Last of the Last!

One broken suitcase, a country over, and 13 hours later, my adventure has ended! 

Here are a few concluding pictures!

An eel (you can see peeking out of the rocks..) that was nabbing little fish through the water... it was pretty cool to watch.

Sunset in Kona -- my last one.. always pretty!

Jump off the South Point .. actually the most southern point of the US.. big adrenaline rush!!

Just underneath the jump was a little cave with the tide coming up and down and dragging you with it.. It was lots of fun.

I kinda forget what this guy is called.. I know he's a gastropod.. I learned that much from Marine Biology.. but the name is escaping me!  Anyways, he sucked on my finger, it was such a weird feeling!

Ahh.. a palm tree..! I will miss this! 

For all who are still checking out the blog -- I plan to keep this going with some baking/crafting/other exciting stuff, so keep checking or subscribe to it so you can get the updates!!

Top 8 Things To Do on the Big Island

Well, the 5 day countdown is on, and I've compiled some of my favorites of the Big Island (well, besides going to the beach!!)  So get ready and hang on to your shorts..!

1. Green Sands Beach - Although it takes a good 1 1/2 hour hike in, its TOTALLY worth it!! One of the most beautiful places I have ever been.

2. Laupahoehoe Point - Crashing waves and beautiful colors. Sigh.

3. Volcano lava flow at Kalapana.

3. Snorkeling at the Kapoho Tide Pools. - Crazy corals and colorful cool fish. How's that for using my c's.

4. Akaka Falls - There's some pretty nice greens all around, not to mention the incredibly tall and sweet water falling down.

6. Pololu Lookout - (North part of the Island)  To the left of these mountains is the shoreline you can hike down to.  I was lucky the first time and got to see a whale on the beach.  I guess I'm not sure if you'd call it lucky - it didn't smell too good, and you couldn't really tell it was a whale by looking at it.

7. Experience the Farmer's Market - 2 dolla 2 dolla, whatcha want?? Some of the vendors are pretty sneaky... but I know their tricks.

8. Watch the sunset in Kona - mmm.. do i even have to say.. ? Ok, I will... Sunset!   Sunset anywhere would be on my top 8 list!

Despite my attempts at getting everywhere, it didn't happen.. (...insert sad face).  Things just got too busy! However, here are a few things that I've heard are really good to do, I just didn't do them myself!

 - Hike down Waipeo Valley - Water World was shot here!
 - South Point - supposedly you can jump off the most south part of the island.  But if all goes well, I'm going to attempt to go there this weekend, along with some deep sea fishing! I'll let you know how it goes!

Top 8 foods of Hawaii

Welcome to the Hawaiian Food Awards! Here are the top 8 contenders: 

1. Kalua Pig - roasted underground and soo delicious! 

2. Lumpia - this isn't actually Hawaiian food per say (it's Filipino), but there are a lot of Filipino people here, and I got to try some of this stuff home made - let me just say - it brok' da mout.                                

 3. Haupia Icecream (Coconut) - Roselani is the best (from grocery store)

4.  Pork Lahaina from Maui Tacos -  (order it wet, and you get this yummy sauce all over it.)

4. Coconut Prawn Pizza from Big Island Pizza - topped with prawn & coconut of course, but also red onion, peanuts, and peanut sauce.  MMmmm... soo yummy!

6. Avacados - they are gigantic over here! And reallly good. I had many a'avacado this past 4 months.

7. Apple Bananas - these little mini guys are loaded with flavor - more than regular bananas

8. Malasada's - I liked them a lot when I first tried them, but the novelty wore off after a while.  Best one I tried was a peanut butter and jelly one from Baker Tom's (a couple minutes drive from Hilo)

Honorable Mentions: 

This is a Loco Moco - I'm only putting it on here because the locals like it, not because I do.  I've actually never tried it, and probably won't. Maybe you'll understand once I share the recipe:  A hamburger patty and fried eggs stacked on a couple scoops of rice. To top it off, it's smothered in gravy. Ya, not really my thing. 

Shaved ice is very popular  too, pretty much just charge you $4 for ice with syrup on it. But it's probably worth it.  If you try it sometime, get it with the Snow cap (sweetened condensed milk), or with icecream in the middle! 


Now you can understand why I probably put on about 20 pounds while being here. If you're on a diet, don't come to Hawaii!

Explore Explore Explore!!

Well.. here I am.  Last 2 weeks. 

Dan was here this past week and we did some heavy duty exploring around the island.   And.. I got some pretty cool pictures if I do say so myself.  

Kona - playing with some settings as the waves crashed in on shore! 

At Pololu lookout.. I was here before if you remember from a previous post. But still - more beautiful than ever!

Rainbow falls.... with a little postcard twist on it!

Shaka! Here's the real rainbow falls!

The water is coming down and will soon fall off Rainbow Falls...

Another little lookout. Colors of the water - love them!

And.... lava flow!! There was new flow just lately, so of course, we had to go see it! This was pretty cool.. . 

Well.. I miss you all, can't wait to see everyone when I get back! If you have any requests for souveniers.. now is the time! 

Top 8 things I love about the Ocean

Here are the top things I've been loving about the Pacific Ocean ...

1. Of course, surfing.

2. Good for your skin

3. Bodyboarding

4. Snorkeling - amazing colors of fish

5. Colors of it

6. Waves waves and more waves..! And the incredible strength they have ... experienced first hand!

7. Cools you off after laying in the sun

8. And finally... The salt left on your lips add good flavor to anything you eat afterwards.

My cousin Dan is here to visit this week! We've been exploring all around.. pictures to follow soon!

Top 8 Signs from Hawaii

As my journey comes to a close, I decided that I'm going to start a series (amidst a few other posts) on the "Top 8" in Hawaii.  In case you should come here some day - take note!

So, first of all, I have compiled a group of signs I've seen around here that are funny, just plain weird, or that you would never see in Saskatchewan.

This one came in handy during the tsunami.

Ahh.. Verna's. I'm guessing this doesn't make sense to you, unless you're from Hawaii. I'll attempt to explain. Pretty much - Come to Verna's.

Bump. Just call it a bump.

I sure clicked it when I saw this one.

In Saskatchewan it would read "Beware of unexpected falling snowflakes, even if its June."

Thanks tips.

I hope Rose had some luck. 

Oh what people will do to obey the law.

A Kona day with Aunt Kalila and Kayak Crasher

Well.. some more visitors I had..! It's been really nice to get to visit with everyone! Terra and Aunty Gayle (or .. I should say Kalila, her Hawaiian name which me and Terra proceeded to call her throughout the day) came this week (and are still here until Saturday).  We had a full day... us Snider's can't just stay sitting around.. we have to get out there and get busy! 

To start the morning off, we took it upon ourselves to enjoy some shaved ice. Cherry to be exact. Yummm.

Next, we took a tour of one of the Kona Coffee farms...

A berry..? I think not. A coffee bean (they call them cherry beans, I think).

This is what the little guy looks like when the outside is peeled..

That shell is peeled again!! And then there were two.

Finally, one last peeling. The more I looked at my hands in these pictures, the more I think I need to use some anti-wrinkle cream on them.

Then they're dried to exactly 11% humidity before they are processed. 

There, now you know a little bit more about the beverage you drink every morning!

They had a bunch of fruit trees there as well, of which they later gave us plenty of free samples...  This one? A papaya tree.

An orange tree...

And.. mango tree..! These little guys are just starting to come in season.

We went snorkeling for the afternoon. Terra was quite focused and swam amongst an array of  kayakers trying to get around her.  Next, we settled down for some nice Thai food.

And then, there was the incident at Walmart. All I wanted was some gum! But of course, not thinking, I threw out my receipt just as I was going out the door. And what do you know, the theft buzzer starts going off. Great.  So, here is my Aunt Gayle and I digging through the Walmart garbage just so I can keep my stinkin' gum! That's not even the worst part.  These other Walmart workers come over to us and are trying to pull away the garbage from us because they think we are trying to steal receipts so we can return things there later!! So I used my basketball moves to box them out of the area while tring to scrounge for this little scrunched up receipt. ALL I WANTED WAS A FEW PIECES OF GUM!!! And this is my story of almost getting kicked out of Walmart.

It was an eventful day to say the least! Wish I could have seen you guys longer, thanks for coming to visit!