The Mauna Kea Resort is a place we like to go to from time to time.  An easy 5+ hour flight from LAX.

Built by Lawrence Rockerfeller in the 1960s, the resort has an airy, open architecture with art pieces from all over the Pacific gracing the property.  With the Big Island being so young and much of it covered by lava, there are few soft sandy beaches, but there is one at this resort.  A big sweeping bay with gentle water and gorgeous sunsets.  Definitely not a body surfing break but in the winter storm swells can come into the bay. We usually get a room facing the golf course that has a big bathroom area and a separate shower room that you walk into.  Very nice, and our mornings consisted of sipping Kona coffee and eating pastries on our balcony while watching the exotic birds.

 

The bay is big enough that it never feels crowded.  Turtles lazily swim by, and snorkeling reveals all the fishes below the surface.  We usually have lunch at their beach restaurant, Hau Tree filling up on burgers and blended cocktails.

The Big Island is worth exploring and that means renting a car.  One of our days started with the short drive up to the town of Waimea for a breakfast, at one of the farmers markets, that consisted of fried rice, an omelette, banana bread and Kona coffee.  Very good!

Even though you are on a tropical island, you gain several thousand feet quickly driving to Waimea and it can be much cooler and rainy so pack accordingly.  From there, we took the road up over the hills behind town and into the clouds before descending back down to the northern coast for our first post-breakfast stop, the Pololu Valley lookout. An incredible view made even more dramatic by low clouds, rain squalls off shore, and waterfalls cascading down the cliffs.

We parked our car and hiked down the steep path that ends on the beach.  It was sunny when we started, it then rained, cleared up, rained again and then cleared up for good providing ever changing light and views.  It was beautiful.

We got back to our the car heading back up to Waimea and continued east towards the Hilo area to see waterfalls up close.  We passed the immense Parker Range grazing lands, and began the long descent down to the eastern coast of the island.  Akaka Falls and Rainbow Falls are in an area that gets a lot of rain so it is advised to bring rain gear.  The area is lush with tropical vegetation.

The two falls are polar opposites of each other.  Akaka Falls is tall with thin gossamer strands of water descending the surrounding cliff while Rainbow Falls is shorter but thick and beefy roaring over the cliff.  Both are breathtaking.  Walking back to the car from Akaka Falls we got caught in a downpour that soaked us and we staying in the car for a few minutes to change and head towards Hilo.

We arrived in Hilo and found a place for lunch.  Hilo has a very laid back feel and we wanted to stay longer but we had to drive across the island to get back to our resort.  The drive through the middle of the island took us up the flanks of Mauna Kea and vegetation gave way to barren lava fields, before dropping back down to the Mauna Kea resort. We stopped in the lava field to take pictures and continued on, arriving  too late for dinner and so headed to bed.

More beach time ensued the next day including a morning coastline walk over to the Hapuna Beach Resort for breakfast.  There are plenty of well marked trails to hike around the resort.  Back to beach for more snorkeling, walking on the beach, and reading.

Sunsets seem to last a long time on the Big Island, and the colors start out bright yellow and orange before turning fiery red.  We made sure we got to our Hau Tree table before sunset for dinner, and sipped their fruity cocktails watching the show before having our food.  The warm breeze kept things sultry, while the drinks and food made things romantic.

If you get tired of the food options at the resort, then head over to the Mauna Lani area that has a shopping area with plenty of eating choices.  We did this two nights.  Monstera is an exceptional Japanese restaurant with great sushi, and daily specials that, while we were there, included an entire fish tempura battered and fried.  We didn’t order that but it looked great.  The service at Monstera is good, and we recommend any Big Island visitor to dine here.  There is also a Ruth Chris’, and the vegetarian-centric Under the Bodhi Tree which has really good food as well.  The Tommy Bahamas restaurant may be a bit kitchy, but the sunset dining on their balcony makes for a nice end of the day event.

As an avid amateur astronomer in high school, the observatory on Mauna Kea was something I’ve always wanted to visit and, on our last day, we drove back up the mountain and continued on the visitor center.  At over 9,000 feet you will feel the altitude and there are signs warning against people with health issues driving up.  The drive is very slow, steep, and should be done so with caution – especially in fog and rain like when we went.  I was very discouraged driving up thinking I was going to miss a chance to see the night sky here, but upon arriving at the visitor center, the rain stopped.  With the clouds still above us we listened to the lecture on the cultural history of the mountain as well as the technological history of their big telescopes.  This is a world class astronomy location and as the lectured ended we went outside hoping to see a clear sky.  The clouds were still there but after about 45 minutes it did clear to a beautiful, dark sky.  The telescopes came out and two of the docents got the telescopes turned upward and their laser pointers ready to point out where deep sky objects would be.  One of the visitors asks a question and I answered him explaining what the object was, and its distance from earth.  Upon hearing this, one of the volunteers came over, handed me a pointer and asked if I would be willing to help out.  Absolutely and what a thrill it was!  We looked at M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy), M57 (the Ring Nebula), and other deep sky objects.  It was a night to remember.

The Big Island is full of diversity and worth making it a vacation choice.  We love that it’s not hyper-built up like some of the other Hawaiian islands, and the peaceful tranquility of the Mauna Kea Resort keeps us coming back.