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Big Island - Hawaii

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After 24hrs total of relatively smooth travelling (including layovers and early airport arrivals - thank you United and Hawaiian Airlines), we finally arrived at our beach house in Kona.

Tired travellers
The Kona airport is a riot - 80% outdoors - a "secure" open-air courtyard inside a series of stylized 1-storey perimeter buildings.

Inside the airport
The kids were troopers, only getting antsy/cantankerous when we had the audacity to hit the Kailua-Kona Costco on the way to our place (remote areas on the Big Island are renowned to be very expensive)!

Boy are we glad we did though - this store had a ton of local fare - from Poi to Ono to Mac nuts, and at affordable prices - way to go Costco!  Oh, and it was packed to the hilt with a superb variety of booze (for those reading this post who like to let kick up their feet while on vacay :)

We got picked up with our car by our wonderful Turo hosts right at the airport - a fancy VW at an amazing price - can't say enough positive things about Turo (Android and iPhone app) - Airbnb for cars for the uninitiated. 

nice ride
The car turned out to be a perfect way to tackle the Big Island's windy, hairpin turns.  Gas is over USD$4.00/gal - not cheap... but cheaper gas can be found - older stations that are a bit off the highway or Costco (if you're in or near Kona).

Our beach house was AWESOME... off-the-grid, way off the beaten path at the south end of the Big Island - a beach community of over 50% locals - no crowds, just Hawaii.  Our place was impeccably clean and maintained - a welcomed refinement after all the camping we've been doing!  Our HomeAway (www.homeaway.com) host was attentive and gave us lots of local insight.

island wisdom



Getting 'into it'



A house highlight for the boys was that they slept in a loft in the roof peak - they could 'oversee' everything from their little crow's nest... an indoor tree house, complete with insanely steep, pull-down ladder staircase - a kid's dream come true!

Happy (albeit tired) camper

staircase access
Plumeria in our yard - so fragrant and stunningly beautiful!
Our volcanic swimming hole
Crystal clear
Traffic jam - Miloli'i Beach style... these are Yellow Tang and Triggerfish (and many more)
We saw 50% of these on our first try - even the eel in LR corner!

We'll do a post on the proper beaches we visited and what we did for my birthday soon - stay tuned!

Comments

  1. "The First Aid Guy" at First Aid OttawaOctober 11, 2019 at 8:03 AM

    Don't forget to check out the Ironman World Championship this Saturday in Kona.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chelsea October 11, 2019 at 9:29 AM

      This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. CherylOctober 11, 2019 at 9:36 AM

      We were thinking about you!! We had fun trying to guess which travellers were super athletes getting ready to race!

      Delete
  2. naetgirlOctober 11, 2019 at 10:45 AM

    I gotta admit that to me, the pic of you guys from under the water looks uncannily like you are a school of fish behind a glass wall of an aquarium exhibit. Funny..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MichaelOctober 13, 2019 at 12:02 AM

      We were going more for 'underwater dance party' or 'too cool to be topside', but 'aquarium family' works too ;)

      Delete
  3. UnknownOctober 12, 2019 at 7:09 PM

    Totally awesome!!! Mahalo for sharing!! That swimming hole is amazing 😍 I'm sure there won't be any leeches there 😉 Have a great birthday Mike! Can't wait to read what you do next!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MichaelOctober 13, 2019 at 12:00 AM

      Definitely no leeches ;) Thanks for the birthday wishes!!

      Delete
  4. AnonymousNovember 4, 2019 at 4:55 PM

    hey guys ! this is the hodgins! hope you have fun in japan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MichaelNovember 11, 2019 at 4:44 AM

      Hey Hodg-podg! Fun was had in Japan - looking forward to connecting soon - thanks for posting - great to hear from you!

      Delete

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