Today we drove around the south part of the big island and worked our way to the Volcanoes National Park. It was a cloudy and rainy day with a few breaks of sun. We did a good amount of driving with stops along the way.

Our first stop was Kealakekua Bay. This is where Captain Cook, the first westerner to land on Hawaii, arrived in 1779. He had landed on Kauai the year before. He landed here during a celebration time and was well received. He subsequently sailed away, had problems with his ship, returned, and things did not go as well. There were quarrels between his crew and the Hawaiians, including issues with his crew stealing from the Hawaiians. A group of Hawaiians took one of Cook’s small boats. In return, Cook tried to take the Hawaiian king, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, captive for ransom. That plan didn’t go well and led to Cook’s being killed by the Hawaiians as he and his crew tried to flee the island.

Next we went to Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau. This is now a national historical park, but it was originally a Hawaiian place of refuge for those who broke sacred laws. They could go there for protection from pursuers and for a ceremony of absolution. Then they could return to society. This is considered a sacred place for Hawaiians. There were others like it, but this one is unusual because it also includes a royal residence. That showed that the king was willing to forgive these people who had violated their laws but were seeking redemption.

We then moved on to the southern tip of the island. The big island of Hawaii is the most southern island, and Hawaii is more south than the continental US, so the most southern tip of the island is the most southern point of the US. Near this point, there are people jumping off of a 40 foot cliff. Willingly. There is a ladder set up for them to climb back up. We watched a couple jump off together and confirmed that we would not be doing the same.

Nearby-ish is a cove with a green beach, known as Papakōlea beach. There are apparently only 4 green beaches in the world. From the parking lot, it is a 2.5 mile walk each way over very rough terrain. Or you can pay a local to (illegally) drive you each way. We chose the latter. It was a wild and crazy drive, but we made it! Now this beach is not green when you look at it, but if you pick up the sand you see green, glass like crystals of olivine, mixed in with black lava and white sand. Now it is super steep to get down to the actual beach and I couldn’t do it with my bad foot. Paul made it down and got pictures of the beach and sand.

We made one more stop at a black sand beach. There we found 2 Hawaiian green sea turtles sunning (clouding?) themselves on the beach.

From there we made it to our bed and breakfast. We are staying near the Volcanoes National Park tonight so we can have plenty of time on this side of the island.

After dinner, we headed into the park to look at the glow from the Halema’uma’u crater. This volcano has been erupting since December 20, 2020. It was beautiful and eerie. The sky in the distance and overhead cleared so that we could see stars, which made for nice pictures. Somehow, we were still getting drizzled on. It also was 57 degrees and rainy. Still worth it.