Spam

Dennis at Plumeria hill B&B told us that Hawaiian people love spam. I had a hard time believing that, but now I do.  Found this bag at the airport.

Leaving Big Island

Time to leave Plumeria Hill B&B, and Big Island. I don't regret that I decided to go to Big Island, and I certainly don't regret that we stayed at Plumeria hill B&B. Dennis, who run the BB, makes delicious breakfasts, and he's also very funny and friendly.

Plumeria is located at the end of the world, but what a beautiful surrounding. I have driven a few scenic routed on Big Island, but the coastal road next to Dennis place beats them all. There are also many different things to see in the area.

I'm a sucker for spicy food, and looks like I share that passion with Dennis who gave us two bags of dried pepper made from his home grown peppers. We got Hawaiian and ghost pepper! :-)

Went directly from the BB to Hilo airport to ask how much it would cost to rent the car for half a day, and they said that I could keep it for free. Sweet!

Drove to Akaka waterfalls north of Hilo, and took a scenic road back. Found a small "diner" on the way, and had lunch there. Bought an avocado wrap that was made with avocados that they grew next to the diner! Talk about local food.

I'm currently waiting for the flight to Mauii.

Driving like crazy

I don't know how far we went today, but we have been driving a lot. Probably close to 6h on narrow roads. A few things were really good, like the black beaches at Punaluu. Saw some sea turtles there, and took a quick bath in the ocean. Did also find some stunning views.

Other things were not so good. The guide book had described the road between the volcano park and Kona as gorgeous, well. The road where the bead and breakfast is is much nicer. Did also see some hot red lava today, but only from a distance. The guided tours were fully booked :-(

We are flying to Mauii tomorrow.

Volcano national park

Went to the volcano national park on Big Island. Went there to see some flowing lava, but that was the wrong place for that. 

The park contains old lava fields and volcanoes, but it's too far to walk to the active one. It will take hours and hours to walk there. The active one is actually very close to where we live, so we thought about going there after the volcano park, but it started to rain too much. Will try again tomorrow.

The volcano park is still a trip well worth to take, you can take some very nice photos there. It can however not measure up to what you can see on Iceland.

The best thing was to walk around in a lava tube, and walking on a lava field that had destroyed one of the coastal roads.

Warm water ponds

Went to bathe in some warm water ponds. Don't know if we were unlucky or not, but the water wasn't warmer than lukewarm. The ponds on Iceland were much better :-)

The surrounding area was however very nice. Drove through a jungle to get there, and it was located on the coast. Huge waves were crushing against the breakwaters.

Might go there again before we continue to Mauii, but next on the list is probably the volcano park.

Plumeria Hill B&B

We are staying at Plumeria Hill Bead & Breakfast. It's located in the middle of nowhere, but is really charming. They only have 3 rooms, and they are decorated in a way that you never see in Sweden. Just take a look at the images.

We haven't planned what to do here except for visiting the volcano park that is located about 1h drive from here. There is one really small town close by named Pahoa. I would estimate the population to about 50-100. Had a Hawaiian dinner there, pulled pork and cabbage. Followed that up with an unhealthy but really tasty dessert.

Arriving at Big Island

Flew to Big Island today. The flight was quite short, only 50 minutes.

I had pre booked a rental car on Big Island since we are staying at a bead and breakfast in the middle of nowhere. I had booked a car and GPS, and everything should have been included, but it turned out to be wrong. I had to pay for a full tank of gas, or so they said. They didn't have a GPS available. They said that I could fetch one the next day, but I wasn't going to do a 90 minutes drive to get a GPS that I needed right away.

Thank god for Google maps on Android I had downloaded the whole island map so that it was available offline. I argued with the company and left with a free tank of gas, and a free upgrade to a larger car.