April Fools! That would NEVER happen! 

During Monday's informational meeting with the Paniolo Greens rep, we learned about the Green Sand Beach located to the east of the most southern tip of the Big Island. There are only four green sand beaches in the world. This particular beach gets it's green color from the mineral olivine which is in the cinder cone that encloses the beach. I was able to learn more about the beach using Wikipedia. 

Matt and I were planning to get up at 6:00 AM, but we ended up sleeping a little late. I had a hard time trying to decide what to wear because I didn't know what the terrain would be like. I ended up in hiking boots, capri pants, short sleeves and a hat. I took some towels and my bathing suit in my backpack. 

After we put together some lunch and snacks, we left the condo around 8:00. The drive to Papakolea Beach was over 90 miles and took around 2 hours. We parked our car in the lot at the top of the hill.

A few locals were offering to drive people out to the beach. The price was $30.00 per person. It was tempting because it would be a time saver, but Matt and I were looking forward to hiking.

Google Maps to Papkolea Beach

According to the sign at our starting point, the walk would be three miles. However, there aren't any signs along the way pointing out the shortest way to get there. In lieu of taking the shortest path, we ended up walking closer to the coast. On the plus side, the view of the water was very amazing! On the down side, we probably walked an extra mile!

It was so worth it! 

Almost there...

Papakolea Green Sand Beach looked like something out of a movie. These pictures don't do it justice!

Papakolea Beach from Above

Once we were down at the beach, we ate our lunch. The water was beautiful and inviting, but there was no place to change - I'd have to get creative. When we were finished eating, I found a big rock and changed behind it. It was the perfect spot because everyone was looking toward the water!

Papakolea Green Sand Beach

We were having so much fun playing in the water we didn't really want to leave, but we also wanted to go to the black sand beach. We gathered our things and made our way back to the top. Matt snapped this picture of me coming up the rock steps.

Green Sand Beach Rock stairway

Something very interesting is happening in this picture...my sunblock is falling out of my shoe! Later on, we were wondering what happened to it. We thought it odd that someone would steal our sunblock and leave Matt's cell phone behind.

Once we were at the top, we looked at the time. It was almost 1:30. We were here a little longer than expected. After a short debate, we decided to inquire about the cost to go back in the truck. I was sort of expecting the guy to say $30 each, but he only charged us $10 each.

Matt on the back of the truckWe waited at the picnic table for the other passengers to arrive and then we left in the pickup truck. The road was very bumpy and dusty. I took pictures of the other passengers.

There was a husband and a wife, two young women from Brazil and a guy from Idaho. None of the pictures were good enough to post, but here is one of Matt being silly.

The driver took us to another spot to show us some more green sand. We had walked right past it on the way out to the cinder cone!

Matt and 2nd green sand location

Handful of green sand

The drive back was slower than we expected. We figured it would be a big time saver, but it wasn't. However, if we hadn't gotten a ride back, we would have never known about the secret green sand location!

By the time we got to the car, it was 2:30. Our next stop: Punalu‘u Beach about 40 minutes away.