Saturday January 14 – I slept
well and actually felt better today
than the past 2 days. We left around 9:30 AM and headed
north.
First stop was Baker Tom's just north of Hilo (Papaikou,
between miles 6 and 7) because we liked the pastries so much on
Thursday. We bought plenty for the next few days.
We stopped at two Farmer's Markets in Waimea because
John particularly wanted to get some special tea grown in the Volcano
area, and we weren't sure which market they attended. We
found
them at the market on the Parker School grounds (left photo).
We
went over to the Waikoloa Community Park (right) for lunch because that
was the
closest place we could find with shade and tables for a picnic.
When we got into Kailua-Kona, we made
a Safeway and Walmart stop and then continued down to
Captain Cook and the
Bamboo Hideaway. What a
delightful place, nestled on a hillside above the Kealakekua Bay!
(view from lanai below) It's a little tricky to get
to due to very
steep roads and driveway
but
so long as we don't meet someone else in the
drive we should be okay.
This is definitely the nicest of the places we've been; too
bad
it's only for 3 nights. The décor is very nice, there's a
large
lanai facing an awesome westerly view – perfect sunset
place. Refrigerator, microwave, toaster oven, 2 burner
hotplate and other appliances; nice, comfy
sofa, a bed with BOTH sides accessible!
The art work, towels, lounge chairs, all speak "quality." The
internet is good and strong, cell signal works on the porch
but very weak inside.
After
we unpacked, we went down the street to the Managa Hotel/Restaurant for
supper. It's an interesting, homey place with a
limited
menu on the wall. Dinner is served family style – I had their
"specialty" pork chops, John had the opelu (mackerel). The side dishes
are standard for all and they bring those out as an appetizer!
Tonight we
had kidney beans in an interesting sweet sauce, rice, chicken rice
noodles and potato salad. John's fish was very good – he liked how it
was seasoned but it's boney so he had to be cautious. The pork chop
bore no resemblance at all to an Iowa chop but it was tender and
smothered in gravy. More like a slice of pork loin potroast.
After
supper we watched our first, wonderful sunset, relaxed for a while and
slept well.
Sunday January 15
We
slept
until we felt like waking up – yay! Around 10 AM we headed down
Napo'opo'o Road to
the Kealakekua Bay and Napo'opo'o Beach, which is really
misnamed now. There
was no beach (thanks to hurricanes), not really anyplace to get into
the
water, but people were launching kayaks. We saw the Cook Monument
from across the bay (picture left) but were not inspired to do more
here. In order to preserve
the area, a permit is now required to go ashore (though that
is ignored by many), and we didn't feel competent to get in and out of
the kayak ourselves for snorkeling.
So
we proceeded south along
Highway 160 which becomes a bumpy, one
lane road but eventually ends up at the Place of Refuge National
Monument – Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau. Normally
there is a $5 entrnce fee per car but entrance
to all parks and monuments is free for Martin Luther King Jr weekend. In ancient times, if a
lawbreaker could get to the Place of Refuge he was granted asylum.
After performing ritual acts of atonement, he was forgiven
all crimes and could go back home. It is considered a sacred
place.
A
ranger was doing a tour
as we arrived and we followed him for about half of it – he was very
good and we found it all quite interesting.
We learned about the ancient game konane played with pebbles
(left below).
It is much like checkers but the winner is the last person
who can make a move, regardless of who has the most pieces left.
We saw Kanoa
bowls (center below) that are carved into rocks – they may have been
to catch water to evaporate to produce salt; or used to
grind grains.
The fencing and most of the wood
sculptures (left) are from
the 'Ōhi'a
Lehua tree. The ranger told us the legend
of a man ('Ōhi'a) who was turned into the tree
by Pele (the volcano goddess) because he spurned her; then the other
gods took pity on
his wife Lehua and turned her into the blossoms so now they are always
together
– the 'Ōhi'a Lehua tree.
We
saw a couple of green sea turtles and took their pictures, walked
through
the area
and appreciated the peacefulness before driving over to the delightful
picnic area (above, right) where we had lunch and I read while John
walked out on
the rocks and played around.
Finally we walked "next door"
to the rocks where the
swimmers and snorkelers were.
(Swimming and swim wear are not allowed in the park itself.)
I laid on
the rocks in the sun and John snorkeled. The surf was pretty
rough so he
didn't stay in long. He saw lots of coral and some
fishes but nothing real amazing before he was getting thrown around too
much.
We drove
home the "easy" way (Hwy 160 east to Hwy 11 is a nice, wide road -
accommodates the tour buses) rather than the
one lane road; I did a batch of laundry (Bamboo Hideaway also has
access to washer and dryer on site) and had a shower and John had a
soak in
the tub. Pono (the
owners' black lab) is not a
very serious guard dog. He
growled but
as soon as I spoke to him he settled down, curled up and went back to
sleep and then never paid any attention to me after that!
Another beautiful Captain Cook sunset from our studio
apartment!
Monday
January 16 –
We woke up
at 6:30 AM because John had a reservation with Sea Quest and had to be
at the Keauhou Bay dock for a snorkeling trip before 8 AM. He had a
good
time. There were four different boats so he had only 8
snorkelers + 2 staff in his (at right); they went to the Cook monument
area
and also another location. He
saw some new fish and birds. The pictures below were captured
with a disposable underwater camera and then scanned from photos!
But you'll get the idea of the sorts of things he saw.
Left picture below shows a yellow tang and a reef triggerfish,
also known by its Hawaiian namehumuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa.
It's the state fish of Hawaii. The center picture includes a
couple of four spot butterfly fish and some yellow tang. To
the right is a naso tang, also known as an orangespined unicornfish.
In the next row, the
left picture includes a bird wrasse (lower) and a saddle wrasse
(lighter blue and pink fish above). In the center are a
threadfin butterfly fish and, below that, a peacock grouper.
The right photo doesn't have fish - just some interesting
coral specimens.
At left is a needle fish and at right, a yellow pipefish along with
several yellow tangs.
While he was off snorkeling I caught up
on email,
read some news and comics then went exploring a bit in town.
I found the Old
Kona Airport beach and
decided that's where I want to spend my last few hours tomorrow
afternoon. [See tomorrow for
pictures and descriptions!] After
I picked John up, we had our lunch (at home) and then
he took a warm bath (having gotten chilled snorkeling). I
read til I was fallng
asleep and then tried to
organize a bit of the packing since we have to leave tomorrow.
Our last Big Island sunset is shown below.
Tuesday January 17 -
Sadly,
we packed up and left
the Bamboo Hideaway around 10:30 this morning. The giggles of
the day were when I left my oatmeal bowl unguarded on the table and
went to get something... then came back to find this tiny 2"
gecko baby checking out the potential goody!
After a run to
the Coffee
Shack to get a sandwich for lunch for John (it was very
yummy), we went to the Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotany Center
($5 each) and
walked through there. Their objective is the study of
Hawaiian
people and native plants. It was very interesting but we
clearly saw the effects of an island-wide
drought on many of the plants. Here are just a few of the
better-known native plants we saw there, left to right: koa,
noni, loulu
Still in the Captain Cook area, we found a coffee place that had
"cherries" – coffee beans
still in its seed (Mountain Thunder) and John got a few of those and
the nice
girl also gave
him a baby tree to bring home. Finally, we located a thrift shop where
he
could donate the shorts he wanted to get rid of!
Then
we
went to the Old Kona Airport Beach and started by having lunch
at a picnic table in the
shade. The
beach runs all along the old runway (now the parking lot) and
so is very large. It's a
very nice place - a white sand beach with some rocks, some sandy
entrance. There
are rinse-off showers, changing rooms as well as flush toilets and
picnic
tables. We walked
the
beach for a while and I read. Makai
(left) and mauka (right) views from the beach.
Our company at lunch included the
golden plover (left) and the yellow billed cardinal (right)+.
We saw a lot of each while we were here. The plover
(aka kolea) is an amazing fellow, flying to Alaska every summer for
mating! We
walked all the way around the
"walking/
jogging" path which goes through an interesting community garden that
seems to also function as a nature preserve of sorts.
Numerous
groups and individuals have plots that they cultivate - many have
sculptures, bird feeders and other accessories. We took lots
of
pictures! The
residents include cats, birds and
mongooses. After watching them dash across roads for
2 weeks, I finally got close enough to get some pictures of them!
Below are pictures of the trail and two of the many "gardens"
along it.
At
the left is a mongoose - still crossing the road but this time it was a
jogging path and I could capture a picture! To round out the
trip, we went hunting
for ice cream and
ended up going back to the Ali'i Drive Coconut Grove Plaza
very
near the Islander Inn to Kiliki'i Italian Ice. They
had both
Italian ice and Hawaiian ice cream. John
had a mix; I just had very yummy
coconut ice cream. Then we made a short stop at Kanaka
Kava
in the same shopping center because John wanted to try some Kava as a
relaxant before flying home. All I can say is "ick!"
Finally
we went to the airport very
early but that was okay. Budget was very quick to check the
car
in and the shuttle was there almost immediately. The very
nice
lady with Hawaiian Airlines told us that they have a partnership with
Delta so she could check our bags and give us
boarding passes all the way to Cedar Rapids!
That was VERY helpful! Then we had plenty
of time to have
our packed supper before leaving for Honolulu and the mainland.
I
like the KOA airport (at right) - it's very tiny and mostly outdoors!
The trip home was long (that same 21 hours it took us to get there),
tiring but uneventful, which was good.
