As we had thoroughly exhausted ourselves by ‘climbing’ Mauna Kea (it felt like we had physically climbed it anyway) and hiking the Volcano trails we decided a few days of relaxing beach wandering would do us nicely. We had heard from the neighbours that the rock pools at Pahoa were perfect for snorkelling and the guide books confirmed this so we raided the garage and filled the car boot with snorkels, flippers, towels, bucket and nets and our usual day pack and set off on the roller coaster ride that was the bumpy road out of the bungalow. As we have previously mentioned, the island is growing at a rate of knotts due to the lava flow from Mauna Kea so the majority of the Island on the east side is made up of lava that has found its way to the Ocean and set to volcanic rock. As the island grows so do the exploration possibilities and roads lead you along and then abruptly turn into a collapsed pile of rubble! The road to the rock pools was one of those roads. The roller skate made it through the moon like landscape to the rock pools and we decided to go and explore before we lugged everything onto the rocks…thank goodness!

The black moonscape stretched out before us and in the distance we could see the Ocean waves filling the pools and emptying them with the tides. The pools were all different sizes and the coral in them was unbelievable. The colours were abundant and we spotted lilac to bright yellows to deep blue in the crystal clear water.

Little black crabs scuttled around and huge black crabs stood their ground sunbathing on the rocks. There were a few people snorkelling but neither of us fancied going in. The black rock is hard, sharp and unforgiving, I didn’t fancy trying to ‘slide’ into the pools with the risk of peeling myself on the rocks when the water was so clear you could see everything anyway. We decided just to walk around for a look at the brightly coloured fish, eels and coral. The sun was a little bright to get any really good pictures so in our wisdom we decided that we would come here to watch the sun set one night and bring the camera back then. Next on our road trip was a natural hot pool. The waters on the island are warmed by steam vents from the volcanoes and also just from the heat held in the ground. This pool was sectioned off from the Ocean and filled as the water splashed over the divide. It was lovely and warm and we dipped our toes in but we had a lot to see so we didn’t stay long, next stop was the black sand beach! We were both excited about it as we had been reading about how once the black sand beach is created (by a volcanic explosion) straight away it is receeding and they maybe only last a few years before all the sand is gone, washed out into the Ocean. It was beautiful. The sand was like coarse ground sea salt and as black as night. It was so hot under foot we had to keep our flip flops on. As we walked to the shore lined with rocks we stopped and looked at each other to see if the other had seen it too…there was a green turtle laid relaxing in the sunshine about 3 feet away from us! We looked around and saw turtles everywhere down the beach. There must have been 15 of them either nibbling the rocks, sunbathing or clumsily making their way back out into the water. It absolutely made my day seeing these endagered creatures so close up and just so relaxed in our presence. They just looked so tired out it was quite comical to watch them. We spent an hour or so watching the turtles and then took a scenic drive through the rainforest to get home.

We had tired ourselves out yet again so crashed on the couch after a cooling swim and had an early night!

Our next day road trip was to the southern most tip of the island. On route we stopped at the volcano winery and tasted some excellent wines made here on the island with real island flavours. Alex is writing a whole blog all about it as it was a really interesting winery and we tasted some really unusual wines which we weren’t really expecting. We left there with a bottle for later and carried on to the tip. Again the guide book warned us of the road and the access being poor and to not even attempt most of the road even if you have a 4 wheel drive! As well as being the Southern most tip of the island there is also Papakolea Beach, the Worlds only green beach just along the coast. Well, I say ‘just’! We made it down the access road to a boat launch and decided very wisely (you can already imagine how bad it must be for Alex to not attempt this in the car!) to walk to the beach. Now, in the guide book it says it is 2.5 miles to the beach. 5 miles round trip on foot isn’t that bad and we had water and our day pack…suncream, cameras, emergency cookies, the usual so off we go. The walk was a mixture of bright ocre coloured, powder fine sand and black rock. The sand was ankle deep in some places and the canyons in this dust formed the ‘road’! I was so pleased we had not hired a jeep or I could see Alex wanting to attempt to drive it as some crazy people were! I cant even describe how bad the road was other than to say it wasn’t really a road at all, just dust and rock!

Anyway, I was glad we had walked but it was definitely further that 2.5 miles there. It took us 2 hours to get to the beach which to get to you had to climb down a rock face. As we arrived there was one couple leaving so we had the whole place to ourselves. It was beautiful.

The pictures really don’t do it justice at all. The sand is crushed Olivine, a semiprecious mineral found in eruptive rocks and meteorites and really is green! Its olive green and the water so clear we could see the turtles swimming off shore. Another gobsmacking experience but an exhausting one.

The prospect of the walk back was a daunting one, of course we had gone in flip flops and walked some of the way back bare foot as you can only comfortably wear rubber flip flops for so long and our feet were sore! In all the walk there and back took us 4 hours and the drive back was a quiet one! We finally got home 3 hours later, ate dinner and drank our volcano wine and yet again got an early night!! Two completely action packed days with as many amazing once in a lifetime experiences. We thank our lucky stars every day!