We stayed on the Hilo/volcano side of the Big Island for a couple days, then drove around the south side to Kona in our rented Jeep. We made several stops along the way, mostly to buy sweets. We got coffee from the Ka’u Coffee Mill, donuts from the Punalu’u Bake Shop, and honey and macadamia nuts from the AliÊ»i garden marketplace.
We also drove up to the Mauna Loa Lookout and over to the Punalu’u Black Sand Beach.
We rented a condo in Kona across the street from Magic Sands Beach. It had a huge balcony with a beautiful view. The condo didn’t have air conditioning, but we planned to keep the windows open and let in the cool sea breeze.
However… after sunset on Friday the beach filled up with rowdy teenagers who played loud music all night and did burnouts with their trucks in the street. This continued on into Saturday morning. We couldn’t sleep due to the noise and the burnt rubber smoke that kept drifting into our condo. We decided to retreat and go stay at a hotel down the street in a quieter area.
The Outrigger is situated on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. It has an amazing pool and water slide. And it was nice and quiet at night!
On Sunday morning (Father’s Day) we were planning to drive to a nearby restaurant for breakfast, but the Jeep wouldn’t start and was spewing gasoline underneath whenever we tried. Turns out it was a busted fuel line, and it had to be towed away to be fixed. I am SO RELIEVED that it didn’t break while we were on top of a volcano or in some other remote area of the island.
We arranged for a taxi to take us to the airport on Monday. We were ready to leave The Big Island and Kona behind, and head to Maui for the final few days of our trip.
