Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [145]
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HIGHLIGHTS
Hike the smoking craters and lava terrain of Hawai′i Volcanoes National Park (Click here)
Brush bellies, almost, with Pacific manta rays (Click here) while snorkeling
Soak up the sun and swim at the idyllic white-sand beaches of Kekaha Kai State Park (Click here)
Get a shot of both art and caffeine at the galleries and coffee farms of Holualoa (Click here)
Commune with the ancients at Pu′uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park (Click here)
Watch the sun set and the stars blaze from Mauna Kea (Click here)
Discover historic downtown Hilo (Click here) – its museums, historic buildings and ice shave
Indulge your inner gourmet, paniolo-style, in Waimea (Click here)
Lounge with wild horses on the black-sand beach in Waipi′o Valley (Click here)
Explore the underground realm of lava tubes (Click here) in Ka′u
POPULATION 173,000
AREA: 4028 SQ MILES
NICKNAME: ORCHID ISLE
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HISTORY
The modern history of the Big Island is a tale of two cities – Kailua-Kona and Hilo – which represent the island’S split personality: West Hawai′i and East Hawai′i. Kamehameha the Great, born in West Hawai’′i, lived out the end of his life in Kailua, and throughout the 19th-century, Hawaiian royalty enjoyed the town as a leisure retreat, using Hulihe′e Palace as a crash pad.
Yet, during the same period, Hilo emerged as the more important commercial harbor. The Hamakua Coast railroad connected Hilo to the island’S sugar plantations, and its thriving wharves became a hub for agricultural goods and immigrant workers. By the 20th century the city was the Big Island’S economic and political center of power, and Hilo remains the official seat of island government.
Then, on April 1, 1946, the Hamakua Coast was hit by an enormous tsunami that crumpled the railroad and devastated coastal communities (such as Laupahoehoe; Click here). Hilo got the worst: its waterfront was completely destroyed, killing 96 people. The city rebuilt, but 14 years later, in 1960, it happened again: a deadly tsunami splintered the waterfront. This time, Hilo did not rebuild, but left a quiet expanse of parks separating the downtown area from the bay.
Hilo has never recovered. After that, the sugar industry steadily declined (sputtering out in the 1990s), and the Big Island’S newest source of income – tourism – focused quite naturally on the sun-drenched, sandy western shores where Hawaii’S monarchs once gamboled. From the 1970s onward, resorts and real-estate barons have jockeyed for position and profit along the leeward coast, turning West Hawai′i into the de facto seat of power.
Today, despite escalating home prices, the Big Island is considered the most affordable island to live on, attracting young people from across the state, and it is diversifying its economy with small farm-based agriculture and renewable energy. Yet the old tensions between multicultural, working-class Hilo and the often Caucasian-run tourism and real-estate development of Kailua-Kona still define much of present-day Big Island politics. Indeed, the current effort to fix Saddle Rd (Click here) is an explicit attempt to literally and metaphorically reconnect the island’S long-divided east and west.
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CLIMATE
The Big Island climate is fairly stable year round. As a rule, it’S cooler as you move inland and up, and it’S wetter on the windward north and east coasts. The Kona Coast is perennially sunny and hot, though things cool off quickly just a few miles upland in coffee country. However, air quality in South Kona and Ka′u has been increasingly troubled by persistent ‘vog’ (volcanic smog; Click here).
On the eastern coast, Hilo is notoriously rainy, with an annual rainfall of over 100in. But temperatures remain balmy and, except for rainstorms, the typical drizzle is innocuous and short-lived. Few risk predicting Windward Coast weather; newspapers simply print endless variations on ‘sunny, with a chance of rain.’
At 4000ft, Hawai′i Volcanoes National Park has similar weather to Hilo, but is