The park is a Big Island historical gem tucked away along the rocky, arid coast of Kohala District, roughly a dozen miles north of the small, industrial port town of Kawaihae, and features a range of carefully restored structures exemplifying the early days of the village’s 600-year-old past. Visitors to the park pass by canoe storage sheds, coastal “hales” (houses), traditional stone tools and furniture, and an intricate maze of unmortared lava rock wall bordering the footpaths and crowding the shoreline. For anyone interested in traditional Polynesian rock wall building, this place is a must-see on the island and a great example of the craftsmanship of the ancients. The intricacy of these painstakingly stacked structures is astounding; they span across the beachfront in seemingly perfect columns, with occasional breaks large enough to let just a single human through.

The park’s name – lapa kahi – means “single ridge” in the Hawaiian language and refers to the ancient land division that existed here more than half a millennia ago. Back then, the entire island was divided into narrow pie slices spanning from verdant upland taro farms growing the ubiquitous staple crop all the way down to the sea-level communities of fishermen, banana farmers and breadfruit growers. The monarchy reigning over the island organized its subjects this way, and the inhabitants of each land slice traded among themselves for what they needed: fish making its way up the mountain slopes, and taro coming down to the coast. This was called an “ahupua’a” (ah-hoo-poo-ah-ah) and was how land was organized in the time of old Hawaii similar to the political districts found on Big Island today.

So, Lapakahi was a fishing village at the bottom of the ahupua’a, whose generations of fishermen would ply the waters just off of the coast of black lava boulders and white coral, casting out their nets and pulling in piles of fat, succulent fish like ono, ahi and mahi-mahi. They would trade their catch with upland farmers living on the slopes of Kohala Mountain – the northernmost of the five volcanoes making up Big Island’s entire landmass. This system of trade was what the ancient economy of the island was based on, and still survives intact in some places, though in a much more informal sense. It has left a legacy of Big Island farmers, hunters and fishermen bartering their excess harvest for the goods they can’t produce themselves with friends and family living far away.

And it wasn’t just fish being produced down at the coast, either; to this day at Lapakahi visitors can see examples of ancient salt pans – bowl-shaped carved black lava stones used for drying ocean water in the sun and collecting the salt left behind. This was the only method the ancients had to produce the crucial foodstuff, since the island is comprised of basalt volcanic rock with no mineral deposits. Traditionally the salt, known as “pa’akai” in Hawaiian, was used to preserve fish and season food, and was a highly valued commodity due to the painstaking process in creating it. 

There were also groves of kukui nut trees, sometimes called “candlenut”, planted at the low elevations, which produced an oil-rich native Hawaiian nut burned in traditional lamps. Lamp stands which long ago burned kukui nut oil can still be seen at the historical park, which were likely used all the way up until the 19^th Century.

Down the coastline from Lapakahi’s main parking lot is a large thatch-roof hut complete with walls of woven grass, an A-frame of skinny bamboo poles and a square courtyard of low stacked rock walls. This is the structure featured in many of the photos of the park, and is arguably the most interesting of all the structures standing on its grounds. From the walled-in courtyard, this spot offers a fantastic panorama of the maze of rock walls lining the shore, the surrounding dry scrubland of stout, thorny keawe trees, and beyond that the rolling flanks of Kohala Mountain shrouded in eternal clouds. The seaside hut is a reconstructed dwelling, and the original house occupying the site was used as living quarters well into the 1900s.

The Vibrant Marine Life Conservation District Just Offshore

Big Island’s North Kohala Coast boasts a rich diversity of sea life found milling about in the warm, shallow inland waters. Tropical species of fish and coral account for much of this biodiversity, and few places on the island harbor more of it than along this stretch of coastline making up the historical park’s boundary. This is great news for swimmers and snorkelers, who frequent the nearby Koaie Cove looking for schools of fish, urchins, eels, sea stars and the occasional turtle.

Common fish found just offshore at Lapakahi include several species of butterflyfish, recognized by their long snouts used for probing the reef’s nooks and crannies looking for small invertebrates, as well as the yellow tang – a type of surgeonfish and one of the most iconic to be spotted in Big Island’s waters. Snorkelers sometimes notice them grazing on the algae growing on the backs of the endangered Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle. It’s also a great place to see stands of the intricately textured cauliflower coral, which thrives in the offshore reef’s sunny shallows and provides an important habitat for several different strata of coastal sea life.

There is very little beach to speak of along the park’s shoreline, so swimmers and snorkelers should use extreme caution while getting in and out of the water, and to keep in mind that there is no lifeguard on duty here. Intimidating-looking bluffs of jagged black rock stick out into the bay, and are regularly assaulted by ranks of charging white-capped waves coming in from the open ocean. These conditions make going for a dip here difficult sometimes, with just a few reliably safe spots with strong rip currents present just beyond their peaceful waters. With so many better, safer beaches found just a few miles down the road around the town of Kawaihae, such as Spencer Beach Park and Hapuna Beach, it’s advisable that those new to the island or who aren’t strong swimmers steer clear of the ocean at Lapakahi Park.

How To Get to Lapakahi State Historical Park

Lapakahi State Historical Park is easiest to access from the main West Hawaii town of Kona – Big Island’s primary tourism hub and the best spot to pick up beach and hiking supplies for trips to the Kohala Coast. Head north along Highway 19, otherwise known as Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway, for roughly 35 miles until the road forks, and turning left will bring visitors to the industrial port town of Kawaihae in less than half a mile. Continue through the town, and turn onto Highway 270, otherwise known as Akoni Pule Highway, which runs another 20 miles north to the town of Hawi and the northern tip of the island.

After driving about twelve miles north on Highway 270, past the turn for the Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company and its showroom of free samples and dizzyingly good coffee, signs for Lapakahi Park will come into view near mile marker 14, and turning left here will bring drivers onto a narrow two-lane road that leads to a parking lot after dropping a few hundred feet down the hill. A park ranger is usually on duty at the modern-looking building in the middle of the lot, however guided tours of the stone ruins and heritage.

Up and down the rows, farm workers spread out with their plastic buckets, white canvas bags, spools of twine and jugs of drinking water in search of trees with large caches of nuts scattered beneath them: easy picking. Then they crouch down and go to work, their quick hands darting across the ground, scooping up nuts and giving them a half-second’s consideration before either dropping them into the bucket or tossing them aside into the grass. 

Soon the swath of fenced-in orchard fills with the sound of a macadamia nut farm: the satisfying clatter of hard green orbs the size of golfballs hitting the bottoms of plastic buckets one at a time. This plays over the ambient sounds of the jungle; sweet songs of resident birds, twigs snapping underfoot of creeping mongoose and pigs, and the sound of a cool onshore breeze rustling the palm fronds, blowing in from the ocean just a few miles downhill.

The pickers are there because the trees drop their crop when fully ripe. This makes the macadamia industry on Big Island (and much farther afield places, too) reliant on a great deal of sometimes-tedious manual labor to bring its nuts to market. At the same time, it means that Hawaii’s macadamias are something truly handmade, where every buttery, savory morsel enjoyed by visitors at the free sample tables found inside its nut factories started with a similar searching finger, a half-second examination and a clatter into a plastic bucket. 

Technological improvements like using mechanical harvesters and deploying systems of nets beneath the trees have not been shown to be cost-effective, which is why the process is still painstaking and inarguably low-tech compared to the farming of other types of tree nuts. Speaking from hands-on experience, though, the work isn’t very strenuous; it takes quite a bit of flexibility to spend hours in a constant loop of crouching and standing, and requires some dexterity to sort through the scattering of green husks on the ground to find bucket-worthy specimens. 

There are hundreds of individual, mainly family-run macadamia farms on Big Island, and they are worked by armies of pickers ranging from business partners to longtime employees to casual day laborers to work-traders. For most of them, they’re paid based on the total weight of what they’ve picked at the end of the day, not by the hour, so quick hands and a rigorous pace is the winning formula. This means that the pickers take very few breaks, set on meeting their target harvest weight as quickly as they can and then spend the rest of the day relaxing.

End Of The Morning Shift, Arrival Of The Sheep Flock

The ambient air at the farm begins to feel like a sauna around 10:00am on hot summer days with little cloud cover. Many pickers will slow down slightly as the morning wears on, content on doing the most aggressive picking in the coolest part of the morning and then dialing it back as it gets closer and closer to mid-day. They’ve filled and emptied their plastic buckets dozens of times by now, pouring them into propped-open white canvas bags with a rattle, creating yet another signature mac nut farm sound. At this point there are roughly ten bags bursting with nuts and tied off at their openings reading to be picked up en-masse, many grouped together in stands leaning against tree trunks. The farm uses color-coded string to seal the bags, correlating to each individual picker so it’s always clear whose bag is whose when it comes time for the scales.

An orchard worker on a four-wheeler rumbles down the muddy lanes in between the rows, stopping to heave the 50-pound canvas bags onto the front and rear racks of his machine before motoring off to the other edge of the plot to pick up more. One batch of pickers start to head up to the processing barn around noon, opting to skip the hottest part of the day and get paid out now for their five-hour morning shift. A die-hard group, though, powers through the heat and can still be found crouched down along the rows of trees well after 2:00pm, wearing broad-brimmed straw hats and t-shirts tied around their heads like turbans.

Around this time is when the resident flock of sheep make their appearance. From some hidden side-paddock, they are released into the orchard and make their way across the property lazily browsing the weeds growing up around the base of the macadamia trees. They seem wholly uninterested in the nuts themselves, and don’t seem to get spooked when an enterprising picker squats down right beside the flock. The farm does not spray herbicides or pesticides in the orchard, instead relying on the instinctual weed control provided by the sheep, as well as the natural fertilizers they leave behind for the trees in the form of tiny brown pellets. 

In the lexicon of farming nerds, this is what is known as “integrated agriculture” – a system where there are very few external inputs, and where the waste products of the orchard (weeds and grasses) are utilized by the sheep whose waste products (manure) is in-turn utilized by the trees. In short, it is the “circle of life” playing out on a macadamia nut orchard inhabiting a swatch of rain-swept rocky lavafield outside the former town of Kapoho along Big Island’s Kalapana Coast. It’s just one of the approximately 700 different macadamia farms across the state that together produce thousands of tons of wet in-shell nuts every year – worth around $50 million annually during a bumper crop. It’s an industry that employs more than 3,000 people throughout Hawaii, making it one of the most lucrative and sought-after agricultural goods in league with coffee, pineapples, sugar and fresh flowers.

Hit The Scales, “Pau Hana”, And Start Up The Husker

When the afternoon sun finally gets too intense to bear, the full-time pickers will holler for the four-wheeler to finally come pick up their bags. They collect their gear and head up to the barn, which houses the scales, nut drying racks, sorting stations and the farm’s massive husking machine. The bags of just-picked raw nuts are poured into this bulky, unwieldy contraption the size of a bathtub suspended in the air with chains, which shreds away the green, spongey outer husk and leaves the exceptionally hard, dark brown waxy shells with nut inside.

The bags are weighed, the values are scribbled into a beat-up looking notebook, and the pickers are paid. They bid farewell to the processing crew about to fire up the husker, and make their way back down the driveway to the orchard’s entrance with smiles all around and a newfound spring in their step. For them it’s time for “pau hana” – a Hawaiian term referring to the time after a day’s work is done meant for relaxing, socializing and spending time with family.

A conveyor belt-like hopper brings the bulk nuts up to the husker, which rattles and shakes and makes a terrible racket of screeches, howls and whines as it spits out the perfectly clean marble-sized brown orbs. The machine is so ear-piercing that the processing staff must wear hearing protection, and their communication is largely hand gestures and nods while it’s in operation. The husked nuts tumble down a ramp into the sorting area, where assembly line workers conduct quality control and pick out old, broken and spoiled specimens, tossing the rejects down wooden chutes into waiting wheelbarrows. Those that passed the quality check make their way down into a long tube-shaped hopper made from lumber and chicken wire to dry. In the middle of a good harvest season, this sprawling, elevated cage will be overflowing with thousands of pounds of nuts, ready to be sold in-shell.

The ground around the processing facility is absolutely littered. Cast-off nuts can be found in every nook and cranny along the assembly line, and they rain down from the catwalk with a quiet pattering when a worker makes their way from the inspection station to the drying hopper. Finally the last bag of raw macadamias is poured into the elevator, run through the husker and trickles past the sorting station towards the veritable mountain of drying nuts. The workers shut down the machine, stow their earphones and get ready for their own “pau hana”, and at that point the only ones still working on the farm are the sheep.

The first settlers also brought sugarcane, bananas, kukui nuts (also known as candlenuts), ginger and gourds. Some of these crops – the most prominent example being sugar – would become huge commercial industries much later in the islands’ history, usually as a result of European opportunism. Beginning in the mid-19^th Century, many foreign peoples and plants began to arrive in the islands, and what had for countless generations been a largely sustainable, insular and staple-based patchwork of small feudal farms was thrust into a new era of large-scale commercial agriculture, with sprawling, seemingly unending plantations of cash crops like sugarcane and pineapple.

Agronomists were tripping over themselves trying to figure out which of the world’s crops could be commercially viable in this highly specific Hawaii climate, which led to a great deal of experimentation, speculation and failed test plots. Into this rapidly changing landscape came William Purvis, a young manager at the Pacific Sugar Mill along Big Island’s Hamakua Coast close to the picturesque Waipio Valley. Purvis was an investor and plant collector, and had just returned back above the equator from Australia where he first encountered macadamia nut trees. 

The macadamia is native to Australia, specifically the regions of New South Wales and Queensland, and has been an important source of “bush food” for Aboriginal peoples since prehistory, who called the nuts “bauple”, “gyndl”, “jindilli”, and “boombera”. The genus name “Macadamia” was coined by German-Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller after his friend John Macadam – a Scottish philosopher and doctor. Mueller in his own right was a much-lauded scientist and the secretary of the Philosophical Institute of Australia.

Upon first encountering the trees in the outback, the young globe-trotting Englishman Purvis first regarded macadamias as little more than a curiosity, eventually finding a use for the trees as wind breaks along the borders of sugarcane fields at the plantation he managed. The trees are exceptionally long-lived – some living more than 100 years – and some local legends tell that those first few trees Purvis planted close to the sugar mill grounds are still alive today. Over the years, the nuts became very popular with Big Island locals, and word spread across the archipelago of these savory, buttery delights growing on ancient, prolific trees that are very well-suited to Hawaii’s climate.

There was immense business potential in this new, long-overlooked crop, and the first commercial processing facility for macadamia nuts opened its doors in 1934 in Honolulu. This was the genesis of the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Co., the brainchild of Ernest Van Tassel, who several years prior had established Hawaii’s first macadamia seed farm – a 75-acre hilltop plantation on Oahu known as “Nutridge”. For years, tins of Van’s Macadamia Nuts were a common sight in Honolulu as well as in the outer islands.

Today, more than 20,000 acres of land in Hawaii are dedicated to this thriving industry, with an annual production value of roughly $175 million. Most of the large-scale farms are found on Big Island, which makes macadamia nuts an essential cash crop propping up much of the island’s economy. From growing macadamia saplings to hand harvesting the nuts to trucking the bags to market to processing them into finished products, this industry employs more than 3,000 people statewide and offers a crucial source of reliable income on an island with few economic opportunities for many locals. Hawaii’s mac nut crop is grown on more than 700 different farms, and many of these are smallholder, family-run orchards that have been worked for many generations.

A Resilient Industry, Challenged By Pests And Climate Change

Although macadamia nut trees were brought to Hawaii simply as an accessory to sugarcane production, the years since have seen them largely switch places. Since the days of William Purvis, Hawaii has seen a steady, healthy growth of its nut industry and a near-complete decline of its sugar plantations. The trees that were once planted along property borders to slow gusts of wind have become cash crops in their own right, inhabiting tens of thousands of acres of farmland and making their way into everything from cookies to shortbreads, kettle corn to skin care products, cooking oils to nut milks.

But the macadamia’s meteoric rise in Hawaii hasn’t been without challenges, too. The invasive insect plaguing Australia’s nut orchards known as the Macadamia Felted Coccid has made it to the islands, and today can be found in all of Big Island’s macadamia growing regions. Controlling the pests mainly consists of diligently pruning the trees to give local predators easy access. In some cases, pesticides are used to stunt their proliferation. The bugs don’t impact the quality of the nuts themselves, but rather leach nutrients from the trees and slowly diminish their output over time.

Another check to Big Island’s booming mac nut industry is climate change, which has brought much wetter weather to its windward side. In 2018, the weather station at Hilo International Airport recorded its third highest rainfall year on record. This can spell disaster for macadamia farmers, where long stretches of cloudy damp can cause the flowers on the trees to rot, preventing the nuts from setting and leaving the tree bare come harvest time. This would suggest that plantations in dryer Big Island micro-climates, like those in the districts of Ka’u and South Kona, will fare better than their East Hawaii counterparts in the face of changing rain patterns.

An Impressive Nutritional Profile, and A Hard Nut To Crack

A single macadamia tree can produce upwards of 60 pounds of nuts per year. Once they’ve been husked, shelled and roasted, the little yellow orbs provide an excellent source of monounsaturated fatty acids (popularly known as “good fat”), as well as flavonoids and tocopherols (vitamin E) – both potent antioxidants which some research suggests helps prevent cancer and heart disease. The nuts are naturally cholesterol-free and are very low in sodium when left “unsalted”.

Just a single ounce of macadamias – roughly a dozen individual nuts – contain two grams of protein, making it a great source of nutrition for health food-types and vegans. They also contain vitamin A and several essential B vitamins like thiamine, riboflavin and niacin, as well as iron. Macadamia nut oil has been shown to contain Omega-3s, which are known to reduce the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure. A University of Hawaii School of Medicine study in 2000 even reported that eating macadamias can have a positive effect on blood cholesterol levels. All of this means that the nuts have a nutritional profile that exceeds olive oil and most other tree nuts. 

Macadamia tree saplings will grow for several years before starting to produce. At ten to twelve years old, the trees will hit full production and keep fruiting consistently for many years. They drop their nuts when fully ripe, so virtually all harvesting involves picking them up from the ground by hand. And although getting to this point may sound long and tedious, it isn’t even the hardest part of the process; macadamia shells are incredibly tough, as anyone who has tried to open one by hand can attest to. Conventional nutcrackers, pliers, vice grips, hammers, rocks – all barely put a dent in their waxy, dark-brown shells. It takes around 300 pounds per square inch of pressure to crack them, giving the macadamia the title of “hardest of all nuts”, and similar physical properties to aluminum.

Where To Learn More About Mac Nuts On The Big Island

For visitors to Hawaii Island who want to catch a few glimpses of its storied macadamia nut industry in action, there are two large processing centers outside the main commercial centers of Hilo and Kona. They are open to the public, give out free samples, offer self-guided tours of their factories, and feature well-stocked gift shops and showrooms with a wide variety of sweet and savory products on display.

Hilo-Side: Outside the town of Keaau, along the main highway leading into the city of Hilo, is the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Visitor Center. The center is open daily from 9:00am to 4:00pm, and their website can be found at www.maunaloa.com/pages/visitorcenter

Kona-Side: Outside the town of Waimea, along the Kohala Coast in the hills above the small port town of Kawaihae (KAH-VIE-HIGH) is the Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company’s factory and showroom, affectionately known as the “Nut House”. It is open daily from 9:00am to 4:30pm, with a website found at www.hawnnut.com/

There simply is no better place on the Big Island of Hawaii to feast on mounds of buttery, world-renown and locally-grown Hawaiian macadamia nuts than at Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company’s spacious showroom located in the hills above the small West Hawaii port town of Kawaihae.

It’s a high-ceiling storefront awash in sunlight filtering through its ranks of bay windows, which illuminates a maze of tables, counters, bins and display racks overflowing with cans and pouches of the company’s namesake nut in a dizzying variety of island-inspired flavors. Within seconds of stepping through the door into what’s informally known as the “nut house”, visitors are tempted with free samples of island-grown coffee from its various coffee growing regions, such as Kona, Ka’u and Hilo, all with their own distinctive aromas, flavors and bodies.

The coffee stand gives way to a small cafe serving up full-sized espressos, smoothies and scoops of homemade ice cream. The air inside the showroom smells downright heavenly: wafts of freshly brewed coffee mixed with the smell of buttery peanut brittle and roasted nuts dusted with delectable toppings, which leads many visitors with rumbling stomachs to seek out the store’s long wooden table filled with free samples of its macadamias in flavors both sweet and savory.

“There simply is no better place on Big Island to feast on mounds of buttery, world-renown and locally-grown macadamia nuts than at Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company”

This samples station is the focal point of the entire facility for most visitors. They crowd around the table gingerly working small metal tongs, picking the nuts out of larger bowls two and three at a time and dropping them into the disposable paper cups provided. Some seem partial to the sweet varieties; Kona Coffee Glazed, Butter Rum Glazed and Coconut Glazed, and gleefully fill up their respective cups again and again with the glossy sugar-coated delights, scarfing them down by the handful. 

Others like the savory flavors best; Island Onion, “Chili Peppah”, Wasabi, Soy Sauce – even SPAM flavored for the truly adventurous foodies who want to try something distinctly Hawaiian. This group does a better job of savoring each nut, but nonetheless can still be spotted upending their cups from time to time with a satisfying crunch as if to take a shot of liquor. Then there are the visitors who are nut-purists, who forego the fancy sugar and spice variations and focus their attention on the sample bowls full of lightly salted and salt-free dry-roasted macadamias. These nuts are in their most un-doctored form, with the subtle buttery flavors brought out by the roasting process really coming through, not overpowered by the tastes of onions and chilis and soy sauce.

Some people never make it past the free samples, and spend most of their time in the showroom lingering around them hoping that uniformed employees will materialize from behind a side-door and refill the bowls as they do from time to time. Others load up several cup-fulls and take off down the aisles, browsing the different sized packages of the same nuts they are simultaneously trying, found in sizes ranging from snack-size pouches to formidable five pound bulk bags. They find other island-made products, too, interspersed with the cans, bags and pouches of nuts: honey, granola, cooking oils, chocolates, cookies, bags of bulk coffee and enticing-looking kettle corn.

In one corner of the showroom is the entrance to a long, wide hallway lined with still more racks and baskets of goodies lining one wall. The hallway’s opposite wall is a made up of a row of windows looking out onto the factory floor where employees adorned in hair caps and gloves dart to and fro running the network of curious looking machines with funny names: Lid Capper, Flavor Panner, Can Labeler. This is what is called “The Cannery”.

At the bottom of every window is a placard giving a brief explanation of each machine’s purpose, and visitors making their way from window to window down the hall can get a good step-by-step idea of how macadamias go from bulk raw shelled nuts to the flavorful morsels found in their sample cups. Pouches and bags of finished product slowly roll off the assembly line in a slightly hypnotizing and unquestionably mouth-watering procession. Soon they will be packed up and shipped off to supermarkets and grocery stores across the entire island, as well as to neighboring islands, the U.S. mainland, and to the doorsteps of international customers on nearly every continent.

At the end of the hallway is a mini-theater of wrought iron chairs set in rows facing a flatscreen television. A short narrated informational film about the farming and processing side of the business is shown on a continuous loop, which helps to fill in the information gaps left by the placards, and to answer the frequently asked questions about nut aficionados. The theater is the natural endpoint to the self-guided tour, and from there visitors usually meander back past the factory windows and informational placards to the sample table to load up one more time before hitting the checkout counter.

A Boon To Hawaiian Agriculture, And A Great Place To Shop For Gifts

Macadamia nuts are native to Australia, where Aboriginal peoples utilized the hearty, prolific wild trees as a crucial source of “bush food”. It wasn’t until the late 19^th Century that an Australian plant collector and sugarcane plantation manager named William Purvis came to Hawaii’s Big Island with the archipelago’s first macadamia nut sapling in his luggage. Purvis planted it along the island’s eastern Hamakua Coast, where legend tells that it is still growing to this day.

Hawaii became the first large-scale mac nut producer in history, and for decades held the title of biggest crop yield. Since then, competition from countries like Australia, South Africa and China have bumped Hawaii from the top slot, although the tens of millions of pounds of in-shell nuts produced every year in the islands is still a remarkable feat considering their tiny geographic size. Today, there are hundreds of independent small-scale growers across the state who harvest tens of millions of dollars worth of nuts every year.

Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company is supplied by roughly 200 different independent Big Island nut farms, many of which are multi-generational and multi-family enterprises that depend entirely on the orchards for their livelihoods. So, visitors to the company’s showroom can feel good about the products they are buying; that they’re supporting local small-scale farmers making a living on an island with limited economic opportunities for many people, as well as the roughly 60 full-time employees who run the factory and showroom.

It’s also a great place to find gifts for friends and family members back home. Many of the tables in the showroom are taken up by gift displays, from assorted samplers of nuts and chocolates to colorfully painted cookie tins wrapped up in bows. The tins, adorned with motifs like beautiful tropical flowers, sea turtles, and dolphins are sure to still delight long after the scrumptious morsels inside have long since been eaten. There are neatly stacked pyramids of individual dark, milk and white chocolates, some of which feature mac nut “fines”, in their miniature plastic jars. For visitors who find themselves planning a trip to Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company during the holidays, keep an eye out for table displays of seasonal chocolate peppermint bark made with macadamia nut pieces and either milk or dark chocolate.

How To Get There

Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company’s factory and showroom is located along Maluokalani Street, which is found off of Akoni Pule Highway, otherwise known as Highway 270, roughly one mile northwest of the small industrial Big Island port town of Kawaihae (“kah-vie-high”).

It can be a bit tricky to find on the first visit, partly because the factory is located in a part of town that seems incongruous to an upscale foodie destination. Surrounding the factory are car repair shops, concrete companies, auto detailing businesses and other industrial type stores, leading many newcomers to wonder if they are in the right place. But fear not, as the long, curving and slightly steep one-lane concrete road leading to the factory’s parking lot will eventually come into view, with its border of well-manicured hedges.

It’s a great place to stop and pick up car, beach and hiking snacks, some truly gourmet coffee and perhaps a few small gifts for envious friends back home. And Hamakua Macadamia Nut Company is conveniently located just up the road from some spectacular Kona-side beaches including Puako – otherwise known as “Beach 69” – Mauna Kea Beach, Hapuna Beach State Recreation Area and Spencer Beach Park. It’s also very near Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site – the massive stone castle by the sea – which is covered in its own dedicated article. 

This is Banyan Drive, Big Island’s take on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. And instead of golden stars imprinted into its sidewalks, here the celebrities of the mid-20^th Century planted tiny saplings of the curious and exotic species of fig native to India known as the “banyan”. Nearly a hundred years later, these trees have grown up into towering clusters of branches woven together into impossible patterns, with thick, writhing trunks and a host of ferns and creeping vines taking up residence in their crevices.

Banyans are found in rows on both sides of the drive, with a wide grassy median splitting the traffic lanes planted with still more of the peculiar-looking trees. And although their trunks are spaced just two or three to a block, the imposing green masses of their canopies still somehow manage to reach out and mingle overhead, carried along by crooked branches stretching out in all directions, casting much-welcome shade onto the sidewalks bordering the road – even on hot, humid summer days when a blazing East Hawaii sun beats down from directly overhead. In places, dog-walkers and joggers look up at the canopy and cannot tell where one banyan stars and another ends; it has all become a single tangled mass of writhing branches and fanning leaves, like a gigantic green tunnel speckled with patches of blue sky showing through the intricate bramble.

More than 50 of these trees can be found skirting around the peninsula, some considerably larger than others. The most formidable specimens are downright astounding – some found along the main section of the boulevard appear to be pushing 100 feet tall with massive burrows found in their trunks large enough to serve as a hiding place for a full-grown human.

Others feature wide curtains of aerial roots, which grow out from the branches of older trees and make their way towards the ground, eventually maturing into thick, woody trunks which lend support to the main tree. Biologists call these “prop roots”. Left to its own devices with little sunlight competition, the banyan’s prop roots will develop over a large area of ground and grow to resemble a grove of trees, even though every seemingly separate trunk is still connected to the primary one through an impossible tangle of criss-crossing roots. When considering this fact, the trees along Banyan Drive start to appear relatively tame, especially compared to specimens like the one adjacent to Rainbow Falls within Hilo’s Wailuku River State Park which is a veritable banyan “forest” overgrown to a downright mindboggling degree. 

Scientists usually place banyan trees into a group called “strangler figs”, which begin their lifecycle as a tiny seed dropped into the crown of another tree. The seed sprouts and sends roots down and around the stem of its host, eventually reaching the ground and fusing together to form what’s called a “pseudo-trunk” – a process which gives the appearance that it is “strangling” its host. This process can create another curious sight when the host tree does indeed die and rot away, and the resulting fig tree trunk is hollow at its core.

Planted By U.S. Presidents, Sports Legends, Aviation Pioneers and Hawaiian Royalty 

Each one of the towering trees found along Banyan Drive features a small, hand-carved wooden placard indicating the date it was planted and by whom.

Stroll for a few blocks taking note of the placards along the way, and it reads like a who’s who of mid-20^th Century celebrity; There are banyans planted by jazz icon and trumpeter Louis Armstrong, aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart, and former U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Possibly the most popular banyan among visitors is the one with a placard for George Herman Ruth, otherwise known as baseball legend Babe Ruth, located in a prominent spot near the entrance to the Grand Naniloa Hotel – arguably Hilo’s most luxurious and well-situated oceanfront high-rise.

The idea of planting saplings along the peninsula was thought up by several local park commissioners in 1933, helped along by the planned arrival of President Franklin Roosevelt in Hilo on a steamship tour of the Hawaiian Islands the next year. A modern road was built through the patch of young trees, which before that point had been made of only crushed coral. Babe Ruth made the journey to Big Island later that year and planted his own tree, along with several movie stars of the era.

Roughly a dozen banyans were added to the growing plot every year into the mid-1930s, after which the frequency began to taper off. Only two trees were planted in 1941, and a decade late in 1952, Richard Nixon – at the time only a senator – planted the year’s solitary banyan. Since then, a small handful of planting have been done to replace missing trees, but it’s been more than half a century since ground has been broken there to accommodate a new banyan.

Hilo’s waterfront has been struck by several massive tsunamis over the past century, with significantly destructive waves crashing into the peninsula in 1946, 1960 and 1975. In addition to houses, businesses and roads along the coastline being washed away, these walls of crashing water have claimed a handful of Banyan Drive’s living landmarks, too, leaving only 50 surviving banyans.

All of this makes a cruise through the towering, imposing trees today a journey back through the pages of history; cyclists, joggers, beach-goers and dog-walkers casually passing by a shady spot where, nearly a hundred years ago, some larger-than-life legend planted a tiny sapling on a volcanic island which they had to reach by steamship. And although all of the people named on the wooden placards found along the drive are long gone, the strange and fantastic-looking Indian fig trees they planted long ago continue to bear witness to their legacies, all found along a sleepy oceanside boulevard within Big Island’s largest city.

Among the string of fancy hotels, beach parks, restaurants and shady sidewalks is Banyan Gallery, a small artist studio beckoning to visiting art aficionados with an impressive array of beautifully crafted pieces mirroring much of the natural beauty and splendor of Hawaii Island. This is a great place to pick up handicrafts, souvenirs, postcards, jewelry, and even high-end fine art pieces created by members of the island’s vibrant and far-reaching arts community.

How To Get There

Banyan Drive is located just north of the intersection of Highway 11, otherwise known as Hawaii Belt Road, and Kamehameha Avenue along the waterfront of the main East Hawaii Island town of Hilo. It is a one-mile-long near-loop skirting along the shoreline of the city’s Waiakea Peninsula, beginning at Naniloa Golf Course and passing by Reed’s Bay Beach Park, Hilo Reed’s Bay Hotel, the Grand Naniloa Hotel Hilo, the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, the humble Banyan Mini Mart convenience store, and ending at the elegantly landscaped seaside recreation spot known as Liliuokalani Gardens. 

Stay straight at the intersection of Highway 11 and Kamehameha Avenue to access the main entrance to the drive, or come in the back way by turning right onto Lihiwai Street one block down from the intersection. The best way to experience the historical legacy and natural beauty of Banyan Drive is by walking it; this gives visitors an opportunity to see the trees up-close and admire the intricacy of their woven roots and intertwined canopies. Opting to go on foot also makes it much easier to spot the carved wooden placards and learn which old-time celebrity planted the banyan growing next to it.

But for those on a time crunch or looking to cover more ground, there’s a stand of rental e-bikes at the intersection of Banyan Drive and Lihiwai Street which are perfect for cruising the wide, flat sidewalks running in both directions along the rows of trees. A popular bike path leads along the waterfront connecting the parks, hotels and restaurants of Banyan Drive with downtown Hilo and its iconic bayfront commercial district of windswept, colorful shops and beloved farmer’s market.

Locally renown restaurants found along Banyan Drive include Coconut Grill, Ponds Hilo, Verna’s Drive-In, Hilo Bay Cafe, and the world-famous Suisan Fish Market – arguably the best place on the island to enjoy the ubiquitous Hawaiian entree of diced, seasoned raw fish called “poke”. Nearby attractions within walking distance of the drive include Liliuokalani Gardens, Hilo Bayfront Beach Park, Reed’s Bay Beach Park and Coconut Island, otherwise known in Hawaiian as “Moku Ola.”

Also on that list of curiosities is Lava Tree State Park, formally known as Lava Tree State Monument; 17-acres of rocky fields, massive outcrops of weathered black lava rock, and towering walls of jungle outside the small town of Pahoa that feature some of the strangest geological sights to be seen on the island: lava trees. Centuries ago, a cascading lava flow swept through this forested part of Big Island’s lower Puna District, surrounding tree trunks and encasing them in molten rock.

The lava was unimaginably hot – upwards of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit – and it contacted the cool, wet trees, creating pockets of moisture trapped between bark and cooling lava that helped insulate the trunk and prevent its instant incineration. This insulation was so effective that even today, visitors can see the perfect imprint the tree bark left in the rock itself.

Still more lava filled the land, reaching a height of roughly 11 feet, before another fissure opened and all the still-liquid lava drained back into the earth. What had contacted the trees had already cooled and hardened by this point, leaving the ghostly molds intact.

Over the years, what remained of the trees has rotted away, leaving the structures visibly hollow in the center. To volcanologists these are informally known as “lava molds” – the remaining rock impression of the long-since-dead trees. They are scattered throughout the park’s main area, accessible via a curving concrete walkway which forms a complete 0.7-mile loop around the park and delves into dense forests of native ohia trees and highly invasive strawberry guava.

The true age of the lava monuments are clear to see: thick layers of bright green and gold moss blanket the structures, clinging to holes in the porous rock and giving the appearance of fuzzy towers. Some are straight and tall – well over head-height and tapering to a cone at the top. Others are short, stubby and broken, with small mounds of cast-off, weathered stones lying beside them. The lava trees located nearest to the park’s entrance are its prime specimens, while the monuments in the farther-out forested section are dilapidated and crumbling in many places. 

Even so, opting to venture father along the footpath reveals other curious sights not found in the park’s main area, like a young ohia tree with its striking red puffball flowers growing out of the hollow center of an old, broken lava tree. It turns out that as the black lava rock weathers, it breaks down into patches of fertile soil ideal for wind-blown seeds to land in and sprout. The variety of plant life making their homes in the hollow mounds of cracked rock is astounding: forest ferns, field grasses, moss, lichens, creeping vines, broad-leafed shrubs and even bona fide tree saplings grow out of the lava cracks, in some places threatening to cover the formations completely in a thick carpet of green.

Also in the forested section of the park are a handful of simple shelters built with handsomely hewn poles, with metal roofs and mortared lava rock entryways. These are for hikers who get caught out in the far reaches of the park during one of East Hawaii’s frequent torrential rainstorms and need a temporary shelter to duck into. There is a much larger shelter area nearest to Lava Tree State Park’s parking lot which has several picnic benches and a wide assortment of reader boards nearby explaining the history of the lava trees and much of the surrounding ecology.

Much of the grounds are well-manicured, with overgrown stands of colorful tropical flowering plants punctuating the footpath and vividly contrasting against the wall of dark green jungle. There are a few plantings of ornamental ginger found throughout the park, and the rich, dark hue of the red variety stands out most strikingly. For plant enthusiasts, it’s a great place to catch a glimpse of what a typical lower Puna forest looks like in modern times, with plenty of native plants and trees like ohias and ferns, but with an unfortunate helping of invasive species like strawberry guava and the large, star-leafed tree known as cecropia.

Bottomless Cracks in the Earth, and A Close Call

Next to the parking lot is a massive crack in the ground with a chain-link fence and guardrail preventing haphazard visitors from falling in. On a sunny afternoon, beams of light will illuminate the walls of the fissure, but can never pierce far enough to reach the bottom. This is just one of the stops on the circuit, and another testament to just how volcanically active this area of the island truly is. Then there’s the warning signs scattered throughout the park cautioning visitors about the hazards of noxious volcanic gasses, lava tube sinkholes and uneven terrain.

All of the stunning beauty of the park – from its lava trees to its impressive chunk of forest reserve to its resident bottomless pit – came very close being destroyed during the 2018 lava flow, clearly seen today in the very short walk that it takes to get from the park entrance to the edge of the new lavafield. The deep red tidal wave of molten rock bypassed Lava Tree Park that fateful summer, and instead steamrolled down the hill destroying hundreds of homes, engulfing thousands of acres of land and creating miles of new, desolate, inaccessible coastline. Thousands of Lower Puna residents had to evacuate their homes, and even several years later some houses are still standing but cutoff due to road loss.

But even in the face of all this destruction, somehow the monuments were spared, and after being closed for a time due to 20-foot-high lava walls blocking the highway, Lava Tree Park was reopened amidst a renewed interest in volcanism among visitors to the island and locals alike. This interest is helped along by the several stands of educational reader boards found in the park, with colorful illustrations of its geological and botanical history, along with a simple map of the forested footpath loop. Those who make the trek to Lower Puna to see the lava trees will breathe a sigh of relief knowing these 300-year-old testaments to the rich volcanic history of East Hawaii are still standing. And the realization that less than a mile down the road from the park is Big Island’s newest lavafield will really put things into perspective for the novice volcano-tourist.

How To Get There:

From the town of Pahoa located roughly 20 miles south of Hilo, continue along Highway 132 passing the entrance to the neighborhood of Nanawale Estates on the left-hand side of the road. Less than three miles south of Pahoa, a wooden sign will appear for Lava Tree State Park on the left and lead through a bright yellow-painted gate down to the parking lot.

The sections of Highway 132 destroyed during the 2018 eruption have since been rebuilt, and the highway is open leading to the former small town of Kapoho. So, it is possible to access the park coming from the other direction as well, where visitors will climb the hill from the ocean and pass through miles of new lavafield laid during 2018, and then will find the entrance to the park on the right-hand side of the road immediately after the entrance to Puna Geothermal Venture on the left.

Restrooms are available adjacent to the parking lot, but potable water is not. So, stock up on supplies for a picnic or a short bit of hiking at the newly built Malama Market supermarket in Pahoa’s Puna Kai Shopping Center, or at the locally renown natural food store in town known as Island Naturals or simply, “the natch”. The park gate is open daily from 7:00am to 6:45pm and entrance to the park is free. Entrance is restricted to daylight hours since there are no lights on the path, and activities like camping and mountain biking are prohibited. 

Although the concrete footpath looping around the park is largely well-maintained, there are a few places where tree roots have dislodged the pavement to a dangerous degree, so small children, elderly visitors and people with physical disabilities may need assistance to complete the loop. So, wear a good pair of hiking shoes, bring sun protection and some lightweight rain gear, stay on the path and be prepared for a few uneven and slippery spots if you’re keen on taking the hike. 

But it’s not a castle; it’s a temple. This is the Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site, a hillside of towering stone ruins located north of Kona along the Big Island’s Kohala Coast. It was completed centuries ago under the rule of legendary warrior-king Kamehameha, whose importance to ancient Hawaiian history and culture is inestimable as he was the ruler who finally united all the islands into one kingdom. Many historians deem him to be the “most important Hawaiian to have ever lived”, and some will even say that the site houses arguably the most important ancient ruins in all of the island chain.

A “heiau” (pronounced “hey-yao”) is a traditional Hawaiian temple, ranging in form from simple earth terraces to sprawling, intricately stacked stone platforms. They are usually built with an underlying purpose – make offerings, heal sickness, ensure a safe voyage, change the weather or achieve victory in war. Pu’ukohola Heiau was built for this last reason, as Kamehameha was preparing to embark on a bloody, years-long but ultimately successful inter-island campaign of conquest which would result in a united Hawai’i. He commissioned its construction as a sacrificial site to make offerings to and gain the favor of the Hawaiian war god Ku, short for Kukailimoku. Hawaii had seen many years of civil war prior to Kamehameha’s ascension, and so the building of the temple and its aid in achieving total victory meant that in the centuries since, the temple has become a symbol of unification and lasting peace in the islands. 

Visitors to the site will marvel at the fact that it took a 14-mile-long human chain to move the hundreds of thousands of lava rocks from Pololu Valley near the island’s northern tip down to the temple complex. Thousands of workers toiled away for almost a year before the giant 224-foot-long structure making up the main temple, with its thick terraced walls that follow the contours of the hill and a wide circular platform at its center, was completed in the summer of 1791. However, it’s likely that the site dates back to even earlier than that, with some historians claiming Kamehameha had built the stone structures on the site of a much-older temple dating as far back as the mid-1500s.

This means that temples have been there in some form or another along that gently sloping stretch of arid West Hawaii coastline for a half-millennium. When the ancestors of modern Hawaiians were first starting to build their rocky structures on the site, Christopher Columbus had just a few years ago made his initial crossing of the Atlantic and “discovered” the New World. It’s not everyday that visitors can tour a cultural site within the United States that can boast of predating the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth Rock.

A Chance To See An Authentic Part of Ancient Hawaii

Today, the golden hillside of parched field grasses below the temple is scattered with visitors, who walk along the curving concrete footpath from the Historic Site’s visitor center and open-air interpretive museum to the base of the temple. There are signs everywhere warning against entering the temple or walking on or touching any of the ruins, which seems like a no-brainer considering this is without a doubt the most important cultural site on the island. But thankfully visitors can access a web of walking trails that span out around the main temple and its smaller supporting sites, offering good vantage points from multiple angles.

Along the concrete paths are a scattering of benches situated in the shade of spindly, parched-looking trees. This is Big-Island’s dry side, with its rolling hills of old lava rock covered in a patchwork of sprigs of yellow grass, which rarely sees rain and can sometimes seem like the surface of an oven on oppressively hot mid-summer days. But this is thankfully tempered by the onshore breeze rolling off of the electric blue ocean which spreads out in all directions at the base of the temple’s hill. A short ways away in the distance, visitors can spot the breakwater of piled boulders marking the border of Kawaihae Harbor, a crucial shipping port which serves essentially the entire western half of Big Island.

The U.S. National Park Service runs the visitor center located at the beginning of the footpath, which is across a handsomely fashioned stone courtyard from the restroom facility. In fact, all the buildings at the Historical Site seems to mimic the motif of the temple; they feature the familiar walls of black lava rock – in this case made with mortar – that also seem to follow the slope of the hillside. In place of windows, an entire wall of the interpretive center is open, letting in ample daylight to illuminate the many different exhibits and display cases overflowing with cultural artifacts.

There are replicas of ocean-going canoes, hand-carved wooden bowls, spears, drums, tools – even the heavily weathered cannon from a sailing ship. There’s an intricately detailed 3-D tabletop model of the Historic Site campus, with many of the smaller supporting structures around the main temple included. In one corner of the museum is a small theater; a few rows of rough wooden benches facing a flatscreen TV playing a short informational film about the history of the heiau and Kamehameha on an endless loop.

The gift shop is staffed by friendly and knowledgable park rangers who seem ready to go out of their way to teach visitors about the importance of the site. The shop sells the usual National Park fare; books, trinkets, souvenirs, t-shirts and various artworks and handicrafts by local Big Island makers. It’s a great place to get more information about hiking trails, learn the best spots to see the temple in its entirety, and even download to your phone a free guided audio tour by scanning the QR code displayed everywhere in the center.

Although Big Island is ripe with many once-in-a-lifetime sights – from towering waterfalls to smoking volcanic craters to open-air markets of strange tropical fruit to postcard-level secluded white sand beaches – a place like Pu’ukohola Heiau will make it onto the travel itineraries of visitors who truly want to see an important piece of Hawaii’s ancient past and learn more about a colorful and deeply spiritual Polynesian civilization. In a place with the usual tourist fare of plastic grass skirts, resort luaus, fire spinners and gift shop ukuleles, it’s sometimes hard to find a piece of authentic Hawaii; this is why Big Island visitors are lucky to have a place like this Historic Site.

How To Get There:

Visitors can get to Pu’ukohola Heiau via Kawaihae Road, north of its intersection with Highway 19 (otherwise known as Queen Ka’ahumanu Highway). Roughly half a mile north of this intersection there will be a left-hand turn lane for Spencer Beach Park Road. The ocean will be easily visible from this point, and just a few hundred feet down Spencer Beach Park Road you’ll see a brown and tan sign for the Historic Site leading to a small parking lot. The roof of the museum and interpretive center will be visible in the distance with a flagpole with its U.S. flag fluttering in the breeze.

For those coming from the opposite direction – south along the coastal Highway 270 coming from the small town of Hawi – you’ll pass through the town of Kawaihae and its extensive port until less than a mile outside of town the right-hand turn for Spencer Beach Park Road will appear.

Admission to Pu’ukohola Heia National Historical Site is free, and the site is open daily to visitors from 7:30am to 4:45pm, although these hours are subject to change. So, it’s best to check the most up-to-date information about the site’s hours beforehand or ask around in Kawaihae town at places like the locally renown Blue Dragon Tavern, seafood market Hale I’a Da Fish House, or at the factory and showroom of Hamakua Macadamia Nut Co. found right up the hill in Kawaihae’s old industrial area (free samples!). 

Well-outfitted restrooms and drinking water stations are found in the visitor center, so hikers don’t need to worry about stocking up on water in town. There is no supermarket in Kawaihae, though, so pick up trail snacks in either Waimea or Kona, or just opt for the essentials from one of the port town’s small shops. After a hot afternoon of hiking, it’s smart to take advantage of the many swimming spots around the Historic Site to cool off, including Spencer Beach Park, Mauna Kea Beach, and Puako/Beach 69 – all located less than five miles away.

The gardens comprise a portion of the 24-acre county park jutting out into Hilo Bay, which seems to have a little something for everyone; placid fishponds where colorful tropical fish dart in and out of the murky depths, a series of brightly painted pagodas and ornate, curved stone bridges, innumerable plantings of vividly colored and strange-looking tropical shrubs, and a spiderweb of concrete footpaths connecting it all.

Stands of ironwood trees, coconut palms and Cook Pines border the ponds and face the ocean, creating a windbreak that tempers the gentle breeze of warm, wet air coming off the ocean. Inland there are even more trees planted, including a few massive Banyan trees with their mind-bogglingly complex array of aerial roots and twisted, writhing trunks. Then there’s the stands of bamboo with their spindly poles shooting up to the sky, whose leaves rustle and sway with the sea breeze. There are curious-looking varieties of palms, ornamental gingers, ferns, perfume-scented flowering shrubs and floating pond plants browsed by the park’s local gaggle of marauding ducks.

All of this shade puts Liliuokalani Gardens at the top of the list of ideal recreation spots in Hilo, with throngs of joggers, dog-walkers, cyclists and picnickers flocking everyday to the finely-mowed fields separated by tropical hedges. They avail themselves of the many benches that seem to be liberally strewn across the park, along with the groupings of picnic tables and two or three rain shelters put there for the inevitable sudden East Hawaii downpour.

On the sometimes-rare hot, sunny Hilo afternoon, sunbathers will set up on the gently sloping green, joggers will cool down on shaded benches and college kids will chase after frisbees in the open fields between the hedges. The intricate craftsmanship of a covered stone bridge – its handsome woodwork painted a bright orange – contrasts against the backdrop of swaying green branches and the dull grey of brackish pondwater.

If it’s a weekend or holiday, the benches inside the seaside pagodas will usually be occupied, since Liliuokalani Gardens is arguably the most popular park of its kind. But on an off-day, or after a rainy morning turns into a sunny afternoon, visitors can get lucky to have a pagoda all to themselves. It’s from this vantage point – sitting on a narrow outcrop of land above a reflecting pool of murky water – that visitors can get the best view of the park in its entirety, with swaying trees, jumping fish, rows of gently bending bamboo, scatterings of statues and rolling lawns all managing to be in the same frame. 

At sunset on a cloudless day, the cliffs of Big Island’s Hamakua Coast can be seen far off in the distance, standing out against the perfectly straight line of where blue ocean meets a changing red sky. Dusk seems to cast everything in the park in a warm golden glow, making sunset the ideal time to experience its full beauty. It’s not uncommon to see the arc of metal benches at the edge of the park facing out into the bay completely occupied around this time of day, full of spectators with cameras hoping to see the mountain, the coastal cliffs, the rolling waves and the line of colorful Bayfront shops at once while the sun sets behind it all.

Beside the ponds, fishermen and women, with their brightly colored parasols and lounge chairs set up shop, sporting rods, nets and sun hats, who seem to spend most of the day lounging and never appear to catch anything. But the fish are there, evidenced by the occasional “kerplunk” of a tail fin slapping the water with its ensuing ripple bounding across the glassy surface. With a closer look, it becomes obvious that tiny, brightly colored fish are making their rounds in the murky pools, especially when streaks of sunlight suddenly break through the clouds and shiny scaled becomes illuminated.

The park is also home to century-old Japanese gardens built in the “Edo” style. Many say that Liliuokalani boasts the largest such Edo-style Japanese garden found  anywhere outside of Japan, which says a lot about the size and historical legacy of Hilo’s legendary Japanese-American and Japanese-Hawaiian populations, who to this day remain highly represented in the city’s business and cultural communities.

So, it should come as no surprise that within the park can be found several “torii”, the iconic traditional Japanese overhead gate usually located at the entrance to Shinto shrines, which has become an instantly recognized symbol of Japan in the west. These are primarily found along the park’s borders, where its internal web of concrete paths meet the looping perimeter walkway. Walking underneath these to enter the gardens elicits a strange sensation in the visitor – a sort of perplexed feeling of not knowing exactly which continent they’re on anymore. 

A Rich – Sometimes Tragic — Past, and A Hilo Hub Today

Liliuokalani Park and Gardens is a serene and peaceful bayside green space, named after Hawaii’s last reigning monarch, Queen Liliuokalani, who died in 1917 – the year it was founded in her honor. Through its design, it was also built as a tribute to the first Japanese immigrants who came to the islands to work in the sugarcane fields of the burgeoning sugar industry.

It has survived a lot: a handful of devastating tsunamis in the mid-to-late 20^th century, beginning in 1946 when the 8.6-magnitude Aleutian Islands Earthquake sent a wall of water lurching across the Pacific Ocean, hitting Hilo approximately five hours later and washing away streets, homes and stores. In all, 173 Hilo residents died that day, with as many injured and almost 500 buildings destroyed with another 1,000 damaged.

But today, thanks to an early warning system and the 2-mile-long Hilo Breakwater of stacked boulders arcing out into Hilo Bay, few residents are concerned about tsunami danger. Still, the county government has opted to leave much of the low lying areas around Waiakea Peninsula as green space, partially to reduce the destruction if another massive tsunami hit Hilo. This is why there are so many recreational areas surrounding Liliuokalani Gardens, including Reeds Bay Park, Reeds Bay Beach Park, Coconut Island, Naniloa Golf Course and Banyan Drive.

There are still some shops and hotels in the area, though. In fact, Banyan Drive boasts the most luxurious (and most expensive) hotels Hilo has to offer, including the Grand Naniloa Hotel Hilo and the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel. Then there’s Suisan, a world-famous fish market right across the street from Liliuokalani Gardens which serves up arguably the best poke plate lunch in town, and offers an up-close look at many different types of whole tropical fish for sale. Hilo Bay Cafe is up the street from Suisan, and offers more upscale and familiar Continental cuisine as well as a few local favorites. Both places are excellent lunch destinations after a morning of swimming, birdwatching and plant tours at the gardens right next door. Just a short walk down Banyan Drive brings garden-goers to other locally famous Hilo restaurants, including Verna’s Drive-In, Ponds Hilo, Coconut Grill and Ken’s House of Pancakes.

HOW TO GET THERE:

Liliuokalani Park and Gardens can be easily found off of the looping, tree-lined Banyan Drive. The main entrance to Banyan Drive is at the intersection of Highway 11 (locally known as “Hawaii Belt Road”) and Kamehameha Avenue. Follow the drive along the peninsula past beach parks and hotels, until Lihiwai Street appears on the right. Turn right here and follow the one-lane road that borders the bay past the park’s fishponds on the left until the road widens again and a string of shady parallel parking spots appear on the left side of the road. From here, either backtrack along the concrete footpath to the fishponds or cross through the park to see much of the botanical gardens and the handful of Japanese torii. 

Important note about footpaths adjacent to fishponds: Although the perimeter path looping around Liliuokalani Gardens is well maintained, some of the walkways in the center of the park near the fishponds are in a sad state of disrepair. The concrete slabs skirting around the ponds can be uneven in some places, flooded by rain and high tide in others, and even covered in layers of slimy, slippery moss. Add to this the fact that there are no guardrails around the ponds preventing people from accidentally falling in. The ponds are very shallow so the risk of drowning is slight; however, the bottoms are clearly very muddy and an inadvertent dive into one would surely ruin a vacation. So, exercise caution while exploring the park’s internal network of paths, especially those around the ponds, mind your footing while taking photos, and wear good shoes with ankle support.

There are few places on planet Earth where casual visitors can come face to face with a real, active volcano. And in Hawaii, the sight of such an immensely destructive force is tempered by the realization that it’s also life-creating: not one part of this idyllic island chain cast smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ocean – not its world famous beaches, nor its stunning green mountains or its dense, broad-leafed jungle –  would exist today without the Hawaii Volcanoes at the National Park. It has created everything in sight, churned up from the bottom of the ocean over millennia; cooling lava slowly building on itself in a process that can only be measured in geological time.

On Hawaii’s Big Island, standing atop a cliff inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, this almost supernatural force is on full display: below spans the gaping maw of Halemaumau Crater, an almost mile-wide pit crater at the summit of Kilauea Volcano. This is the home of Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes according to ancient Hawaiian religion. In one corner of the enormous crack in the earth, a steady plume of grey smoke can be seen wafting up the crater walls, making its way past the clear line on the horizon that is the rim and rising up to mingle with the low-hanging puffy white clouds making their own climb over the summit.

The air is ripe with sulfur stink, and the terraced folds of land in the distance seem to sparkle in the sunlight as their patches of silvery white residue catch the light. The ground at the foot of the crater is cracked and parched, with a patchwork of distinct sinkholes out of which more wisps of grey smoke and white steam escape. Lava cliffs far off on the opposite side of the crater – cliffs that must be hundreds of feet high and very imposing in real life – look like tiny horizontal squiggles on a watercolor painting. The view from this overlook can be overwhelming to behold sometimes; the size and scope of the land stretched out below in such dramatic relief is enough to induce a slight vertigo, like peering into a miniature Grand Canyon.

But this is also the sight that draws more visitors to the island in search of than any other. Typical travel guidebook lists of the most popular sightseeing destinations in the state usually rattle off the following: Pearl Harbor and USS Arizona Memorial on the island of Oahu is first, the absolutely stunning, world-famous Na Pali Coast State Wilderness Park on the island of Kauai is second, and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on Big Island’s eastern flanks is third. This makes it, statistically and culturally speaking, the most popular place on the island by far, and a destination that on typical years draws over a million visitors to that very spot, standing at the cliffside taking in the majesty of the shining, terraced land and smelling the sulfur fumes that clouds of billowing smoke bring up from below.

Halemaumau Crater Overlook is just one destination among the park’s many, too. After all, the place is huge: nearly one-third of a million acres all told, with many different areas open to the public for hiking, sightseeing, and learning about geology and volcanism, in addition to some options for shopping, dining, and lodging. There’s even the historic Volcano Art Center, found in a refurbished plantation-style cabin chocked full of stunning original pieces made by Big Island-based craftspeople, most of which involve motifs like volcanoes, lava, fire and the goddess Pele.

Popular destinations in the park outside of Halemaumau include the eerie underground tunnel of Thurston Lava Tube, the strange lunar landscape of Devastation Trail, the expansive hike circumnavigating the crater known as Crater Rim Road, and the Kilauea Iki Trail, which takes hikers on a 3.5-mile roundtrip jaunt down to the crater floor and its surreal, other-worldly dried lava lake which only a few decades ago was liquid. Even today, falling rain finds its way into still-hot vents in the earth along the trail and boils into steam, sending occasional white clouds of hot, wet air across the path and shrouding it in fog.

At The Summit: A Rollercoaster of Activity Since 2018

Big Island visitors who came to the overlook before May, 2018, saw a completely different crater. Back then, Halemaumau Overlook featured the world-class Jagger Museum, full of educational installations explaining the geological, cultural and spiritual history of Kilauea’s summit, next to a semicircle observation platform that jutted out over the cliff’s edge and gave visitors a spectacular view of the lava lake. Groups of people would form at this platform on moonless nights to see the hellish red glow of bubbling lava emanating from the crater as it lit up the sky. There were drinking fountains and well-manicured concrete walkways and a large parking lot.

The massive 2018 Lower Puna Eruption drastically changed this landscape forever; for months there were constant earthquakes, and the crater’s lava reservoir drained away, creating a sort of sinkhole into which the surrounding cliffs buckled and fell. By the end of the eruption that August, the crater had doubled in size to nearly a mile wide, swallowed up pieces of parking lot and condemned the museum to an uncertain fate after being deemed unsafe for further public use.

For more than two years after the eruption, the crater sat dormant, filling with rainwater and developing a green pond of stagnant, mineral-rich water that geologists observed to be around 160 degrees Fahrenheit and slowly rising. Lava returned on the night of December 20^th, 2020, when lava vents sprouted out of the side of the crater once more, quickly boiling off the lake. Ever since that night, there’s been sustained eruption activity at the summit, and that familiar red glow lights up the sky at night again.

Today, the Overlook area is rugged. Plastic parking cones draped with caution tape have taken the place of sturdy metal fence, and parched paths of red lava cinders have largely replaced the concrete sidewalks of old. Without a viewing platform, visitors simply stand along the cliffside and peer past bluffs of golden grass and stubby ohia trees down into the void, which now takes up nearly the entire horizon.

Thankfully, many of the hiking trails with trailheads starting at the Overlook are intact, continuing its old reputation for being the centralized meeting point for groups embarking on trips like Kilauea Iki Trail and Crater Rim Road. Many of the steam vents made it through the eruption unscathed, too, and there’s a particular stretch of trail that takes hikers across a landscape littered with them.

How To Get There:

The entrance station to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is located roughly 30 miles south of Hilo along Big Island’s Highway 11. The building itself is made of handsomely mortared lava rock, and is staffed by friendly National Parks workers who take admission fees: $30 for private vehicles, $25 for motorcycles and $15 for individuals/bicycles, for passes that are valid for seven days from purchase.

Just a few hundred feet past the entrance on the right is Kilauea Visitor Center featuring environmental, historical and cultural exhibits which almost make up for the loss of Jagger Museum. Across the road is Volcano House, an elegantly curated historic guesthouse and three-star hotel with attached restaurant. Halemaumau Crater Overlook is just two more miles up the road, passing by other sightseeing destinations like Sulfur Banks, Steaming Bluff, Kilauea Military Camp, Uwekahuna Bluff and Steam Vents.

Besides Volcano House, there are few amenities inside the park itself, so it’s best to stock up on supplies in towns like Hilo, Pahala, Volcano or Keaau. The park is open 24 hours a day and sunset viewing at the crater is highly popular, but those visitors should keep in mind that Kilauea Volcano’s summit is at more than 4000 feet elevation and can get cold in the early mornings and evenings, especially in winter months when tourism on the island sees its high season. 

Hikers should be sure to bring plenty of fluids since potable water isn’t available at the Overlook, and to keep in mind that hiking through parched black lavafield during full-sun afternoons is like hiking across the surface of an oven. Wearing sun protection, sturdy shoes and loose, lightweight baggy clothing is advisable while exploring the different sections of the park, as is following all posted signs and placards about ground instability, rockfall hazards and poisonous volcanic gasses.

Each year there are needless injuries – some of them serious – suffered by hapless visitors who were simply at the volcano doing the wrong thing in the wrong place. The landscape around the crater is inherently rugged and treacherous, full of sharp lava rocks, blistering steam and acres of shadeless, unforgiving cracked ground, but that’s also arguably what draws so many people to it; to see raw, rugged and newly-created Earth.

Volcanic History of the Hawaiian Islands

The Hawaiian Islands are a popular travel destination with a rich culture and history. All of the endless beauty found here results from the constant molding and shaping created by volcanic eruptions. Hawaii is a part of the Hawaiin-Emperor seamount chain, a nearly 4,000-mile span of volcanoes and seamounts that span the Pacific. The islands are located near the Hawaii hotspot, which is a lava tube reaching directly from the Earth’s core to Hawaii. 

There are currently six active volcanoes in Hawaii. The Big Island has four of these – Mauna Kea, Kilauea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai. Haleakala, on the island of Maui, is another. The sixth is a submarine volcano called Lo’ihi that rests below sea level in the waters southeast of the island of Hawaii. There are also inactive volcanoes throughout the islands that have not erupted for thousands to millions of years but still are visible as dramatic mountains jutting from the sea. These include Kohala on the Big Island and Le’ahi (Diamond Head) on Oahu.  

The many volcanoes in Hawaii are also integral to native Hawaiian history and culture. Oral histories passed down for generations tell of the god Pele who traveled to the islands searching for a new home. She decided that Halemaumau crater at the summit of Kilauea was suitable, and from here, she began to create new land while destroying the old. Pele is responsible for the islands’ volcanic activity and is a respected and vital presence in Hawaii still today.  

The Volcanoes of Hawaii 

Let’s take a look at the major volcanoes in and around Hawaii. Whether you are planning a visit and want to see a lava lake up close or just want to learn more about the power and beauty of these sometimes glowing peaks, any of the following are worth exploring in person or online. 

Most of these are located on Hawaii’s Big Island, and you can find them within proximity to the two major towns of Hilo and Kona. The USGS monitors all of the active volcanoes. Their USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory stations help provide a better understanding of the natural forces at work and provide a way to alert the public in case of eruption. 

Kilauea

Kilauea volcano is a good place to start because it sits at the center of the Hawaiian creation story. As mentioned above, this is the place where the goddess Pele first settled in Hawaii, and Halema’uma crater is where she called home. Kilauea is a caldera and one of the most active volcanoes in the world. Its East Rift Zone was almost constantly active between 1983 and 2018 and has seen dozens of eruptions over the last few centuries.

Mauna Loa

Mauna Loa is another famous Hawaiian volcano. This one makes up most of the landmass of the Big Island and, along with Kilauea, can be found within the boundaries of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. This is considered the largest volcano on earth in terms of mass and volume. It’s an impressive sight to see. The last eruption of Mauna Loa occurred in 1984, and USGS estimates believe that it has seen steady eruptions over the last 700,000 years. 

Mauna Kea 

Although not as active as the other volcanoes on the Big Island, Mauna Kea is still more than impressive. This is the highest volcano in Hawaii and actually tops out higher than Everest if you measure from the seafloor to the summit. It’s also believed to be the only Hawaiian Volcano to see glaciers during the last ice age. The drive up to the summit is a recommended excursion and will give you amazing views of the entire island. 

Haleakala

Haleakala is another active volcano that dominates the southern portion of the island of Maui. It has erupted about ten times over the last thousand years, with the last lava flows occurring somewhere between 400-600 years ago. If you can wake up early and make it to the summit for sunrise, you are in for a dose of island magic. Haleakala National Park is a great way to see the unique landscape and volcanic effects this mystical mountain has had on Maui. 

Hualalai

This is a lesser-known but still reasonably active (geologically speaking) volcano on the Big Island. The most recent eruption occurred in 1801 and produced a significant enough lava flow to reach to ocean. This is a great place to walk on ancient lava flows and see the dramatic effects these can have on the surrounding landscape. 

Lo’ihi

Even though you cannot technically visit Lo’ihi, it’s still worth mentioning here because of the example it provides demonstrating how the Hawaiian Islands were born. This is a submarine volcano, meaning that it is entirely below sea level. Still, it has erupted around ten times in the last 1000 years and will eventually become another island when enough lava has cooled, built up, and penetrated the surface. Lo’ihi is a living example of how the islands existed before emerging from the sea. 

Volcanoes have shaped much of the landmass on earth and captivated humanity over our entire evolution. Hawaii is home to some of the most active volcanoes on earth, and these provide an opportunity to see their powerful forces at work. The major volcanoes on the islands are revered by native Hawaiians and remain the guardians of this modern day paradise. If you’re lucky enough to visit Hawaii, getting up close and personal with any of them comes more than recommended.