Our Favorite Places: Hookena Beach

When we’re in the mood for a sandy beach but don’t want to drive up north, we head to either Keei Beach, which is about five minutes away, or Hookena Beach, which is about twenty minutes away.  Both of these beaches are small, local, and relatively quiet – compared to the big northern beaches backed by resorts.

To get to Hookena, we head up Napoopoo to Middle Keei Road, follow Middle Keei up to the Highway, then drive south until we see the sign.  We follow a winding farm-road down to the beach at the bottom.

Hookena Beach is a mixed white-black sand beach.  It has soft sand, unlike the pure black of Punalu’u, that is lovely and hot (make sure to wear your flip-flops down to the water).  The Beach is backed by dramatic sheer cliffs and is a protected small crescent.  There are some rocks and there is reef along the side and out a ways from shore, so you can snorkel, but the sand and break make this beach great for body surfing and boogie-boarding.  The turtles seem to like it here, so stay on the lookout for them. 

Camping is allowed with a permit along the back of the beach, and there are a few houses just before the entrance.  This, coupled with a sometimes rowdy sunset crowd have given Hookena a bad reputation, but it’s really a fabulous small beach and completely worth a visit.  I went the other day and was once again taken in by its beauty.  It was morning and the light shining against the jagged cliff faces and up along the rugged shoreline was breathtakingly lovely.  The water was clear and calm and there were several large tide pools alive with baby fish.  I lay down in one with my son and watched the waves crash from a safe distance.  The sky and water were both utterly, shockingly bright-blue.  The sky was cloudless, and yellow butterflies fluttered along the tops of the wet black rocks in front of us. 

A perfect afternoon for us is time lazing at Hookena Beach, playing in the soft waves, digging in the warm dark sand, and resting under the shade trees reading.  We have seen turtles here, reef fish, and dolphins, and have watched many a glorious sunset.  We’ll often bring a picnic down, poke and sushi from Choice Mart, or pick up BBQ at Big Island Jake’s on the way home.  It always seems to rain in the late afternoon, providing soft counterpoint to the heat of the beach.

Our Favorite Places: Kua Bay

Kua Bay is our favorite sand beach.  It is our go-to beach when we have enough time to leave the neighborhood (otherwise we just pop down to Keei Beach).  To get there, you drive north from the Inn on highway 11 to the airport (about thirty minutes), pass the airport and continue on for another ten minutes or so, then look for the sign for West Hawaii Veteran’s Cemetery on your right, and turn left.  The entry road is paved and there is a sign that says Kekaha Kai State Park, Manini'owali Recreation Area.  There’s a parking area, restrooms and showers. 

This beach is fantastic for two reasons.  First, it’s just a beach, there are no resorts or houses near by, so you don’t have to deal with the crush of the resort-crowd.  Second, it’s just freaking gorgeous.  Envision white sugar-sand, soft and feathery, brilliantly clear water than glows green over white sand, and a huge blue sky spanning all around you.  It’s isolated enough that it doesn’t feel that busy, but is easily accessible meaning you can cart in your cooler and umbrella and books and beers and snacks.  It is hot and bright, so wear sunblock, and there’s a great break so it’s perfect for body-surfing and boogie-boarding.  Because it’s sandy it’s not so great for snorkeling (you WANT the rocks and reef for that so wait until you’re back here at Kealakekua Bay), but it’s perfect for swimming and playing in the waves.  For a purely self-indulgent laze in the sun on white sand, go here.

 

Our favorite places: Manini Beach

If I was a guest at our Inn, I would probably spend most of my days lazing about at Manini Beach.  Of course I’m biased and spoiled, because I live right up the street from it and have been there hundreds of times.  But it is stunningly beautiful and one of those special places that I always return to.

Manini Beach is a small beach just down the hill from the Inn.  It takes about fifteen minutes to walk down to it, and about two minutes to drive down.  I personally enjoy walking down, smelling all the lovely flowering trees and viewing all the wonderfully weird tropical plants on the way.  For visitors, taking a walk like this is an excellent way to get acquainted with the area.  If you follow our road to the water, then take a left, you’ll meander through the little shoreline neighborhood and eventually get to Manini Beach Road, which you follow along the water to the park.  Sometimes the water’s so clear you can see yellow tangs (a kind of reef fish) from the road.

Manini is a little community park with grass and cocoa palms.  There is no sand, it is a rocky shore with an easy – and obvious – entrance into the water.  The water is very cold at first, because there are freshwater springs right offshore.  But as you wade out you’ll feel the water get warmer.  One of the amazing things about Manini Beach is that the water is almost always clear and the reef is right offshore.  When I see places like Kahalu’u Beach in Keauhou, or Hanauma Bay on Oahu gushed over in tour guides as the “only” and “best” places to snorkel in Hawaii, I always feel a little sad.  These are nice places, but if these were the only places you snorkeled on a visit to the islands, you’d be missing out.

The other wonderful thing about little Manini, is that it’s small and local and often deserted.  There’s a neighborhood donkey, Lia, who wanders through looking for things to eat (she’ll eat grass mats and hats and any snacks so watch out), a friendly neighborhood Boston terrier, and some regulars who like to swim.  But that’s about it during the week (like all beaches it’s busier during the weekend).  I have been down there at all hours: at dawn when the dolphins are swimming just offshore, in the morning when the reef fish are just starting to get active as the sun creeps higher, midday when the sun is high and the water crystal-clear, mid-afternoon when the afternoon mist rolls in and the water softens, and dusk when the water cools and the sun begins to sink, at night when all you can see is the huge moon hanging languidly over the bay.  It’s always beautiful; it’s always a little different.

The other morning I took my boy out for a long, hot walk out Pu’uhonua Road and we stopped at the park to take a dip and cool off before returning home to work.  The sun was blazing and the sky was perfectly blue.  The water was calm and we waded into the entrance-area.  He sat in the wet sand and played with the rocks, and I lay in the water in front of him.  Little yellow leaves from a big old tree floated down through the air, and butterflies flitted passed.  The water was warm and soothing and the only sounds were of gentle waves, myna birds and doves, and the wind in the trees.  It was a perfect moment, like many I’ve had down there.

The same week we went down in the evening, again to cool off.  It had been a long, hot day and I craved an ocean-dip badly.  The surge was too rough at the entrance area for my taste, so we walked along the short trail at the back of the park to the little point facing away from the bay towards the open ocean.  I found a safe tide pool for my boy and I sat in it and washed my face while he threw rocks.  The sun began to set.  At this time of night things begin to get quiet.  The Kona winds die down, the birds start to settle in, and the ocean seems to still.  I looked up just as a humpback whale showed its black back in the sunlight.  I got my boy up and carried him to where he could see.  We watched multiple whales languidly swim in the sunlight as it set. 

You may need to go to Manini more than once.  Some days, it’s perfectly calm like a bath tub and you’ll see all the same beautiful coral and fish you’d see at Two Step or the Monument, without the crush of the crowds.  Other days, it’s choppy and surgy and it’s most fun to walk along the shore and watch the waves crash and roll through the jagged lava-rock formations at the point.  I always see something new, I always feel better after being there.