Big Island Hawai'i

For summer break this year because everyone in my family had gotten the vaccine and booster, we decided to go to Big Island Hawai'i. We arrived in Hawai'i around Saturday (June 11) afternoon and spent an hour or so gawking at the ginormous Hilton resort we were staying at in the Waikoloa village.

Then, we went to the large swimming pool and waterslide and spent the remainder of the evening there.

The next day we decided to go to Punaluʻu Beach (a black sand beach) and the volcanic national park. We first went to the beach where I walked into the water and stood on some tall rocks that the harsh waves splashed on, leaving me soaking wet. My family and I also sat on the hot beach and I only later googled and found out that black sand has tons of iron oxide which can heat up to very high temperatures and give people third degree burns. Fun.

After we left the beach, because we still had some time to kill we went inside the famous lava tubes which was a nice cool place compared to the extreme humidity and heat outside. Finally, we drove into the national park, parked, and took a mile's walk up to the volcanic sightseeing place. Once the sun finally set it was much easier to see the bubbling lava come out from the magma chamber underneath.

On Monday, we just spent the morning in the lagoon in the Hilton because in the afternoon we went swimming with the dolphins. Yes, although I will admit the experience was a little bit underwhelming, it was still extremely fun to swim with the dolphins and see them do tricks.

That evening, we went to Nui's Kitchen for dinner. They had some really good food there.

The day after that we drove to a place to go zip lining. But before that, we first went to 'Akaka Falls State Park and did a one mile roundtrip hike through the forest where we got to see multiple waterfalls up close. Afterwards we went to the Hawai'i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden where we got to see all sorts of different plants and even the ocean from a viewing point.

Then finally, we arrived at the zip lining place. The instructors took us through seven different zip lines, the last two being the most fun. Number six was about half a mile long and took me over a huge empty valley with a stream in the middle (it kind of looked like something from that rhinoceros scene in Jumanji but with a stream instead of rhinos).

And as the grand finale, number 7 was about a mile long zip line that took us over a 250 foot waterfall. While going over I accidentally got whacked by a couple of leaves protruding from a huge tree. That part was not so fun.

Finally on Wednesday, we spent the morning in Kona downtown shopping and sightseeing. Then we spent the afternoon at the Hilton Resort and I went paddle boating in the lagoon. It was my first time paddle boating and yes, although I crashed into a bunch of rocks at first and was terrified of falling into the water with fish below me (I am terrified by fish), the experience was rather fun and I got to see turtles swim merely inches away from me.

That evening we went up to a hill right next to a huge Buddha statue and watched the sunset.

Later we went back to the hotel room and ate Macaroni Grill takeout while watching Disney shows.

Thursday morning we made sure everything was packed before heading off to the airport. I definitely want to visit some part of Hawai'i again; this trip was definitely filled with some of the most exciting things I've done before. Aloha ;)