Kona - Our new home!
Friday, March 8, 2013 at 2:11AM 
A few days ago I was actively bitching about moving out of Colorado in a blizzard. Well - it was all worth it! - I still can't believe we actually live here now and I feel truly blessed. We have been 'on island' for a little more than 48 hours now. When we arrived, we had nothing but our five (yes 5) suitcases and a couple of carry-on bags, so yesterday we spent the day at Costco, Wal-Mart and the local market stocking up on food, shampoo and all the normal household items we could not drag with us.
Of note: - This was our first jaunt on Hawaiian Air and I would highly recommend them. All of the staff, from the counter folks in LA to the Flight Attendants and even the baggage claim folks are so polite. Its like they know they live in paradise and it has infected their soles to the core. Fantastic customer service.
When we arrived, our condo was everything we expected and more. It has a fantastic view and is just a short walk from a small beach as well as the main restaurant and shopping strip on Ali'i Drive. We've spent the last two days getting our island legs and exploring our immediate surroundings. Today we also jumped in our rental (Jethro the Jeep should arrive in about two weeks) and headed South.
Here is the first set of photos from the last couple of days.
This is our little condo building on Ali'i Drive
Here is what it looks like inside
This is the kitchen
This is the view from our lanai. I woke up the first night to the sound of waves crashing in the distance - very cool.
This was our sunset tonight.
This is the little beach that is just across the road from our complex. Yesterday there was a cruise ship, the Pride of America, in port. Ironically that is the ship Colleen and I were on in April 2011 for our 20th anniversary and was when we fell in love with this island. We mentioned 'someday we should move here' then - now we do! - I still can't believe it.
This is another view
The street is lined with amazing colors and flowers
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These are the little flowers that Colleen wears in her hair. She has some plastic ones we bought when we were here before. they grow in the tops of trees and the real ones look and feel just like the plastic ones - or vice versa.
This is one of the bar's across the street from our condo.
Lots of little black crabs and small blow holes in the surf
Today we headed South to the Captain Cook monument. Great snorkeling and beautiful water here.
no beach here but cool surf.
Next stop was Pu'uhonua O Honaunau beach
Again, not a lot of beach here, but lots of people laying out on the lava rocks and snorkeling. We saw a pod of 20-30 spinner dolphins.
One of the cool things is the tidal pools formed at low tide. they usually have a bunch of little fish in them - trapped there until the next high tide.
Next stop a little further South was Hookena Beach Park. This was a neet little black sand beach that you can camp on. Half the beach was filled with tents and the black sand was seriously H-O-T.
Colleen on the beach
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Aloha to all my mainland peeps.
Then its Southbound again to the southern most tip of the USA (no it is not on Key West!) Along the way we passed this cool windmill farm.
Clearly it is very VERY windy on this part of the island as attested to by this tree. It was very interesting driving through the different climate zones as we headed south. Tropical, dry, Vog, Lava field, then tropical again. Someone told us today that there are 14 different climate zones in the world, and the Big island has 11 of them.
Once at the southern tip of th island, the cliffs were amazing.
The water here is turquoise blue.
someone spent some time carving this into the cliff. iEach letter was about four feet high.
There was a big blow hole here that some guy jumped into while it was full.
Then it drained and he swam out the tunnel to the ocean.
There were several canoes in the water and these little frames have pulleys on them so that they can be raised and lowered in tot he water. The cliffs here are probably 40 feet high.
Looking down from one of them, there is a ladder that stretches into the water. This whole area reminds me of a computer game I love called URU, one of the Myst series. Surreal cliffs and amazing color water.
anyone want to jump?
Thats it for now… more exploring to come.
Reader Comments (1)
Welcome to the big island! ;)