderful, and quickly put this up to our second-favorite snorkel beach on the island (with Punalu’u being first). What a great day of snorkeling! It rained the whole time we were in the water, but there was no lightning or thunder, so it didn’t impact our ability to snorkel and enjoy the views. We saw trumpetfish, eels, crabs, different types of butterfly fish and tangs, more Moorish Idols, parrotfish, and so much more more!

Today’s Warnings

As we’ve mentioned in previous blogs, Hawaii does seem to LOVE it’s warning signs. They are literally everywhere, and lead me to believe that tourist idiocy must be rampant here. Here are a few favorites from today:

We caught the sunset from the Kona side of the island before driving back to Hilo tonight, tired, happy, and feeling so blessed to have spent another incredible day on this island. Tomorrow we head off to Oahu- more explorations (and ramblings!) to come! Thanks for adventuring with us!