Big Island: Punalu'u Black Sand Beach

My posting is so backlogged that I am just now writing about my Hawaiian Islands trip (Apr 28 - May 5, 2018). The trip began when we met up with our cruise buddies in Maui airport where we took the same flight out to Kona. Upon collecting the rental car, we took a long scenic drive to Hilo where our lovely AirBnB accommodation was located near there. We stopped briefly at Costco and Safeway for supplies. The house we got was beautiful and spacious. It has a wrap-around balcony. The front balcony looks out to the water, although it is not located on the beach. We made dinner and ate in the first night. We couldn't believe our luck in finding this house. Sometimes you don't know for sure what you'll get with these rentals, but this one's a sure winner.

I woke up early the next day, grabbed my journal and went to the balcony to write. It was a drizzly day as I look out to the water, the surf was a little rough. My attention shifted to the little birds that took turns on the electric wire. My writing took a back seat as I started to focus on taking photos (I also grabbed the camera).







Pretty soon, I wasn't alone in the balcony. Then it was time to make and eat breakfast. We planned to cook most of our meals to cut back on our expenses, as you know Hawaii can be very expensive.

The first order of business is to see the black sand beach or Punalu'u Beach, From the house, it felt like a long drive to get there especially since it had been drizzly and dreary all morning long, but once we were there the clouds parted temporarily and the sun peeked out giving a taste of true Hawaiian experience. The black sand beach is one of the must-sees in the Big Island, especially for the turtles that come here. No turtles were seen on that day unfortunately, but the whole visit was a big thumbs up regardless.

The beach is very popular to visitors as we saw. We had a difficult time looking for parking - no parking structure or lot available, just street parking.

















There is a very nice pond across the water beyond the row of coconut trees, where a couple of ducks were seen floating peacefully until they hopped on the sand and started pecking at each other. What is that about? It was nice to watch how quickly the scene transitioned from peacefully floating together to pecking at each other the minute their webbed feet touch sand.







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