Friday, April 7
The day starts with a view of a beautiful rainbow over the ocean from our lanai. A good omen, we hope! It is raining now, but won't last long as today we head south, down the coast from Kona.
We quickly leave town behind and travel through less populated areas. We find the roads here fairly busy, mostly because there aren't that many of them! Our first stop is for breakfast at a likely spot called The Coffee Shack.
Everything is really fresh and tasty and is served with fresh luau bread which contains bits of macadamia nuts, pineapple and coconut -yum!
The restaurant is quite old, and "shack" seems appropriate, but the food is great and the view too, as it is located on a hill. There is a HUGE avocado tree there - probably 30-40' tall! I can't imagine how they pick the fruit!
Our next stop is yet another National Historic spot called Pu'uhonuao Honaunau. I have given up trying to pronounce things and often spell road names for Greg when navigating - sometimes just the first four or five letters when it's a long one! I'll manage Aloha (hello and good-bye) and Mahalo (thank you).
There are admission fees to all these National Historic places, but our good old senior pass waives the fees!
This spot is a very sacred place to native Hawaiians and there are signs asking you to silently ask permission to enter, respect boundaries and maintain a quiet, respectful presence. There is a brochure with a numbered trail. This place possessed extraordinary spiritual power and the heiau (temple) here contained the bones of 23 chiefs. This was also a place of refuge for anyone who broke kappa - the sacred laws and beliefs. A woman eating with a man, a commoner casting his shadow on a chief (ali'i), catching a fish out of season - these are examples of breaking kappa. Punishment was death unless you could elude pursuers and make it here where you could be absolved by a priest. Pu'uhonua also served as a sanctuary for children, elders and other noncombatants during battle.
Here are a few photos of the area.
Fish pond, where individual fish were creating "nests" for spawning.
Wooden statues (kiwi) of Hawaiian gods.
Some cool birds.
Woman demonstrating weaving from coconut fronds. Greg asked her name and she spelled it for him - Keikielii. She is trying to get more natives to do demonstrations here. A young man was getting ready to pound taro root into poi. This used to be a great staple, but is not very popular anymore. Our guide on the snorkeling asked if we'd tried it - he says it is an acquired taste and he's been trying for 14 years.
Lots of interesting plants here, and we saw some wild goats enjoying the shade and a pair of mongoose. We spoke with a ranger and he explained that the goats are a real problem because they have no predator.
The mongoose was brought here to deal with a rat problem (they arrived on boats) but biologists at that time didn't take into consideration that the mongoose is active during the day and rats are nocturnal, so now they also have a mongoose problem because they are killing birds! These two were scurrying away.
Chickens roam free on the island too. Some are quite beautiful and some have baby chicks. They seem to congregate near parking lots and parks. And supposedly, they help control mosquitos and other pests. Some are descendants that the original polynesian settlers brought, and they mixed with others that were released or escaped during hurricanes.
Some of the roads in this area are beautiful and most are in pretty good shape. Nothing more than 2 lanes.
A coffee farm is our next adventure.
Greenwell Farms was founded in 1850, 30 years after coffee was first introduced from Brazil. Kona Coffee has quite a reputation and Dave, our guide, took us through the process of producing it! It has become extremely popular since the 1970's and Kona Coffee is one of the top two in the world (the other being from Jamaica, I believe).
It is a very labor intensive process, with growing, hand picking the coffee cherries when they ripen red, breaking the cherry to get the coffee beans inside (see pic),
air/sun drying, separating grades, roasting, culling, etc. He figures it cost them $30 a pound in labor and supplies, so the $50 a pound that it is sold for here is not unreasonable. He was quite the connoisseur and said coffee should be used within a week of when it is roasted! Each tree produces only one pound of coffee! The trees are cut back each year to help control pests/disease.
To supplement the coffee, Greenwell farm also grows peppercorns, white pineapples (which run about $30 each and don't ship well so most remain on the islands), bananas, avocados, macadamia nuts and mangos. We tasted the pepper - whew!
After the coffee plantation we visit the Painted Church which is in the town of Honaunau. It is a still- active Roman Catholic Church built around 1899 to serve the coffee workers. Father John Velghe was a self-taught artist and decorated his wooden church with biblical scenes.
A statue of St. Damien of Molokai, Hawaii's Patron Saint who lived and cared for lepers, greets visitors. The gardens and graveyard are beautiful in their simplicity.
It is a little misty as we stop at the Paleaku Peace Garden, a beautiful botanical garden. Lots of interesting flowers and trees, as well as structures associated with various religious beliefs, mostly eastern. One garden is shaped like a spiraling galaxy.
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| Raindrops add interest |
I think this was called a green pipe vine - very unusual!
Torch ginger, one of many varieties of ginger.
Surprisingly, we recognize about half of the plants, although specimens here seem to grow larger than at home, and we have to protect most of them from the occasional freeze.
The rain dissipates as we head back to the hotel. We walk into town and end up at Foster's Kitchen again where we enjoy Kilauea stuffed mushrooms and a chicken club sandwich with truffle fries -these are apparently a "thing" here but seems to me they are only an attempt to sound gourmet and charge a few more $. No noticeable flavor enhancement imo.
Back at the hotel, we sit outside and enjoy our last sunset from this site. There have been lots of rowers most evenings, leaving from the pier downtown. Not too unusual to see someone walking with a paddle, or having a paddle propped in their car and we suspect they are part of these outings. There are competitions and races at times, but I think we are only seeing daily practices.
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