Final Beach

Well, this is our final day here in the beautiful Hawaiian Islands! And we wanted to make the most of our last day.

After breakfast we checked out of the B&B and started the long drive around the island back to Kona. Unlike Kauai, the road here on the Big Island goes all the way around. Since we had already driven the west shore around the southern tip coming to the Volcano area, we decided to continue up and around the east shore to get back to Kona airport.

This is ordinarily about a three hour drive but that would never do for us! Too many stops along the way!

One of the first stops was at 'Akaka Falls. Truly magnificent! This is a pleasant self-guided walk through lush tropical vegetation to scenic vista points overlooking the cascading Kahuna Falls and the free-falling ‘Akaka Falls, which plunges 442 feet into a stream-eroded gorge.

Next stop: Waipio Valley lookout, which was absolutely stunning but a little hazy.

We would have liked to have been able to take the road farther north but time was against us. Our flight out of Kona was not until 9 pm, but we still had to get to Kona, eat, return the rental car and still get to the airport by 7 pm. So we took the road that cuts across the island and towards our final destination.

But we couldn’t let the day pass without one final beach! Just north of Kona we stopped at this amazing beach to put our feet in the ocean one last time before we had to leave for home.


Backblipped July 29, 2014. So if my memory is faulty, please forgive.