India, May 25 -- Hawaii gets over 10 million visitors a year. The vast majority never leave Oahu. They see Waikiki Beach, take a photograph at Diamond Head, eat at a resort restaurant, and fly home thinking they have experienced Hawaii. They have barely scratched the surface. The real Hawaii, the one with active volcanoes, a summit that touches 14,000 feet, coffee plantations carved into volcanic slopes, and beaches made entirely of black lava, is on the Big Island. It is a 30-minute flight from Honolulu and a world away from the tourist crowds.

An island unlike anything else in the Pacific

The Big Island is the largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, twice the size of all the other Hawaiian islands combined. Its 10,400 square kilom...