Big Island, Hawai'i (Day Five): Lava Tree State Monument & Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo
If you missed Day Four of our belated-honeymoon trip to Hawaii, go read about it here. A full itinerary for our Big Island half of the trip can be found at the bottom of this post.
This was our final day on the Big Island, which was a bittersweet moment. We absolutely loved our time here, and of course, there was so much we didn’t have the opportunity to do. However, we packed up our things and decided to do a few extra excursions before our late afternoon flight to make the most of our remaining hours on the Big Island.
First stop: Lava Tree State Monument
This state park wasn’t far from our Airbnb, so it was an easy stop on our journey across the island back to the airport. It’s a short .7 mile loop that takes you through a forest of lava trees, which are formed when lava molds around tree trunks, burning up the tree inside and leaving the mold of the tree standing. This lava tree forest was formed in 1790. And despite our immense levels of maturity, many adult jokes were made about this very cool and interesting geologic phenomenon. In all seriousness, my favorite part was the impression of bark you could see in some of the lava molds.
Stop 2: Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo
This is a free zoo on the Big Island. It’s small (only 12 acres), so it’s possible to see it all in a very short amount of time. It’s also the only zoo in the US that’s located in a rainforest! We especially loved being able to finally see a Nene (a Hawaiian goose), which we’d been looking for and failing to find throughout our whole trip, and watching an boa constrictor being fed.
After this, we headed to the airport to fly to Kauai, where we’d be spending the second half of our trip! Thanks for reading about our Big Island adventures, and check out the full itinerary below.
Day One:
Accommodations: Pahoa Airbnb / Rental Car: Dollar
Nopo’opo’o Beach Park
Lunch: Shaka Tacoz*
Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park & Snorkeling at Two Steps
Dinner: Kaleo’s Bar and Grill
Day Two:
Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens
Carlsmith Beach Park
Lunch: Pineapple’s Fresh Island Cuisine
Richardson Ocean Park
Dinner: Hilo Bay Cafe*
Day Three:
Volcanoes National Park
Lunch: Packed picnic lunch
Dinner: The Rim at Volcano House*
Day Four:
Waipi’o Valley hike
Lunch: Tex Drive-In (mostly for malasadas, which were A+)
Akaka Falls State Park
Dinner: Luquin’s Cantina
Day Five:
Lava Tree State Monument
Pana’ewa Rainforest Zoo
Lunch: Pine Tree Cafe* (This was the most surprisingly highly rated restaurant on my husband’s trip. He STILL talks about their garlic chicken. It was a random recommendation by a person working at the airport.)
*I’ve marked restaurants that stood out to us with this asterisk.