Pahoa & Kalapana

Moving from Kona to Pahoa

So ended the first week of our stay in Hawaii. We packed up the night before, and took off early on Monday headed for the east side of the island. We drove south along the Hawaii Belt Road (Hwy 11), stopping at the coffee shack for breakfast. From the little village of Captain Cook, we had a lovely view of of Kealakekua Bay where we had kayaked and snorkeled earlier in the week.

Continuing down the road, we ended up at South Point.  It is the southern most point in the United
States. We passed by ranches and farms, and windmills along the way.  At the end, there is a cliff with some rickety ladders.  While the signs clearly say don't jump off the cliff into the water, that's exactly what some people were doing.



Continuing down the long and winding road, we stopped to inspect the black sand beach and have lunch before traveling on to our new place for the rest of our stay.


Cool New Digs
We are staying at an Air BnB called the the Li'l Red Farmhouse near Pahoa for the rest of our stay.  It is very different from the condo we stayed at in the very touristy Ali'i Drive in Kona. This place is in a little neighborhood called Seaview near a village called Kalapana.  While we don't have a view of the ocean, it is within walking distance, and that's all that matters.

Our host, Joe, built the place.  We are essentially glamping. We have comfortable beds, a kitchen and living room, but it is mostly open air, with screens to keep the bugs mostly out.  However the house geckos help with the bug population. The bathrooms have toilets, a shower and a big bathtub, but I am lovingly calling them indoor outhouses, as they are really open air.

My loft bed is near the roof, and the rain at night wakes me up, but cools the air enough that I actually have to use the blankets on the bed.  It really is a lovely place to hang out.  With chickens free roaming, other lovely bird sounds, and the wind rustling the vegetation surrounding the house during the day, and a cacophony of frog and insect calls along with sometimes heavy rainfall at night.



The beach is at the end of the street, so we walked to view our first sunset in our new location.




Lava Boat Tour

So we booked a tour with a recommended tour operator here to view the lava flowing into the ocean. Well, flowing wasn't really a good descriptor, but we saw the molten rock creeping its way across the top of previous flows making its way toward the ocean.  It was a cool trip, really. They loaded us into the boat in the parking lot of the Isaac Hale Beach park, then the truck hauled us to the boat ramp and put us in.

We spent about 30 minutes getting to the sight, then we shared viewing space with another boat out there as well. The captains of each boat did an amazing job of making sure that both sides of the boat got good viewing opportunities. and we did.  At the end, I captured the most exciting lava event of the evening in the video below!

More on the source of that lava from Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park later!