Wednesday – Our road trip north

Today we planned to take the highway north, to the end of the road.

The first stop on our road trip was just north of Kona Airport, at Mauna Lani Resort Area, where we parked at Holoholokai Beach Park and took the rocky trail to Puako Petroglyph Preserve.  We wandered around the site that boasts to have 3000 petroglyphs, the largest collection of ancient lava carvings in Hawaii.

The carvings are mainly of people, looking towards the volcano/mountain; theorists believe that this is a sacred site, as the volcanoes were God like to the ancient Hawaiians.

 

Completed between 1000 – 1800 AD, they offer an insight into the ancient Hawaiian civilisation.

Back in the car we continued on the highway north, through barren lava fields. 

Once on the north coast we finally entered the wetter, greener climatic region, reaching the end of the Akoni Pule Highway at lunchtime.  On route we passed several small road side stands selling locally grown macadamia nuts.

The viewpoint over the Pololu Valley was spectacular, affording great views over the steep luscious green cliffs down to the black sand beach below.

We then retraced our drive back down the highway to stop for a wander around some of Kohala’s quaint towns.  First stop was Kapa’au, a small town which is the site of the statue of Kamehameha The Great.

He is one of the most notable royals from Hawaiian history as it was he who united all of the Islands in 1810 after years of bloody battles.  The locality of the statue marks his childhood neighbourhood.

Ben sadly didn’t take note of the coconut warnings, and carelessly took shelter from the sun under one of these deadly trees!

Next stop was Hawi, where we stopped for a look in the quintessentially Hawaiian Bamboo restaurant and gift shop.

We then treated ourselves to one of Hawaii’s famous deserts – shave ice, ice flavoured with liquid.  Ben tried ‘Root Beer’ flavour, and Nicola ‘Blue Raspberry’.

We then turned inland onto the Kohala Mountain Road, climbing from sea level to 3500ft.  The views down to the Kohala coast were stunning, if a little cloudy.  We could also see the observatories on the top of Mauna Kea.

Passing through Waimea (Cow Town) we went south and drove into Kona town.  As the Ironman World Championships are on in Kona at the moment the town was packed, so we decided to not stop and instead took the coast road to St Peter’s Church.

This little blue church is perched on volcanic lava, overlooking the Pacific ocean.

As we arrived back at our hostel that night we felt like finally we had got out of the commercial centres and seen a part of the ‘real’ Hawaii.