Big Island Twilight: Kona Coffee, Black Sand, the Thurston Tube and Stars

One day that runs from a coffee farm to a lava tube to a dark road for stargazing, with both lunch and dinner in the price. The first stop is a Kona coffee farm, where the harvesting and milling get explained and the coffee and tea get tasted. Lunch is a picnic there, looking over Kealakekua Bay. Then the Punalu'u Bake Shop, for Hawaiian sweet bread and malasadas, and Punalu'u Black Sand Beach itself, where Hawaii's green sea turtles can be watched from the shore. Hawaii Volcanoes National Park takes the middle of the day and the twilight: steam vents, the Kilauea Crater Lookout, part of the Chain of Craters Road, the crater rim trail, past lava flow sites. What is visible depends on what the volcano is doing, and the guide is certified and talks through the geology as you go. The Thurston Lava Tube, Nahuku, is 600 feet long, 183 metres, and was left by an underground river of magma centuries ago. The bridge in gives you the inside of the island rather than the surface of it. The day ends on Saddle Road, at a spot away from any light, with stars, planets, galaxies and the moon depending on the sky that night, and the guide on the legends attached to them.