The Big Island of Hawai`i is truly an amazing place! With 4,000 square miles the Big Island is twice the size of all the other Hawaiian Islands combined. It has 11 of the world’s 13 climate zones.
Between the chocolate brown dry lava fields and white sand beaches of the west side of the island and the wet, lush tropics of the east windward side of the island lies North Kohala. This is the oldest, most rural part of the island that is dominated by large cattle ranches with rolling green pastures. North Kohala is really a peninsula jutting out from the northern end of the island. The Pacific Ocean is on three sides with Kohala Mountain running north to south through the peninsula with rain forests and lush secluded valleys on the east side of the mountain and dry volcanic soil on the west side. Kohala Mountain is the oldest of five volcanoes that account for the surface area of the Big Island.
The Big Island, and especially North Kohala, is the home of the paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy). In 1793 Captain George Vancouver brought the first long horned cattle to the Big Island. The cattle were presented to King Kamehameha I, who placed a kapu (taboo) on their slaughter so they could multiply. The result was that hundreds of wild cattle roamed the mountain slopes creating such a nuisance that the kapu was lifted.
