A typical early Saturday morning at the beach. The campers set up Friday night, but not too many are up and about until it starts getting warm. This photo was taken just after 7 a.m. when coffee and breakfast is the priority for most of those who are up, though not the kids of course!
I found this picnic table at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach Park and thought it gave a wonderful view out over the ocean. If you swim out from shore here, your next stop is Tahiti, some 2,700 miles away!
A view of the Kau coast looking down towards Whittington Beach Park and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park beyond.
The high winds of a few weeks ago caused a fair amount of damage around the island. At Lapakahi State Historical Park, this tree was toppled and took out a bench that had been set up in its shade. The bench will have to be fixed and set up somewhere else because that shade isn’t coming back anytime soon.
Punalu’u is one of the more popular places to visit on the Big Island. For one thing, it’s a black sand beach that’s easily accessible. It’s also a great place to see Green Turtles and sometimes Hawksbill Turtles. There’s picnic tables and restrooms, you can camp there, and it’s a beautiful stretch of coastline to wander along.
On my most recent visit, I was happy to see that the area where the turtles tend to rest has been more obviously identified with a rock wall and signs. This is part of the ongoing efforts to deter the ‘Let’s get a picture of little Billy riding the turtle’ crowd. Oh yes, they exist and, sadly, they’re nowhere near as endangered as the turtles. There is one turtle in this photo, but it looks like a rock.
Here’s a closer look.
And a close up (with a zoom lens), getting some much needed rest.
I really like Punalu’u, especially early in the day as this was. Later on, it can get very crowded.
I was rather taken by these signs at a local beach park. Probably not a photo to use in promotional materials.
This bench, located on the shoreline just below the lighthouse between Mahukona and Lapakahi, is a memorial to Malcolm Davis. Malcolm was a North Kohala man who disappeared while freediving off this part of the coast in 2020. He was 20 years old and was never found.
It’s a lovely spot, with a view up and down the coast and across to Maui, a place to sit and watch the waves, a place for contemplation.
I saw this Myna at Punaluʻu Black Sand Beach Park. It was standing just as you see, before moving to do a bit of preening. Then it resumed this position. It repeated this process several times.
The bird was clearly waiting for mum or dad to return with food and, by golly, it wanted to be quite clear that it was ready and waiting to eat. Apparently, the parents weren’t overly impressed by this display, since they didn’t show up while I watched.
Graham's Island 