Hawaii's Big Island

Mathilde Agoustari

If you are tired of the commercial, "deja-vu" scene prevailing in the Hawaiian landscape, the less traveled side of the Big Island still holds a few hidden treasures. You may have to withstand a bit more rain than your heart desires, but the rewards will make this small sacrifice worthwhile.

Set on the southeastern corner, the Puna District offers no public transportation. Rent a car at any of the well-known car-rental agencies at the airport, unless you plan on hitchhiking, like the local surfers you will find along the lush, coastal road.

The Big Island is also judiciously called the "Volcano Island," and sometimes the "Orchid Island." The moist climate in this area is perfect for the delicate orchids grown in nurseries, the plants’ colorful sophistication contrasting with the rugged, black, raw lava, mysterious and fascinating.

From Hilo, Volcano Road (Highway 11) takes you to the fork in Kea’au merging with Highway 130 toward Pahoa and the Puna Coast for a little adventure. Enjoy the smooth pavement while it lasts, as it will eventually become narrow and weathered, intermittently turning into a red-cinder road with a distinct smell of burnt ash, along plantation towns and orchid farms.

You are now on the funky side of the island, so get ready for an organic experience. Pahoa is a good starter for setting you back into the past, a tiny town reminiscent of the Wild West, with a 1960’s flavor. Stroll along the skimpy boardwalk lined with a few tourist shops selling tie-dyed clothing and the Hawaiian Hemp Company offering miscellaneous hemp products, including Chinese fabrics and paintings. The Akebono Theater, built in 1917, is the largest building in town and the only hotel in the area is just around the corner. The pace picks up on Sunday morning with a lively flea market. Visitors and locals from the area come for lunch or dinner and enjoy a small variety of international cuisine. The Godmother’s Italian fare of pasta entrees are the classiest option. A Thai dinner at Sawasdee is more affordable. Café Makana and Huna Ohana are the local hangouts.

At the next fork, just after Pahoa, drive left onto Road 132. The drive through the Lava Tree State Monument is a feast for the eyes. An easy half-hour walk through striking black-lava trees amidst whistling sounds of colorful birds will whet your appetite for the primitive world awaiting beyond. One more little stretch of road gets you to Kapoho Bay.

Swallowed by lava in 1960, the site of Kapoho, once a town in its own right, is now a residential district with some large estates crisscrossed by the cinder roads and bordering Pohoiki Bay. If you have packed your snorkeling gear, find your way to the waterfront road. Park alongside and look for the unmarked public access to the water. Stone-stepping on tongues of lava is best done at low tide, when you can walk quite a way toward the deeper tide pools and reefs, finding a place to set your towel and gear. In the silent world under the clear, blue water, white and lavender-blue coral-castles shaped like gigantic mushrooms create a delightful marine garden inhabited by large sea turtles and many varieties of brightly colored fish.

Nearby, Crater Lake rests inside Green Mountain on a private property off Road 132. Ask your hosts to get you entry permission for a day hike to the lake, where rumors claim that the first Tarzan movie was shot. Walking down a short but steep trail to the lake, picking guavas on the way, the lush slopes close in on you as you descend the path, all lush and green around with red patches from the Tulip trees. Soon the lake, also green, appears, with its surface unruffled in the still air. Grab a vine and swing yourself in Tarzan fashion into the lake. Swim off quietly to the other side and feel the small fish brush along your skin. You may find a white nene, the Hawaiian goose with a red beak sitting still on a log under the trees, looking placidly at your intrusion.

Continuing your way southwesterly to ‘Opihikao, Road 132 turns into Road 137, gently winding itself through a dense canopy of trees with vines dangling along the sides. Beach parks will tempt you for a swim. Depending on the season, they are mostly popular with experienced surfers and picnickers. Don’t count on a peaceful swim in the fierce Hawaiian ocean. Ahalanui is one exception, with its natural thermal ponds of cold ocean water warmed by hot water running through volcanic vents creating an ideal outdoor spa for tired muscles. Experienced surfers can try Isaac Hele Beach Park, which also offers a small boat ramp protected by a breakwater.

At ‘Opihikao, the Kalani Honua Culture Institute sits on acres of delicately landscaped gardens and lush forest. It offers an array of group workshops as well as classes and cultural activities. A $10 day-use fee gives you access to the twenty-five-meter Olympic pool, the new Watsu therapy pool and the wellness massage facility. Gourmet meals prepared with local organic produce and Hawaiian fruits are served daily on the open-air lanai, all at moderate prices.

The Big Island is a botanical heaven, with more than ten-thousand species of tropical plants. Some of the best known include four kinds of Plumeria trees that will tease your nostrils: the pink one that smells like peach; the white lemon-scented one; the pale pink with undefined fragrance; and the no-scent red one. The Forbidden Fruit of India has poisonous pods. The banana-like Traveler Palm stores water and blooms with large flowers resembling Birds of Paradise. There are lovely red-and-gold African Tulip trees. Finally, there is the Pikake (peacock in Hawaiian), introduced from India and used for leis, and the Sumatran Lily and the Queen Emma Lily.

A few minutes drive up the road, Kehena Beach offers the best in black-sand beach indulgence, with clothing optional. Look for the cars parked along the road as the clue to the small path down the cliff. Contrasting against the black-lava rock, deep-green coconut palms swaying in the soft breeze house brightly colored parrots. Less glaring than white sand, black sand is easy on the eyes and forms interesting tattoo-like patterns on the body. You may catch sight of playful dolphins in the distance, or even a whale, if you don’t fall asleep under the spell of the drumbeat from the local crowd blending with the roaring ocean crashing on the rocks.

There is lava everywhere on the Volcano Island. You can see it all around and you can even get down into lava tubes for the perfect steambath. The black-lava rock is friable and has a silvery sheen under the sun. It crumbles after a few years, then becoming rich soil with its high mineral content. Certain plants can grow right on the rock scattered in the middle of people’s gardens. You will encounter masses of it when Road 137 abruptly ends at the site where Kilauea spewed its fires in 1988 and engulfed most of the village of Kalapana. The only way you can venture on the lava field is in company of a local guide, either on foot or by jeep for an evening viewing of the lava pouring into the ocean.

You may want to plan a tree-planting ceremony and walk the short distance from the end of the road to the beach. Newly formed lava shimmers under the sun and gets crushed in spots under your footsteps, leading to the former site of Kaimu black-sand beach, actually the remnants of a once popular surfing beach which was mostly wiped out in 1990. Young palm trees standing like an army of proud soldiers ready to refertilize this forsaken land form a thriving human-made oasis by the ocean. You can then survey for a propitious home for your own tree planting.

If you choose the jeep option, elect to go at sunset to arrive at nightfall, when the darkness intensifies the red glow of the hot lava. Expect a bumpy ride of about forty-five minutes, then half an hour of cautious walking along lava slowly spreading its hot, gooey matter. Wear long pants and bring a flashlight, a camera and a long stick; the latter will seem useless during daylight, but will help you keep your balance during your walk back in total darkness while you stare up into the dazzling, star-filled sky. This walk up and down the maze of lava mounds and strata will lead you to your reward at the edge of the cliff: a spectacular display of molten lava running off the cliff into the sizzling ocean, sending clouds of white steam, hissing columns of gray smoke and red sparkles into the sky, creating new black-sand beaches, one fragment of an inch at a time.

Reserving the best for the end of this excursion into forbidden land, Kilauea Volcano sits under the gaze of Pele-‘ai-honua. Pele eats the land and reveals herself for a few moments in the fires of Kilauea. Drive inland on Road 130 to get back on Highway 11.

You will enjoy numerous hikes and plenty of sightseeing by car at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, open every day, day and night. A favorite hike is along the four-mile Kilauea Iki Trail, "Little Kilauea," within the Crater Rim Drive. Make sure you pack enough water before descending into the crater. Start from the Thurston Lava Tube and walk down through a dense forest of giant ferns unique to Hawaiian flora. Looking down from the trail, the bottom of the crater looks flat, like a big, black void framed by pale-green and yellow patches. The crater took its current shape during a huge eruption in 1959, which raised the crater floor to its current level. Descending into this bottom and walking across will give you a sense of the potential danger of falling through the thin layers of the newly formed crust, which is still warm and will take several decades to harden. Sulfuric gases escape through tiny steam vents along your path.

Ferns are the first to grow there. The bottom of the crater is not as level as it seems from above, with little mounds and rocks forming awesome miniature canyons about ten-feet high in a spectacle of varied terrain. Follow the cairns, marking the way to the barrier-enclosed vent, where the last eruption took place. If your stomach is not tied in a knot, have a picnic lunch and listen to the silence intermittently interrupted by a chilling wind unexpectedly blowing through or a songbird overhead.

Mathilde Agoustari has lived in seven countries on four continents. She is currently working on a travel romance set in Turkey.