Water Fun on the Kona Coast

Our plan for our last day in Kona was to take advantage of the island's best snorkeling spots. Originally we were going to go from land, but all the guide books suggest that it's really better to snorkel from a boat because of the lava's impact on the shores and reefs. After such an amazing experience the day before, we were more open to doing another tour and opted to call Seaquest because John's (our guide from the day before) wife works there. Plus when we called they directed me to their ad in the tourist magazine which had a $20 off coupon. We'd looked into doing a trip like this while still in Seattle, but weren't sold on it at all. And this company in particular has such a horrendous website that we'd dismissed them (seriously, if you are going to follow the link, consider muting the sound first). But in the end, we went for it as they were leaving right when we wanted to, they were going to the location we wanted to go: Kealakekua Bay, and they'd made a good impression on me between John and the phone discount offer that we were down to tour with them. The tour we went on set out from Keauhou Bay, which was a cool place to check out. It was an important spot for King Kamehameha III and there is an interesting cliff side path that has some family history. Plus we saw a new bird here, the yellow-beaked cardinal.

I am so glad we did! This was another incredible day and really so much cooler than they describe on their website. The boat you go on is a high speed motorized inflatable dinghy, the sensation of touring around on it is somewhere between river rafting and banana boating. It's wild. And so fun. We were having a great time just riding around for high speed sightseeing on the boat, when out of the blue a flying fish came up beside Charlie and I and soared along with us. It was one of the more amazing things I have ever seen. This is not a picture of the one we saw, I was too busy holding on to the boat to take a picture, but wow. It was with us for a few minutes. I couldn't believe it. A flying fish!

We went closer to shore to check out some sea caves, lava tubes and other blow holes. Our guide was an expert dare devil and took us into quite a few of them. In some cases, he could time it so we would motor in and get washed out with the waves. It was pretty exciting, plus each cave seemed to be formed by a different set of conditions so the lava rock features were totally unique. We continued alternating between high speed banana boating and lava river rafting down the coast to the Place of Refuge (more on this tomorrow), where we went in for our first snorkel. Wow. The conditions were so perfect. Never have I had such clear water and such a diverse array of fish. It was amazing. I took a ton of pictures with our underwater camera - see fish photo album - I was really impressed. We had about 30 minutes here, when our guide called us back for Maui Onion Chips, fresh pineapple, and some POG. We jetted up to our highlighted destination - Kealakekua Bay to snorkel at the Captain Cook monument, which marks where he was killed. If you can believe it, the snorkeling here was ten times better! Plus we got our first glimpse of the White Tailed Tropic Bird (more on this later). What a day. Sadly on the way back in, our underwater camera died while I was trying to photograph a lava tube. You are supposed to wash it with freshwater before letting it dry. So sad. But I was cheered up with a Ti leaf Angelfish from our guide when we returned to shore. What an adventure.

Charlie and I were shocked to discover that it was only noon when we finished with this. And we were equally shocked to discover that sunblock just doesn't last. You have to reapply it like every five minutes. My suggestion to anyone going to Hawaii soon: buy the spray on sun screen. You will spend a fortune because one spray bottle only lasts one day between two people, but you can reapply really effortlessly and that is just what you have to do. You have to spray yourself with sunscreen constantly. Charlie and I were both badly burned (despite our best efforts) after this boating excursion and then had to avoid sun for the rest of the day. Difficult to do in Hawaii! After much debate about what to do next, we decided to go back into Kailua-Kona town to the Kona Brewery. Two days earlier, we'd had sandwiches, but word on the street is the pizza is where its at. We decided we better find out if that is true or not. It's true. We got half wild mushroom (more like cremini with other vegetables) and half puna pie (which we affectionately now refer to as the fettuccini alfredo of pizzas). Both were decadent and covered with roasted garlic. Wow. And filling. We got this pizza at lunch and it fed us for dinner as well. After we walked around town again buying souvenirs until it was time for sunset on the lanai. Another perfect day. The rest of our pictures from this day are here.

Life is Easy in Sunny Kona

We're back! Most of you already know this, since we are oh - about a month late in posting about the trip. I was beginning to think we never would, but we've been so inspired by our friend's Jill and Morgan blogging about their anniversary trip to the SW (they were smart and brought a computer with them) that we are finally taking action. So we have a ton more pictures than we can fit here, so the links in the page go to more pictures. Or you can view the whole day one web photo album here. I suggest doing both.  

Life is easy in Kona. Even the end of the airplane journey had a relaxed tone, which may have something to do with the free Mai Tai they gave everyone before landing, but nonetheless I have never been to a more casual airport. It doesn't even have walls or gates. You just get off the plane on the tarmac and they open all the doors. Plus it's full of jasmine plants, the kind I've tried and not succeeded to grow in a pot at my office. The other big bonus of flying to a small airport is that our rental car agency was waiting for us with the shuttle, since ours was probably one of maybe 10 flights in a day. Amazingly, the whole arrival and rental car thing was so easy, that we were on our way to town before we were actually even scheduled to land.

We've got a few hours to kill before we can check in. Since Hawaii is 3 hours earlier than Seattle (it's 3pm to us and noon here) lunch is in order. Since Kona is home to the original Kona Brewery, it's a no-brainer as to where we are going to eat. We got a great outdoor spot and enjoyed the boldness of the mongeese and local house sparrows as they deftly steal food from diners. Charlie enjoyed a decadent club sandwich with his Longboard Lager. I felt very proud of ordering the organic Oceanic Wit with the vegan Hippie Stack Sandwich, but honestly I think he enjoyed his food a bit more than I did.

After lunch we tooled around town, enjoying the chance to stroll around and see historic sights, including the first church, King Kamehameha's compound, and Hulihee Palace. I was pleased to see the official start to the Iron Man World Championships as people were already all over town training for the event. And of course we could not pass up the chance to enjoy shave ice, especially not when "Scandinavian Shave Ice" was on offer. The Scandinavian secret is the giant scoop of Macadamia Nut ice cream in the center. Wow.

Soon it was time to do our grocery shopping and check into the condo for the evening. We could not have been more thrilled with Sea Village. That view at the top of the page really is the view from our lanai. No joke. And we had a view of the town, very pretty at night. And we could drink Kona coffee on the deck in the morning and end each day with a sunset cocktail and dip in the pool. Perfect.

So here's the thing about Kona. They aren't kidding about the sunset. Everywhere I've traveled it's always sunset, sunset, sunset and I obligingly go to check it out and then I think, obviously these people have never seen the sun set over the Olympics in Seattle. But it's the real deal in Kona, with a perfect western view of the sea, the sun sets in all it's glory for everyone to view straight on. After seeing this on our first night, we vowed to stay on Seattle time as much as possible, and do everything with the sun for the rest of the trip. Which was no problem really as I woke up at 4:30 in the morning the first few days. And yes, that is a paddleboarder in the sun ray there. Very cool.

 

Kailua-Kona

We spend our first 3 nights just south of Kailua-Kona.

This area is the main population center of the island. We probably won't spend a lot of time in this town except when we arrive we will do our shopping here and may have dinner or lunch on occasion. We'll be in a condo, so we'll want to pick up some groceries in town. There's a costco! And safeway of course. And i think a farmer's market.

Here's a cute little map of the centro:


Thoughts about how to spend our first day:
Arrive around noon, get the rental car, get lunch at Kona Brewing Co inside the North Kona Shopping Center on the map. We'll need to do some grocery shopping, then check into hotel.

We will probably want to walk around town a bit. The brewery has a tour at 3pm. The fishermen return to the pier at 4pm.

Doug's comments on Kona town:
Kitschy, but worth walking around and seeing palace, Royal Kona Resort is a good place to grab a mai tai on the deck. Huggo's is good for seafood at sunset.

Guidebook's comments on Kona town:
Try to see Hulihee Palace (free hawaiian concert here on Aug 22, go back?), Moku'aikaua Church, and the Ahu'ena Heiau. See palace and church right.

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This map shows where the Sea Village is at (to the left of the circled one), just south of the town on Ali'i Drive in between a bunch of other resorts: