Hawaiian beaches

We only managed to get to two beaches while in Hawaii. You'd think that being on an island with loads of highly-rated beaches, we'd manage more than that, but unbelievably...only two.

We went to Anaeho'omalu Beach (shortened to A'Bay by locals/tourists) on our second day on the island. I really liked it coz it was very calm and relaxing, it's not very wide but clear, clear water. The sand is not the white, powdery kind of sand, but like salt and pepper, much coarser. That's okay though, coz it means that it doesn't stick to you as much. I've taken a REAL close-up of my foot with the sand...just for fun (it's in sepia tone, so it's not really the right colour, but anyway...that's the texture of the sand). Rod doesn't like non-white beaches - he thinks that they look mucky. We spent about two hours on A'Bay before going back to the property for the usual 'owners update tour' thing.

There's just something relaxing about being on the beach listening to the sound of waves, either crashing or lapping at the beach. We fell asleep in no time. Here's the proof. He's wearing his new Oakley sunglasses which he bought on the first night - very pleased with them.

We didn't get to another beach until another day or two, as we went to the Volcano National Park the following day. And of course, the big UEFA Cup Final was on the morning after that, so no activities were planned for that day. Speaking of which, Rod managed to listen to the game online, as we couldn't find anywhere that would be showing such a non-American game as 'soccer', and it wasn't on the four ESPN channels that they have in the unit.

So after the game, we wanted to go to another beach (a non-mucky one) and I had found another three beaches close by to the property. Close in Big Island terms would mean about a 10- to 15-minute drive, including a two-mile drive out from the property to the main road! That's how spread out everything is. Anyway, we decided on going to Mauna Kea beach - apparently one of the best beaches for snorkelling, with powdery white sand, and voted by Conde Nast as one of the World's Best Beaches twice! We knew that they controlled access to the beach by handing out only a limited number of parking passes each day. Still, we thought we might have made it when we drove in, but apparently not. We missed getting in by ONE car. Can you believe it! ONE CAR! So we then chose to go further down the road (another 5 minutes by car) to Spencer Beach, which is also supposed to be good for snorkelling.

When we get there what do we find? "Spencer Beach Park is closed for annual renovations and cleaning!" ARGH! How is this possible that you're on an island and you're locked out from TWO beaches?!?! This is unbelievable. So we went to the third choice - Hapuna Beach. This one isn't that good for snorkelling, but still got pretty good write-ups. As you can see, it's not very calm, so obviously not so good for snorkelling. It's a long and wide beach, with clean white, powdery sand - just the kind Rod likes. We thought we should have brought the beach pod just for shade, but it wasn't too sunny. There was a lot of cloud cover which is quite a relief every now and then.

The water isn't very deep, except when the waves come over. So I kept to a safe depth of about waist-high, which sometimes came up to shoulder-height if a big wave comes in. It's obviously a popular beach with families and 'newbie' surfers. We saw a group of them with their bodyboards, waiting for a 'mini-wave' to come in so that they could surf it. We walked from one end to the other - not as big a beach as Karon in Phuket, but still a nice walk.

We had another free afternoon a couple of days later after our snorkelling trip and thought we could give Mauna Kea beach another go. We drove up expectantly - after all, it was nearly 3pm in the afternoon. Surely people would have left by now...but...noooooo! The sign "Beach Parking Full" was still up. But wait...there are cars driving OUT from the gates! Which I indignantly pointed out to the guard and he laughed at me. Said that they were just 'workers'. Yeah right. So no go on Mauna Kea again. And we're leaving tomorrow, so I guess we wouldn't be able to visit Mauna Kea beach this trip. We head back to Hapuna Beach, which is really quite a nice beach. We were just disappointed that we couldn't visit another. Anyway, here's a photo of our car just before we left Hapuna Beach. It's in sepia tone again, but it's a white car so it'd still look pretty much the same in colour.

We'd have to go back to the Big Island again to give the other beaches a go!