Hawaii, the Big Island – Part 6

Gecko’s dinner

OK, if you’ve read the previous installments then by now you know the drill: we get up, eat a light breakfast and hang out on the lanai. This had become our normal island morning routine and it remained so today. Tuesday, or third full day, was one of the more relaxed days of our trip, and was probably a pretty typical tourist type of day.

At some point we gathered up our things and we all headed down to a beach we’d read about, Kikaua Beach. Carrie was really looking forward to it, as it sounded like a great beach and perfect for small children as well.

Allison awarded the beach the Kid’s Seal of Approval.

We wondered what it would be like getting in, as it was behind the guard shack of a gated community. That wasn’t especially unusual though, and in Hawaii there is a long legal tradition of all beaches having public access. That concept has apparently been eroded in recent years, but in several places near where we were staying anyone could access the beaches, even if they were in the middle of some resort or another.

Here, we merely drove up to the gate and when the guard asked how he could help, I just said “Beach access?” and in we went. They gave us a parking hangar which I obliged them by using, no problemo. There was ample parking and then it was just a short walk on a paved path through the lava rock before we reached our beach.

And a fine beach it was, with white sand, a shallow cove and lava rock around it. The sky was mostly cloudy, and the water was cooler than it had been on Sunday, but it was still fine once you were in. We swam, lounged around, buried Allison in the sand, and just had a really good time for a few hours. There was a nice little arch rock that I saw out to, and when I climbed up, several black crabs quickly scurried away.

Relaxing on the beach, post-swim. Ahhhh…

The only drawback turned out to be the big lava rocks that covered a good part of the bottom of the shallow cove. Even trying to be careful, I bashed a toe on one, then another, and cut the side of my foot on still another. That was all minor (if painful at the time) but what I somehow didn’t realize until later was that I also picked up a pretty deep, large slice on the bottom of my heel from another rock. Ow.

To add touch of dark humor to the injuries, they were all on the same foot!

Also since I’m not used to being out swimming at the beach, I had sunblocked my usual neck, face, arms, etc. I’d even sunblocked the  tops of my feet that had burned slightly on the first day, since I usually don’t live in flipflops either. But alas, I’d not covered my shoulders and back, so I picked up a light sunburn there.

Still, it was a great day at the beach. On the way back to the condo, I stopped to log the virtual geocache Graffiti Galore. This would be my only caching/benchmarking experience of the day. We pulled over on the Queen K. highway at the designated area and I built a small piece of coral “graffiti” which was dwarfed by all of the others nearby. Mission accomplished, we continued back to base.

After we got cleaned up and changed, it was time for a late lunch, on the lanai of course. After some more lounging and such it was time for the evening’s big event, the luau over at the Hilton proper.

Pool at the Hilton.

This was clearly to be an exercise in stereotypical, mainstream tourism. I’d been to a luau on Oahu once, and my experience is perhaps best summed up by the fact that I cannot remember if I drank five mai tais that night, or seven.

For some reason, I have a natural discomfort with these types of activities. It’s not that I expected it to be bad per se, but I guess it’s just not me. The rest of the family was looking forward to their first luau though, especially Allison, so I was certainly looking forward to it in that respect.

Shell of mystery fruit, later identified as a Surinam Cherry.

The luau turned out about as I had expected, with various acts on the permanent stage, some interesting, some cheesy. There was a wide selection of food, some good, some not so good as far as my taste buds were concerned. For some reason, it seemed like most people we sat near or were in line with had some sort of southern, Texas, or midwestern accent. The whole thing was a little surreal, but what can I say, it was a pretty fun night out!