Trip Index
It was time for the third portion of our trip, three nights at the Lagoon House! We had stayed in Kapoho on our
last trip to the Big Island to experience Champagne Pond (which we read about in the "
Big Island Revealed" guidebook), a product of "creating lemonade from lemons". After lava from Kilauea devastated the Kapoho community in 1960, owners of the surviving homes in the area figured out that if they dredged the lava, they could create thermal pools in their backyards from the warm spring water bubbling up. Champagne Pond is special because it contains both fresh spring water warmed by the volcano and sea water from the ocean, making it a really comfortable snorkeling environment that still can support aquatic life; sea turtles can be seen in the pond as well some fish. The pond itself is on public land, but several homes are "pond-front". One homeowner took it a step further and built an "aquarium" in the backyard by erecting an underwater gate across a small opening between the private pond and Champagne Pond. The gate kept in all the fish that the owner stocked in the private pond, yet allowed fresh water from Champagne Pond to flow in and out, avoiding stagnation. What a great idea!
The place that we stayed at on our previous trip,
Champagne Pond Cottage, was unavailable for the nights that we wanted. I had narrowed it down to two other potential rentals, the Lagoon House (neighboring to Champagne Pond Cottage) and
one home right on the
Wai'opae Tidepools, a recommended snorkeling spot which we hadn't experienced yet. Lagoon House was way more expensive, but I ended up booking it since my parents were beginner snorkelers and the calm, warm, not-so-salty water from Champagne Pond would make a more pleasant experience than being in the open ocean with the other home. I had also wanted to swim with "Puffy" the resident puffer fish, but unfortunately, it had died back in March.
Check in wasn't until 3pm, and we needed to depart Pele's Secret Garden at 10am, so we headed over to the Hawaii Volcanoes Visitor Center located at the entrance to the park to look at the displays and play around with the infamous "Summit Eruption" trigger box. (ask the ranger for it if it's not on the desk)
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| bye bye Pele's Secret Garden |
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| oh no, what have you done?! |
Next, we drove to Hilo to peruse the
farmer's market as it was Wednesday ("big days" are Wednesdays and Saturdays from 6am to 4pm, smaller selection the rest of the days from 7am to 4pm) to buy some fruits and vegetables, then headed for lunch at
Sombat's Fresh Thai Cuisine as it was open today. It was a cute little restaurant that also had counter service if you wanted take-out.
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| "Thai hot" green curry, just for Kaleb |
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| Thai fried rice, milder curry, drunken noodles |
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We stopped at a
KTA supermarket along Highway 11 to replenish on groceries, then made the 40-minute drive from Hilo to Pahoa to pick up the house keys and security gate tag from the rental management office lock box. There was also a supermarket in the same complex called
Malama Market which we went to during the remainder of the week to pick up more items.
A leisurely 20-minute drive through lush rainforest and papaya fields brought us to the entrance to the Kapoho Beach Lot community. An automatic gate unlocked once we waved the security tag. Narrow roads led us to
Lagoon House.
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| beautiful custom gate |
The house was as pictured on the website. The kitchen could have used some remodeling, but the snorkeling lagoon was the main attraction. There was even a bucket full of fish food pellets with instructions on how much
and when to feed the fish. A caretaker from a few houses down came to visit us the next day to ask how we were doing and to check on the fish.
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| the backyard in the evening (public Champagne Pond in upper left, lagoon below, neighbor's house pond right) |
Snorkeling equipment was stacked on a shelf in the backyard, but it wasn't in good shape. The fins were usable. I recommend bringing your own mask and snorkel, or rent a set from a local shop. My dad wears glasses (with different prescription in each eye) so I bought for him a prescription dive mask from
GetWetStore.com. If you wear glasses, it's handy to own a prescription mask so you can take advantage of snorkeling opportunities and see the underwater world. I also bought my parents some
dry snorkels. There weren't any adult life jackets at the house either (just a couple of tattered infant life vests). After driving around town failing to locate any adult life jackets, my parents resorted to using other flotation devices such as inner tubes (not great) and pool noodles (better). If you require flotation assistance, best to bring your own. I also recommend wearing beach or reef shoes (there were a few sad looking pairs on the shelf) to protect your feet from the rocks in the pond.
I brought my
Panasonic TS4 waterproof camera to capture all the fun. (other cameras can be found on
Amazon) A
floating camera strap was helpful (I recommend looping your existing camera strap around it versus swapping straps).
We saw different varieties of fish, a couple of eels (which surprised us..."aaaaahhh, there's a snake in the water!"), several baby puffers, and some translucent tiny shrimp feeding on rocks in the narrow channel on the left side of the pond.
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| feeding the fish |
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| inner tubes weren't so great |
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| Kaleb enjoying the hammock |
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| pool noodles worked better |
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| hello! |
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| puffer fish |
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A video of the fish as we were throwing pellets into the pond (the silver ones were more aggressive than the exotic ones):
Video of Mom feeding them while snorkeling (and me sounding like Darth Vader):
Video of a white eel and a vivid blue eel in the water, sick...:
There were other critters roaming around the house:
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| wild turkey |
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| gecko |
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Kaleb and I jumped over into the public Champagne Pond to check it out; we were underwhelmed and after ten minutes with no turtle sightings and swimming around crowds of snorkelers, we went back to our private lagoon. When we first tried Champagne Pond on our last trip, it was really great, but now that we had experienced Lagoon House, it was no comparison.
One of the days, we all took a walk on the beach, accessible through public easements in the neighborhood. Kaleb and I were curious if the coral graffiti we had left on our previous trip was still there. Despite 2.5 years of exposure to the elements, it endured! We fixed it back up; let's see if it's still there a few years from now.
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| easement |
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| this was here last time too |
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| original graffiti back in April 2011 |
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| found again Jan 2013 |
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We had plans to visit the
lava viewing site
in Kalapana, which was not very far from the house, but the days went
by so fast that we didn't make it. We didn't even drive over to the
Wai'opae Tidepools, which was just a neighborhood away. Having our own private lagoon was
just awesome. I loved that it was bathwater-warm and not salty. The water was so calm, great for beginners like my parents or young children...it was fun to see them plan their day around snorkeling. We enjoyed being able to float around the pond spending the day watching schools of fish eat algae from the rocks, go on a puffer fish or eel hunt, feed the fish with lettuce, and so forth, then get out of the water, rinse off in the outdoor shower, go in and have a cold drink. It was sad when it was time to go; I could have stayed another couple of nights here.
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| on the balcony of Lagoon House, our last day |
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| sunset from the edge of the property |
Remember when I mentioned that we flew roundtrip in and out of Kona to save $600 and would have to drive 4 hours in the early morning to get to the airport? Fortunately, we didn't have to. A Hawaiian Airlines representative sent me an email earlier in the week, informing us that our 11:47am departure from Kona was replaced by a 9:50am departure due to a schedule change that resulted in only a 50 minute layover with the original flight, and would I verify receipt of the email and acceptance of the itinerary adjustment? 9:50am meant that we would need to leave Kapoho around 4am! Instead of accepting the flight, I replied back requesting to leave from Hilo instead, as I checked that there was flight availability and it wouldn't hurt to ask. The answer was yes! Our flights were changed from transferring in Maui to transferring in Honolulu, and our departure from Hilo was a decent 10:19am, which gave us a few hours back for sleeping. There was no change fee either. What a blessing!
Hilo airport was small and homey. The car rental return was just in front of the terminal. As we were driving in, we noticed that Air Force One was parked in the back! The Obamas were vacationing in Hawaii at the same time; perhaps they decided to park the plane in a quiet place versus at the Honolulu airport. We walked over to where we could take pictures, but there was an officer policing the area and yelled at us to stay away, so we located another vantage point.
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| Air Force One |
There was just one main waiting room in the terminal, and when your flight was called, you'd go to the gate area.
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| Hilo airport |
When we arrived in Honolulu, we had a four-hour layover, so after grabbing some lunch at the Kona Brewing Company, we headed over to the United Club, despite flying on Hawaiian, since I had a membership (thanks to the
United Club Visa card, which included club membership but costs a hefty $395 annual fee, waived for the first year when I signed up). Unfortunately, I could only bring 2 guests in for free, so Kaleb volunteered to sit at a bar instead.
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| teas, hot chocolate |
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| coffee machine, juices, snacks |
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| dessert! |
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| complimentary bar in the back |
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It turned out that
Joe Torre was sitting nearby...my dad saw someone go up to him and ask him for a photograph. We felt bad asking him again for one, so we just took a picture in stealth.
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| Joe sitting by the window |
When it was time to head to our gate, we had a long hike from the club. On the way, we stumbled onto a LeSportSac store and my mom bought a
Happy Zodiac bag. Continuing our walk, we passed by several opportunities to take the
intra-airport shuttle. Let's just say I recommend taking the shuttle! The journey was longer than I had anticipated and we hustled just in time to go to the restroom before boarding.
The flight back was uneventful, with dinner served in coach.
That was the end of our trip...what a way to start 2013. I've got several trips in the pipeline for the blog...stay tuned!
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