Winter is always a time for us to refresh and reset but admittedly winter in Toronto is fairly drab so we always like to take some time off as a way to feel renewed. In years past we go all in on winter; take a long drive up north, bury ourselves in snow, and have some wine by the fire every night for a week straight. This year we wanted to change things up though. After working (and missing) most of summer, this winter we wanted to head somewhere warm. We have been talking about Hawai’i for a while— Ethan loved a trip to Maui he took years ago— so this year we finally said, let’s skip winter for a couple of weeks!
After some research we opted to go to the Island of Hawai’i, also known as Big Island, as in the largest— but interestingly youngest— of the Hawaiian Islands. There were a few key things that we wanted to do on this trip: Summit Mauna Kea, Papakōlea (Green Sand) Beach, and to hit up some black sand beaches. We’re happy to report that we did cover all of these things, and more!
We decided to stay on the less touristy side of the island near Hilo (we stayed in Pāhoa), instead of Kona, as it was closer to the attractions we wanted to go to. Unfortunately, Hilo in February is the more temperamental time of year with rolling rain, cloudy days, bigger waves, and cooler temperatures but in the end it worked out really well for us. Our first week was our ‘adventure week’ where we covered Mauna Kea, Papakōlea, Volcano National Park, Waimea, Waipio Valley, even taking a shelter dog on a field trip for the day from the Hawaiian Humane Society! We also lucked out having the beautiful Kehana Black Sand beach a short drive away from our AirBnB, which we absolutely made sure to visit every. single. day. Our last week was filled with nothing but sunshine and warm weather so it turned into our beach days where we started and finished our books, lounged around, and took in every last drop of sunshine before returning home to winter.
I don’t think I have enough words to describe how beautiful this trip was. Even Ethan said that he enjoyed it more than Maui (for different reasons!) Having so many landscapes— from the ocean, to tropical rainforests, incredible volcano-scapes (mountain like landscapes, but you know… with a volcano). Going from the water front to 2000+ft above sea level just driving across the highway; one moment you’re swimming, the next you’re quite literally driving through a cloud. In trying to capture this trip in one word, majestic, incredible, surreal, are all adjectives that fall short. Just know that we will be back, I simply cannot imagine a life where we don’t return.
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