“Disneyland” on Hawaii

So far, we hadn’t written much about our hotels, as we are more attracted by natural landmarks than man-made buildings. But today wasn’t that spectacular on this aspect. The turtles and petroglyphs at Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park were worth a visit but nothing new to us anymore.

But the Hilton Waikoloa Village got the nickname “Disneyland of Hawaii”, and we had to agree: a monorail train within the hotel complex? Ok, fits the cliché of Americans who can barely walk anymore. 🙂 But then, a boat on a canal to your hotel wing? Flamingos in one corner, turtles in the marina, dolphin shows just next to the restaurant? Swing bridge over the pool with an artificial waterfall? Playstations in each room? It’s just huge, it’s… American.

Well, it all comes with a (hidden) price tag. $30 / day for the parking space, $40 / day resort fees, $25 / person if you want to sit outside in the restaurant during sunset.

Place of Refuge

The Pu’uhonua o Hohaunau is a National Historical Park and once was a place of refuge for criminals (as for being sentenced to death because your shadow touched the chief’s house). Here, arriving after a dangerous journey through the water you got absolution of your crimes.

Great Wall

On the other side of the Great Wall (built of lava stone) there were royal grounds, nowadays reconstructed buildings and tools from the early Hawaiians.

Ancient refugee camp

Close to the National Park is a good place to see sea turtles and to snorkel… which we did, of course.

Fish swarms

After dinner in Kailua-Kona we watched Manta Rays (reaching up to 7m in length) feeding small fishes, attracted by the hotel Sheraton’s light beams.

Manta Ray feeding

Green Turtles at Black Sand Beach

On our way to Kona we stopped at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach to see, well, a black sand beach. Not surprisingly, the black sand has volcanic origins and one can still see the typical ripples on the bigger lava rocks.

Black sand from Black Sand Beach

It was also nice to observe several green sea turtles, in the water and ashore.

Green turtle on black sand

Next, we headed to Ka Lae (aka South Point), the southernmost point of the United States. (Key West is just the southernmost point of continental US). Teenagers demonstrate their courage by jumping either from the cliffs into the sea or into a blowhole and swimming through an underwater cave.

South Point – who’s gonna jump next?

Further plans had to be postponed due to the rain on the “almost guaranteed sunshine”-west coast of Big Island.

Volcanoes National Park

At time of booking the Volcanoes National Park would have been one of the very big highlights of our trip, as places with volcanic craters, a lava lake and active lava flows, while still being easily accessible, are hard to find elsewhere in the world (therefore this place is also called “drive-in volcano”).

Now, the park changed quite a bit between May and July 2018:

“Beginning in May, 2018, the lava lake that existed inside Halema‘uma‘u crater disappeared and lava flows from Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater have ceased. There is no molten lava or lava glow to see anywhere in or out of the park.”

A highly recommended movie about the events here:

https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm

But on the positive side, the park had re-opened (after another closure due to government shutdown in January, just a few weeks before our visit). Even without molten lava the park was still worth a visit: the Kilauea Caldera is still impressive. The views on lava flows of the 70ies are also nice to see, and a hike over the Manua Ulu eruption(s) (1969 – 1974) on hardened lava structures is a very extraordinary experience.

  • Kilauea crater
  • Lava Love Mobile
  • Hardened lava
  • Lava lake (before 2018)
  • Walking on lava
  • Petroglyphs
  • Earthquake damages
  • Holei Sea Arch
  • Sulphur Banks

Rainbow Falls

Second island hopping: from Kauai to The Island of Hawaii (better known as Big Island) via Honolulu, Oahu.

Second island hopping to Big Island

Unfortunately, a flight from (finally) sunny weather into the rain. It wasn’t that bad, we quickly visited the Rainbow Falls which are close to Hilo, but at our time of visit in the late afternoon no rainbow could be seen at the falls.

Rainbow Falls (without rainbow)

Shipwreck Beach

First day without rain on Hawaii! Having already completed our bucket list for Kauai, we didn’t expect much of this day. But it turned out really well. We googled “Kauai easy hikes” and stumbled across Maha’ulepu Heritage Coastal Trail, close to Shipwreck Beach.

Red coast on Kauai

It was a nice coastal walk with remarkable coastal sceneries and a cave to visit (Makauwahi Cave).


  • Makauwahi Cave
  • Rock formations

On our way back we have been rewarded with whale sightings on the horizon.

Didn’t have the zoom camera with us…

And we finally went into the sea and had some fun with the breaking waves. 🙂

Doors-off Heli Flight

Kauai is a beautiful island, but large part of it is de-facto inaccessible. For once we ignored the ecological conscience and booked a scenic flight with a helicopter. There are many companies, but Jack Harter adds a special thrill: doors-off flights with a Hughes 500.

Doors-off heli flight

We didn’t have cloudless sky (hardly ever occurs on Kauai) but still good flight conditions. First highlight was the flight over Manawaiopuna Falls, better known as “Jurassic Falls” (helicopter landing sequence in the first Jurassic Park movie). The pilot even played the movie theme – marvelous!

  • Jurassic Falls from above
  • Jurassic Falls

Soon, we reached the Waimea Canyon (see earlier blog entry), now from above and much closer to some great sceneries.

  • Waimea Canyon
  • Waipoo Falls

We again crossed one of the wettest places on earth (once more hidden in dark clouds), but soon the sky opened: we have reached the Napali coast. Postcard scenery again!

  • Napali Coast
  • Napali Coast

Fortunately, that was not yet the end, also the flight over the Hanalei Valley was breathtaking. And for once the clouds somehow fit into the scenery; dozens of waterfalls within a rainforest-like landscape, coming out of misty mountains… a perfect fit for any fantasy movie.

Hanalei Valley

Indeed, the list of movie sequences shot on Kauai is long! Just to name a few:

Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Jurassic Park (1, 2, 3), Jurassic World
King Kong
Six Days Seven Nights
Tropic Thunder
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The Descendants

Road Closed

The plan was to explore the northern coast of Kauai, especially doing a hike on the Napali coast. But we got to know that the Kalalau Trail was closed since January due to flood damages:

Nevertheless, we drove northwards and got to the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge – which was also closed, but at least had an overlook on the lighthouse and an albatross colony.

  • Albatross
  • Kilauea Point Lighthouse

Our tour came to an end at Hanalei: road closed. So instead of visiting the Maniniholo Dry Cave, Waikanalo- & Waikapalae Wet Caves or Tunnel Beach we browsed through souvenir shops and relaxed with coffee and banana bread in Hanalei. Besides, many Hawaiian beaches aren’t THAT inviting, anyway.

Hope to find less deadly beaches soon…