Day 16 - 16th day (for English scroll down)

We haven't slept this well in a long time. It must be because of the 'we all love each other' vibe. 😊 On the small terrace, there is a coffee machine and a chair. That's enough for my breakfast. John, the nice landlord, made me an additional breakfast. Freshly picked papaya and mangos from the tree - see pictures. Somehow we find the homemade things more likable and leave the highly polished demands behind. The groove is right. On our Big Island Bucket List: volcanoes, snow (in some cases), black beach, dolphins, turtles. So let's go to the black sand. On the way, we stopped at a nice cafe, the Coffee Shack, with a mega view of the sea. Unfortunately, there was no more space, but it's always enough for a cappuccino and cinnamon roll to go. Holy moly! The coffee is as intense as the daily Starbucks coffee powder consumption on Bahnhofstrasse, distilled in one cup! OK - now I was so awake - I had to blast out all my energy by singing Abba songs at the top of my lungs. I loved it, Zoe a little less 😉

The nature here is much wilder than in Oahu. The roads are now only two lanes and quite curvy - almost like at home. The landscape changes from lush green to lava black - very fascinating. After about 1 ½ hours, we arrived at the southernmost point of Big Island. Punalu'u is a crescent-shaped bay surrounded by tall palm trees and pitch-black lava sand - beautiful! Sea turtles tumbled in the waves and then rested on the beach. Very cool! Two checkmarks on the Bucket List! Ten kilometers to the north is the Ka'u Coffee Mill. A coffee and macadamia plantation that likes to show guests the secrets of coffee beans and their roasting. That was very impressive and showed me that the coffee really has to taste as full as it does in the Coffee Shack! Zoe had read about a green beach nearby. Here, too, a volcano is responsible for the color. It provided the olivine mineral that turned the beach green. Apparently amazing. And as it had to happen - we didn't see it... We drove until we couldn't go any further. We parked and were about to march off with flip-flops and a beach towel, when someone called out: 6 miles - can you handle it? Wait - what?? The beach isn't just around the corner? Nope. OK, emergency meeting right away. The step counter has signed off for the day, Zoe's new delicate pink skin is not suitable for a 6-mile hike, and you already know about me 😊 6 miles already puts me in the "red knee socks" category! Then the brother - rather uncle in terms of age - stepped up again and said, there is an alternative. A shuttle with tires that reach up to my collarbone (!) costs 20 bucks per person, and we have to wait until there are 8 people on board. Unfortunately, it was already late afternoon, and the chances of another 6 people getting lost in that direction were slim. So we gave up the plan (for today) and will try it again in the coming days.