The Kohala Coast on the Big Island of Hawai’i is spectacular. For miles north and south, the lava-rock shoreline is broken by tree- and palm-lined beaches. Thirty miles across the sea, the islands of Maui and Lanai are often visible. To the north the Kohala Mountains rise gently inland, and to the west, the immense volcanoes, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, show their peaks on clear days. There are many ancient Hawai’ian sites here, including temples, burial mounds, petroglyphs, and beautiful large mixed salt and fresh water pools in which the ancient people ingeniously trapped fish.
Because of the area’s beauty and abundant sunshine, it has attracted leisure industry developers, who have built several mega-resorts, which now clutter what should be a pristine pubic preserve. These resorts are not unattractive, and we have walked through most of them, taking advantage of the fact that they cannot deny public access to the ocean.
The largest vacation retreat is the The Hilton Waikaloa Village, which stands on sixty-two acres facing the Pacific Ocean and employs more than 1,000 people, making it the largest private-sector employer on the island. These workers are needed to service two professional-level golf courses, a four-acre ocean-fed lagoon large enough for paddleboards and canoes, three other pools, complete with waterfalls and slides, a lavish spa, fourteen restaurants and bars, mahogany canal boats and air-conditioned trams to transport guests around the resort. And a dolphinarium called “Dolphin Quest.”