Holiday to Hawaii in Aug 2013: Day 8 – Big Island

The hotel room we have stayed in at Volcano House has a connecting door, and unfortunately the Americans next door are fairly noisy. We heard them late yesterday (V – so I stuck a towel over the large gap under the adjoining door and made sure they could see it too) and they probably heard us this morning when we got up just after 5am.

We got a nice table at the window with a good view of the crater for breakfast. Vick was happy with the omelette station that knocked up her tasty start to the day. Mine was nothing special but the cost was reasonable.

We came to the conclusion that this place was very similar to the Grand Canyon and the equivalent hotel there – El Tovar. Both are overly expensive, offer no real facilities to talk of, and are relatively complacent about their position as a monopoly supplier. In hindsight we didn’t need to stay down in the south of the island – there wasn’t really that much the Volcano National Park offered us. It’s great, but once you got over that initial reaction, there’s nothing new or a surprise.

We got on the road by 8:15am and headed West and North around the island back up to Waikoloa. There didn’t appear to be that many attractions to go and look at. We did stop at the Black Sands Beach where turtles do turn up from time to time, just not on the day we arrived!

We got round to Kona by 11am and aimed to find one of the three Starbucks but failed miserably. Anyway we did find a very nice coffee house and a public loo! (V – the coffee was delicious and drunk overlooking the ocean)

Had a great lunch at an outside café at the precinct down the road from the hotel – Merriman’s Mediterranean café, then our room was ready so we checked in. Walked out on to the balcony to find we could look down on the gorgeous dolphins where they do the ‘dolphin experience’ – what a lovely surprise!

Went for a swim at the Lagoon Pool, which is sea water and a bit of landscaped beach, all rather nice especially when the waitress came along and we indulged in some beer and cocktails.

The Lagoon Tower in the resort has some lovely shops, which it would have been rude not to have popped in and had a jolly good browse. And would you believe it I found my 50th birthday present from Nige, well there’s a thing. So I went back to the room to start negotiations which, reader, went quite well as it happens because a few hours later the silver pendant inlaid with Koa wood (only available in Hawaii) was adorning my neck. And the day got even better as a fab match between Isner and Monfils was on the telly.

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