On Thursday, June 24, my wife and I decided to take a picnic lunch and drive out to Wawaloli Beach Park. This park is operated by the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (NELHA) and located in the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park, 7 miles north from downtown Kona, near the Airport.
Per the Big Island Visitor Guide: “Bring a beach chair and an umbrella to enjoy the golden sand between your toes while watching the planes take off and land. This is also a great spot to stop and watch the sunset.”
On the website LookintoHawaii.com “What you probably won’t see is a lot of are tourists, as this tends to be more of a local beach.”
We were last at the park in July 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown. The experience then was quite nice. On June 24, 2021, the situation was unbelievable!
Per the Big Island Visitor Guide “The park is outfitted with outstanding facilities, such as picnic tables, barbecue grills, showers and restrooms for an enjoyable day at the beach. Bring a picnic or fire up one of the barbeque grills located in close proximity to the tide pools to cook while you watch your keiki (kids) frolic in the shallow waters.”
On Thursday, the park was littered with refuse everywhere, the trash cans were overflowing with garbage and trash, the barbecue grills were filthy, the smell was terrible, and the flies were overwhelming.
I decided to the visit the men’s restroom. The facility was completely trashed with one urinal and one toilet missing, and the second toilet completely clogged with human feces. The smell was overpowering. I never did check to see if there was water available for the shower or sinks.
I think that the state Department of Heath would immediately close the bathrooms for heath reasons.
Since the restroom are unusable I fear the people are defecating everywhere. There were no portable/temporary restrooms that we saw.
The picnic tables are in terrible condition, and the barbecue grills are filthy. The park looks extremely tired
Obviously, NELHA is not currently maintaining the park.
It would be difficult for me to recommend to any visitor to Hawaii to go to this beach. This park would currently not get a good review on any website
Per West Hawaii Today, May 13, “The U.S. Secretary of Commerce announced that the Economic Development Administration is awarding a $1.8 million grant to the Natural Energy Lab in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii to support business retention and growth initiatives at a sustainable technology park.”
I certainly hope that NELHA can use some of these funds to restore and properly maintain Wawaloli Beach Park to its acceptable high level in the near future. NELHA needs to take necessary measures to increase security at the park and educate violators.
If this park is truly for locals, we all have a responsibility to help NELHA and report improper behavior and clean-up after ourselves… If we live like a pigs, it shows, and it is not a good example of Aloha.
Walter Bobb is a resident of Kona.