Kohala Coast

In planning our trip to Hawaii, our friends recommended that we download the Shaka Guide app for the Big Island. It is an audio tour guide that uses your phone's GPS to automatically play the segment that corresponds to where you are, complete with turn-by-turn directions, suggestions for places to stop, and even music for traveling in between points of interest. There were five tours covering different parts of the island, so we bought the whole bundle for $9.99. 

Our destination this morning was Pololū Valley on the northern tip of the island. The drive along Queen Kaʻahumanu Highway was gorgeous! The Kohala Coast tour audio kicked in once we passed by the resorts at Waikoloa. The tour narration was really interesting, and the app worked well (offline, so no cellular data needed) - totally worth the price paid!

In Kapaʻau, we stopped for a photo of the statue of King Kamehameha I. According to the app, this one was the original, lost when the ship transporting it to Hawaiʻi sank. However, it was eventually recovered from the bottom of the ocean and now stands here. The Kamehameha statue in Honolulu is the recast replacement.

Highway 270 eventually comes to an end at the Pololū Valley overlook. Knowing that this is a popular location with limited parking, we arrived early and managed to snag one of the last spots. Another friend told us we should absolutely do the hike to the valley floor. Once we got all of our stuff together (hats, water, sunscreen, towels), we tackled the 0.6-mile trail (with 420-ft elevation change!) down to the beach.

The view at each of the switchbacks kept getting better as we traveled further along...

Almost there...

Made it!

M and J getting GoPro footage of the waves

Of course, the challenging part was climbing the 420 feet back out of the valley!

Once back in the car, we rejoined the audio tour and retraced our route back to Hāwī. Then we turned onto Highway 250 (aka Kohala Mountain Road) towards Waimea. And per our usual road trip custom, we had sandwiches in the car for lunch.

Looking down towards Puakō

From Waimea, we closed the tour loop by driving back to Kawaihae, where we stopped at Puʻukoholā Heiau NHS. The stone heiau (temple) was built by Kamehameha I in 1790-1791. The water-worn lava rocks which were used in constructing the heiau came from Pololū Valley (where we were this morning). Workers formed a human chain at least 20 miles long and passed the rocks hand to hand to the top of Puʻukoholā.

The self-guided walking tour took us from the visitor center to Puʻukoholā Heiau. However, we could only view it from below. 

Puʻukoholā Heiau

The path then led us past Mailekini Heiau, an older temple used by the ancestors of Kamehameha, and then down towards the bay. We tried to see if we could spot any manō (sharks) in the waters - no luck! Because everything was completely exposed to the sun and it was super hot, we didn't spend a lot of time at this unit.

On our way back to Kailua-Kona, we stopped to do some shopping in Waikoloa. We had to get our Crazy Shirts, of course! Then it was back to the hotel to rest up before our night snorkeling excursion with manta rays! More on that in the next post...