Island Hop (Day 2): Ziplining, Hilo, & Black Sand Beaches

Haupia Pancakes

For the second day of our 48-hour Big Island trip we zipped around in our rental car to selected places on the Hilo side of the Big Island. After checking out of our hotel we cruised around looking for a breakfast spot and happened upon the Hawaiian Style Cafe, where Janine ordered the most delicious plate of haupia (coconut creme) pancakes while locals around us consumed egg & spam dishes and giant plates of loco moco. Each of these delicious treats was at least a finger's width tall and as large as an entire dinner plate. With a good breakfast under our belts, we headed north up the coast to the zipline shop to check in and gear-up for our Skyline Akaka Falls course.

A large van and three fit male guides transported us from the zipline shop to the agricultural fields where the course was set up. We bounced around inside the vehicle like bouncy balls (I was glad for my helmet) as we headed up, down, and around the many dirt paths leading through the groves of coffee beans, apple bananas, papayas, and cocoa plants that surrounded the course. The land on which the course is situated allegedly belongs to an older retired couple who took a helicopter ride to mark out land they wanted to buy on the island, then built a giant house and rented out their many acres to farmers and the like. Along the way I learned how bananas are grown and munched on a Latundan banana (apple banana), which was firmer and sweeter/tarter than the bananas that I am used

Throwing up shaka to Janine as I make my way across a line

to eating. Our course consisted of 7 lines, the first few of which were scaffolded to get us used to leaving the platform, steering, and sitting properly while in motion. Our guides were fantastic - the right mix of knowledgeable, humorous, and competent - and really enhanced our experience by describing the wild life around us. The sixth and seventh lines were my favorites, stretching over thousands of feet and offering extended views of natural landscapes below. The final like took us directly over Akaka Falls and is known as the longest zipline in Hawai'i at just over 3,300 feet long. This was my first time ziplining and the rush that I felt as my feet left the platform and my body hurtled along a steel cable at 50mph over a waterfall 2x the height of Niagara Falls was exhilarating. Looking back over Akaka Falls, I felt incredibly lucky to have added ziplining to  my ever-growing list of first-time adventures in Hawai'i. Life is going to seem a little dull after having so many amazing adventures over the past four weeks! The Akaka Falls line took about 3 minutes to complete, at the end of which we munched on some freshly chopped sugar cane waiting for us in a giant leaf and watched the other members of our five person party come across the falls. Check out the video Janine took (below) of her zip across Akaka Falls!



After our ziplining experience we cleaned up and hopped back in our rental to explore the Hilo Farmer's Market and grab some lunch. This market is a mid-sized gathering of artisans and food vendors from around the Big Island, and is very popular in Hilo. Janine and I wandered through covered tents where vendors prominently displayed lychee, coconuts, pineapples, kona coffee, macadamia nuts, local honey, apple bananas, dozens of types of greens & root veggies, taro, sweet potatoes, and infused liquids, among dozens of other types of local produce, some of which I could not identify. A second part of the Farmer's Market featured local artisans - screen printers, jewelry makers, basket weavers, soap makers, sea glass artists, and silk painters. I watched people pile flats of orchid plants at $20/flat into vans and others sell puppies out of boxes. There seemed to be a real sense of community in market-goers catching up; in general Hilo is much less touristy than most parts of O'ahu that I have been to so far. After exploring and making a few purchases Janine and I shared some Thai food and made our way back to our car to begin the quest for a Black Sand Beach.

Kehena Black Sand Beach from afar

Our target destination was Kehena Beach, also known as Dolphin Beach, a black sand beach in the Puna District. Black sand beaches are made up of tiny fragments of lava that shatter and fragment when lava contacts water. Kehena Beach, like Punaluu Black Sand Beach, was created virtually instantaneously by a violent interaction between a large lava flow and sea water.

Kehena Beach is also, as we later discovered, a nude beach. Our GPS stopped us outside a small unassuming gathering of ~8 cars on what appeared to be the side of a forested road. We hesitantly made our way through a barely-visible trail down the face of a volcanic rock cliff, searching for signs of sand before I saw the flash of a topless white woman between some large boulders.

We picked our way around the face of the cliff toward a now-visible stretch of black sand beach complete with pounding waves and naked humans basking on the hot sand and in the water. Never having been on a nude beach before, this took a little getting used to, especially when beach-goers would make direct eye contact with or talk to me in their birthday suits.

Tree pose with a lava tree mold

At one point an older nude man with dreadlocks busted out a wooden recorder and took up a power stance on a rock, playing his soul out to the sea. Another younger man reached for his bongos. As this eclectic concert took place I pieced together why we had not seen anyone enter or exit the beach via the trail that we had taken ... Imagine this: A woman and man dressed in casual clothing hauling themselves unassisted up ~300 foot roots of a banyan tree from the base of the beach to the top of the cliff. I motioned to Janine, speechless, when I saw this and we both watched in mild shock as a few others followed her, mostly just using their arms to pick their way to the top.

The waves were too ferocious for swimming that day, so we hung out for a bit on the beach then picked our way back up the cliff (neither of us were willing to try the  banyan root route) to our car and on to Lava Tree State Park.

Lava Tree State Park is an unusual accumulation of tree trunk lava molds left behind by a lava flow that swept through this forested area. We took a short hike through the park, which affords views of 40 of these volcanic features. In a way, the structures were haunting - petrified, crumbling shells of what had once been mighty trees. New growth between the molds of the old served as a reminder that new life is possible even in cases of extreme habitat devastation.

Happy and sweaty, Janine and I stopped at Cafe Pesto for a quick dinner, then on to the airport for our short flight back to O'ahu. Overall I have to say that this was one of the most wildly successful 48-hour vacations I could have ever imagined. We did so much in such a short period of time and didn't run ourselves ragged doing it! Mahalo to my wonderful traveling partner, Janine!