The best way to see Hawaii's Big Island is to drive around it. You'll soon be immersed in a varied landscape unlike any other in the United States. You'll encounter lava desert, jungle, farmland, active lava flows, warm beaches, cool highlands, and views of soaring mountains and plunging valleys. And everywhere, you'll feel the aura of the mysterious Polynesians who landed here more than a thousand years ago and named the island Hawaii.
Overview
"The Big Island has it all," says Corky Bryan, a career paniolo, or Hawaiian cowboy, who's now a vice president at the island's 150,000-acre (607-sqaure kilometer) Parker Ranch. He's right. This island is larger than all the other Hawaiian Islands combined; it's the only one still volcanically active; and it has rich evidence of native culture. The Big Island, where Kamehameha the Great established his kingdom, was the first Hawaii. To many, it's still the real Hawaii.
Begin in Kailua-Kona
In Kailua-Kona, American missionaries started the first Christian church in Hawaii in 1820. Today, the Mokuaikaua Church (75-5713 Alii Dr.; 329-0655; www.mokuaikaua.org), which was rebuilt in 1837 of crushed coral and lava rock, is still a quiet sanctuary. Step across the street to the two-story, palm-shaded 1838 Hulihee Palace (75-5718 Alii Dr.; 329-1877; www.daughtersofhawaii.com/huliheepalace/), now a museum. Check out the enormous koa wood chair specially built to accommodate Princess Ruth, who measured over six feet tall and weighed over 400 pounds (181 kilograms).
Ahuena Heiau
Nearby, along the shore, is the reconstructed Ahuena Heiau (75-5660 Palani Rd.; 327-0123; www.kulana.hawaiiweb.org). Heiaus are ceremonial stone structures usually built on a platform (as in this case). Using Ahuena as his headquarters, Kamehameha conquered and unified the Hawaiian Islands in the early 19th century. The surrounding village remained the capital of all the Hawaiian Islands until 1821. "For some of us, it still is the capital," says Kaleookalani Nakoa, a native Hawaiian and one of the official guardians of the heiau.