We chose camping over a hotel. At $3.00 per night per person how could you not camp? The only difficulty was having to apply for permits to camp a few months before our trip. Well, not really difficult at all – you send in a form and money order – but there was some anxiety while we waited for our permits to come back (I admit some lack of faith in the postal system).

The first three nights we stayed at Salt Pond Beach Park (with the cats). The area behind our tent is where salt is harvested from the ocean (the only natural salt pond left in Hawaii):

Campgrounds were different from the ones we are used to here. You don’t get your own private nook in trees with picnic table and a place to pitch a tent. Instead you park off the road and choose any spot in a grassy park area for your tent. The campgrounds were not very busy so we had a lot of room but it was by no means private room.

It was quickly obvious that the public campgrounds are where locals come after work and on holidays to BBQ, play cards, drink, watch tv (somebody brought one to entertain a group at one of the picnic tables), and so on. This was a little unsettling because before going I read and heard so much about how the Hawaiians are not particularly fond of the tourists running around their islands. Driving up in a PT Cruiser and stepping out with marshmallow-white legs, there was no way I would blend in. But during our second night and morning a few men came over to chat with us and that was really good. We were from totally different worlds and lifestyles but they were interested in us and they seemed to enjoy telling us about themselves.

One came to our breakfast table around 8 a.m. We were eating pineapple and mini wheats and he had a beer in his hand. He told us that it’s really tasty to cut up pineapple and put it in your cereal. Then he told us that when they eat pineapple they often dip it in salt (from the pond) to subdue the sweetness so that you can taste the pineapple’s real flavour. You can’t buy the salt in stores but he brought some over for us to try. It was…salty. I think I may have over-dipped but I could taste what he was getting at.

After Salt Pond, we stayed one night at Haena and the rest at Anini Park. All three parks were next to the ocean.

Spending the whole week outside with the exception of car driving time, grocery stores and sitting inside restaurants a few times made sure that we saw most of the early sunsets. From Anini:

And from Polihale Beach:

The Polihale sunset was cool to experience because it’s the furthest west you can go in Hawaii and you really get the impression that you are at an edge, saying goodbye to a day that millions have already had their last words with.