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Big Island Hawaii Pacific Travel

Travel Souvenirs from Around the World: Big Island, Hawaii

They must have thought I had gone mad. After the excitement of walking on lava that is one day old on Hawaii’s Big Island, the adventure tour bus stopped along a stretch of a sandy beach. While people alighted and frantically tripped their camera shutters, I bent down and bagged a handful of black sand.

Black sand and lava rocks, Big island, Hawaii

Punalu’u Beach is unlike any beach I have seen. The sand is coarse and jet black and spreads against the foamy white waves that wash its shore.  Green turtles are known to visit on occasion but there were no sightings during our visit.

I later discovered that the Hawaiian Volcano goddess, Pele, places a curse upon visitors who take home black sand or lava rocks. We put our case to the test when we declared them at the airport due to stringent customs laws in Australia. The officer took one look and waved us in. I’m sure the fiery Goddess Pele can also make one exception.

Previous Travel Souvenirs from Around the World: Tokyo, Seoul, Jbeil, Dubai, Provence, Tahiti, Montmartre/Paris.

About the author

Corinne Mossati

Corinne Mossati is a drinks writer, author of GROW YOUR OWN COCKTAIL GARDEN, SHRUBS & BOTANICAL SODAS and founder/editor of Gourmantic, Cocktails & Bars and The Gourmantic Garden. She has been writing extensively about spirits, cocktails, bars and cocktail gardening in more recent years. She is a spirits and cocktail competition judge, Icons of Whisky Australia nominee, contributor to Diageo Bar Academy, cocktail developer and is named in Australian Bartender Magazine's Top 100 Most Influential List. Her cocktail garden was featured on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia and has won several awards. She is a contributor to Real World Gardener radio program and is featured in several publications including Pip Magazine, Organic Gardener, Australian Bartender and Breathe (UK). Read the full bio here.

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