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Big Island Kona Hawaii often eclipses its sister town Hilo on the east coast. It has more five star resorts, fabled signature golf courses, a drier climate more conducive to sightseeing and easy access to most of the island’s attractions, except for Mt Kilauea.
Kailua-Kona, the main town on the coast, is central station for big game fishermen. The mild ocean temperatures off Big Island Kona Hawaii attract trophy marlin year round. In these waters, a marlin catch of more than 1,000 pounds, or a grander, is recorded monthly, surpassing deep sea fishing waters anywhere around the world. Sports fishermen pitch their skills against six different kinds of billfish, as well as swordfish, spearfish, bonefish, tuna and dorado.
Big Island Kona Hawaii Water Adventures
The Big Island, which is not called Big Island for nothing, has more coastline than Oahu, Maui or Kauai. This creates great opportunities for snorkelers and scuba divers, such as the thrill of swimming with manta rays at night as these gentle creatures emerge to feed on the phytoplankton. The dive has been among the world’s ten best dives, but the newest scuba experience off Kona could well be the “it” dive for adrenalin junkies.
While most divers would like to keep blackwater diving under wraps, it is getting known and would terrify even the most experienced divers. Late into the night, divers jump into the ink black water a few miles out to sea. For this seemingly foolhardy act, they are rewarded with the sight of gelatinous bioluminescent creatures which surface from the dark abyss to feed.
Championship Golf Greens
Golf courses in Big Island Kona Hawaii offer more than just a chance to tee off. You do so under tropical blue skies, spectacular views, challenging water hazards, swaying palm trees and championship layouts. There are golf courses such as the one at the Mauna Lani Resort, which has dramatic green holes among black lava as well as fishponds and ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs. The wonderful array of accommodation from the opulent low-key Four Seasons at Hualalai to thatched roof Polynesian hales at the Kona Village Resort will please even the most jaded world traveler.
Where else can you combine comfort with mysticism? At the oceanfront Keauhou Ohana Beach Resort, an ancient temple, the Hapaiali’i Heiau, has been restored. Known as the Temple for Elevating Chiefs, the heiau was constructed to serve as a solar calendar.
Mystical Hawaii
At the summer solstice, the sunset is inline with the northwest corner of the temple, if you stand directly behind the temple’s center stone. During the winter solstice, the sunset lines up with the southeast corner. Recent carbon dating indicates that the temple was built or substantially reconstructed during the years between 1411 and 1465.With innumerable attractions, it is not surprise tourists come in droves to Big Island Kona Hawaii. There is also easy proximity to many old sites as the Big Island was reputed to be home to very powerful kahunas or shamans in ancient Hawaii. At the Hulihe’e Palace in downtown Kailua, there is a luakini or ancient ceremonial sacrificial stone with slight imprints of red on the rock. If you look at it hard enough, you might just be able to make out, on the edge of normal hearing, drumming and chanting of ancient ceremonial priests.
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