Maninini'owali Beach (Kua Bay)

View from our room

Yesterday was our final day at the beach. We took full advantage of it. One of our goals this year has been not to repeat going to places we visited last year, except for Two Lady's Kitchen. There is so much to see on the Big Island that we could continue coming her for several more years and not repeat anything!

Yesterday we decided to spend the day at Maninini'owali Beach (Kua Bay.) The guide we have been using said that this was a lovely beach which was remote. "Powdery white sand and clear blue waters good for swimming. This is a top beach for fun in the sun and one of the most beautiful bays you will every see. Unfortunately, the new paved access road means this beach is often crowded." OK, so I have been to the Jersey shore and that is crowded. We assumed this beach could not be THAT crowded.

View of road through windshield.

Road sign on Park Access

We were correct. In fact, the beach was almost deserted. However, I am jumping ahead. The directions told us to turn off of the highway onto the Kekaha Kai State Park access road. We did and were very surprised because the road they said was paved must have been so 20 years ago because it was in terrible shape. We had to slowly creep along the road, even the four wheel drives were crawling along the road. It felt like it took us forever to reach the parking area. There were places along the road that were narrow, so we had to pull over to the side when a car approached that was leaving the area. It was one of the bumpiest rides I every experienced. Finally we reached the parking area!!!

View of beach from trail.

Green turtle resting on the beach

A second Green turtle swimming in the ocean

Barry in the ocean

As usual, we had to hike about a quarter of a mile from the car to the beach. There were actually two beaches in the area. The first beach we reached had people fishing with rods. I was not comfortable swimming around fishing wire and hooks, so we decided to walk to the second and smaller beach. I am so glad we made that decision. The second beach was empty. The best part was that a Honu, green sea turtle, was sleeping on the beach. We did not expect to see any Honus there. The biggest gift we experienced at the Maninini'owali Beach was swimming with the green sea turtles. Yes, there were green sea turtles in the water with us. No we did not touch them or interfere with them. We would be in the water and a turtle would surface near us, by lifting it's head. It was fun! Last year we swam with the tropical fish, but no turtles. We only saw the turtles at the black sand beach where it was too rocky to swim.







Maninini'owali Beach was more multicolored than white sand. In fact, non of the beaches I have seen in Hawaii have white sand beaches. I would call them beige.

Rainbow in the sky

When we left the beach and hiked back to the car we saw a mongoose, unfortunately it was too fast for me to get a photo. Getting back to the car was just part of the journey. We had to drive down the bumpy, crumbling, and pot hole filled road back to the highway. We crept slowly down the road. When we were a few feet away from the smoothly paved road right before the highway I noticed a rainbow. This was our first rainbow this trip. Last year we saw a couple in Waimea.

Barry and I returned to our room to eat left overs for dinner. Then we walked to the hot tub for our final night surrounded by warm water under the stars. This time the tub was occupied by a couple when we arrived. They soon left and we had the hot tub to ourselves for a while before a family and then a couple came. Even with all of this traffic I was able to get some time to float. There were even more stars in the sky this evening. I am not ready to return home!