01-10-2007, 07:46 AM
Glen, Punalu'u is a BLACK sand beach - and can be very rough waters & has the green turtles to watch out for - is a little over an hour out of Kea'au. Hilo has Richardsons, salt & pepper salt (not the powder fine black sand that Hilo's Bay front (Canoe Beach) has, but that also means that the water LOOKS cleaner (Hilo Bay water has tested out pretty clean, just fine black sand in waves makes it look filthy).
The closest large true white sand beaches are up at Hapuna & Spenser beach, (over an hour out of Hilo - add ~ 1/2 hour to both from Pahao) this is also were you get old enough coral reefs to begin to have some fringing reef structure (some are fairly near shore). So count on just under 2 hours from Pahoa (depending on when you wake up, this is very do-able), if you combine that with your Kona shopping trips, and do it on those rainy days here, it isn't so bad a trip, unless you get one of their rare rainy days.... (of course, there are the tidepools just out of Pahoa for snorkeling)
We do like the critter life at Richardsons for snorkeling, we find that the water diversity tends to give a much higher critter diversity (and fewer legs than at some of the more known snorkeling areas on the West side)
The closest large true white sand beaches are up at Hapuna & Spenser beach, (over an hour out of Hilo - add ~ 1/2 hour to both from Pahao) this is also were you get old enough coral reefs to begin to have some fringing reef structure (some are fairly near shore). So count on just under 2 hours from Pahoa (depending on when you wake up, this is very do-able), if you combine that with your Kona shopping trips, and do it on those rainy days here, it isn't so bad a trip, unless you get one of their rare rainy days.... (of course, there are the tidepools just out of Pahoa for snorkeling)
We do like the critter life at Richardsons for snorkeling, we find that the water diversity tends to give a much higher critter diversity (and fewer legs than at some of the more known snorkeling areas on the West side)