BIG IS BEAUTIFUL: HAWAII'S KOHALA COAST Words and Photography: brendan james
THE KOHALA COAST ON HAWAII’S ‘BIG ISLAND’ IS ONE OF THE WORLD’S PREMIER GOLF
DESTINATIONS WHERE SOME OF THE GREATS OF THE GAME HAVE GATHERED TO PLAY
AND CREATE WONDERFUL GOLFING PLAYGROUNDS.
I’ll never judge a book by its cover! If, like me, your
perception of Hawaii is hula girls, a packed beach
backing onto high-rise apartments and lots of large
men in fl ower print shirts, you might be in for a shock.
While all this is certainly true of Waikiki Beach, the tourist hub
of Honolulu – Hawaii’s capital on the island of Oahu – a 45-minute ‘island hopper’ flight south to the actual island of Hawaii, aka the
Big Island, reveals another, less familiar, side to this sun-drenched
Pacific Ocean paradise.
Where To Play and Stay - 1 HUALALAI GOLF COURSE
Private Jack Nicklaus-designed layout but
guests of Four Seasons and Kona Village Resorts are welcome. Visit www.hualalairesort.com
The Big Island experience is a distant relative of the
stereotypical Hawaiian holiday. As the least-discovered of the
Hawaiian islands, the Big Island doesn’t have waves of tourists
filling every inch of its beaches, nor is there any traffic to speak
of. The Big Island way is also decidedly more laid back than what
you’ll find on neighbouring islands.
The landscape is another unique feature of the island. Again,
my perception was that any Hawaiian island would certainly be
covered in thick rainforest and palm trees like it’s the Backdrop for an episode of Lost. Instead, when you leave Kona International
Airport you are confronted by a moonscape to the right and ocean
to the left. Heading north along Queen Kaahumanu Highway, there
are vast stretches of countryside without a building as you look to
your right across the lower reaches of the mountains, Mauna Kea
and Mauna Loa. The road cuts through ancient lava flows that once
ran to the sea, which can be seen, unobscured, to the left.
The Big Island is a volcanic island and as a result the island
grows a little bit every day as the world’s most active and
continuously erupting volcano, Kilauea, continues – as it has done
non-stop for the past 25 years – to spit and spill molten lava from its
peek, which then flows into the ocean on the southern and eastern
sides of the island.
