Learning to live like a student
I spent my last full day on the Big Island experiencing a couple of little-known freebies on the island, like any self-respecting student should. In Hawaii, law dictates that the whole coastline and its beaches must be open for public access, so to start with we went to a beach confined by a gated resort called Kūkiʻo, a favourite destination of Ralph and Arlita's. It sports the same nice scenery, on both sides of the waterline, as elsewhere, but because of the gates, not as many members of the public know to just roll up to the security booth, get handed their public pass and cruise on down to the beach's visitor car park where just a handful of people are sharing the sand.
Not only that, but on the bay we met two guys, Mike and Thibert, who are the most truly Aloha Hawaiian people that I've met. They are basically employed by the resort to sail around in their outrigger sailing canoe, the kind of boats in which the Polynesian settlers originally arrived in Hawaii, and let visitors sail it around with them for free. The boat was built by Mike (who turns out to also be a pretty zingy artist by night) himself and steers with a single loose canoe paddle. It's a pretty nippy sailer too, and definitely ranks high on my Christmas list (hint, people).
From there we went on to the Hilton village resort in Kona, which also unsurprisingly features a stretch of public beach, and consequentially lets you wander around pretty much the whole complex bar the rooms. Being a Hilton, everything is suitably dazzling, grandiose, marble-decked and adorned with very old pieces of art worth lots of money. A boat takes you round an artificial river (well, all the landscaping there is artificial, or it would be an expanse of black volcanic rock) to deliver guests to their rooms, pools, bars, ballrooms and so on; and in case your schedule is too tight for water transport, a train runs most of the same route too. As well as pool upon pool upon waterfall upon waterpark, they have a saltwater pool housing dolphins, who were taking a break from their hectic performance and meet-and-greet schedules when we visited.
One thing that stands out in places like this is just how many filthy-rich people you can find in one place. Either that or lots of inconspicuous students out on the free lunch hunt…