Big Island Circle Tour - Day 19

Jimm checking the color, swirl, smell, taste, and savor of the wine on our tour!

Today was tour day, and 11 hour adventure around the Big Island. Stop 1 was a visit to Greenwell Farms to enjoy a parfait and a scone while you sipping from one of Kona Joe's favorite coffee roasts. Stop 2 was Punalu'u Bake Shop where we picked up some traditional Hawaiian malasadas. This shop gets over 200,000 visitors per year. Stop 3 was Punalu'u Black Sand beach where we spotted 5 green sea turtles beaching themselves to dry their shells and rest. Stop 4 was Volcano Winery where we tasted six different wines. This is the southernmost winery in the U.S. and produces some really unique fruity wines, included one that is tea infused. Stop 5 was Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. At its heart are the Kīlauea and Mauna Loa active volcanoes. Kīlauea had an eruption in December of 2020, and still has lava flowing in the center of the crater. Stop 6 was Rainbow Falls, which we didn’t realize we were doing on this tour or we would not have done it the day before. Then it was back to our hotels. Our tour guide and drive was Zoe and she was very knowledgeable and fun. We really enjoyed the tour and would recommend it if you want to get a great overview of the island. The bus was comfortable and clean and they provide breakfast, lunch, snacks and beverages along the way. We topped of the evening with dinner at Romano’s Macaroni Grill, which we thought went out of business, but apparently there are still some in other states in the U.S. including Hawaii. Tomorrow is our last full day on Big Island and then it is off to Oahu for our last week of my retirement celebrations. The days are going too fast so we are trying to savor the time we have left. We have made so many great memories and we can’t wait to come back again.

Aloha! Deb