Kona to Volcano Nat'l Park

After a light breakfast (we knew we were headed for an early lunch), we started our day with a tour of the Kona Brewing Company, maker of a variety of beers distributed all over the islands and the mainland. (My personal favorite is called Longboard). After the tour, we enjoyed a nice lunch at their Brew Pub.

Weather today, so far, is sunny and warm, around 90. After lunch we headed over the airport where S&M picked up a rental car. We hadn't intended to do that, but it turns out it takes a lot longer to get from Kona to Volcano than we thought - and they are leaving here a day before us and heading for Maui, so it didn't make sense for us to drive them back to the Kona airport, which was the original plan.

From Kona, we headed south along Rt 11, (they say there are 138 hairpin turns along that route), to a place called "South Point" , said to be the southernmost point of the USA (Not sure how it matched up with Key West...I'll have to google that). Its a rather odd place, and not a very nice place. Lots of "locals" who were fishing, camping, etc illegally, with no services. May have been a lookout during WWII? Anyway, felt like a third world country. But it did have good surf!

As we approached Volcano National Park, the road climbed to about 4000 feet, went into a drizzly cloud and the temp dropped to 62. We found our hotel, a funny little place literally in a tropical rain forest. After dinner at a Thai place we headed over to the park, even though it was dark by then, because we'd heard that you can see a "red glow" in the crater. Skeptical, as it was foggy and drizzling, we found our way to the Jagger Museum in the park. Lo and behold! The sky cleared, the stars were spectacular and, sure enough, you can see a red glow!

We'll explore the park tomorrow - in the daylight.

Chateau Kilauea in the rain forest at Volcano.

Final view from our room in Kona

South Point

Stopped for ice cream

Wind turbines on the way down to South Point

The crater!

Kona Coffee

Rock, next door, then drove south a bit to visit the famous "Painted Church", a 100 year old Catholic church in this Kona coffee growing region, famous for its murals painted on the inside, depicting stories from the bible and church history. Some awesome native flowers there, too!

Then drove back toward town and stopped at the Greenwell Coffee Company, a major grower of "cherries" in the region. We had a tour of the orchard and sampled lots of coffees.....They were all excellent. We learned a lot about growing coffee - never knew that a coffee bean had so many layers and skins, nothing goes to waste!

Back to the hotel around 3:00, for a quick dip, first in the Ocean "lagoon" , then in the hotel pool.

Dinner at Rosa's,  Mexican place across the street.

Tomorrow we continue south to Volcano Nat'l Park.

Big Island - Hawaii

Another early morning as we took our "Speedie Shuttle" to the airport for the flight on Hawaiian Air to Kona on the island of Hawaii. The flight was just long enough to enjoy a cup of coffee.......about a half hour. We picked up our rental car and drove into Kona to our hotel, the Royal Kona Resort, to find that our rooms had a spectacular view of the ocean!

After a nice lunch at one of the hotel restaurants, we headed out to explore the north end of the island.We went up Rt 19, took a tour of a new resort/condo area called Waikaloa Hilton resort.  Not sure why people would want to live or vacation way out here! Continuing north we stopped at Hapuna Beach State Park - a couple of miles down this absolutely horrible road to the "beach" - which was rocks and coral. The weather by now was mostly cloudy, temperature in the low 80s and VERY humid. S no risk of sunburn!

Then we turned inland on Rt 190 the Mamalohao Highway, rising to over 200 feet as we crossed the bottom of the Mauna Kea volcano, which was enshrouded in clouds and causing it rain upon us.We arrived back in Kona at about 6:00, tidied up and had  nice dinner in the same hotel eatery.

We were actually a bit disappointed in today's drive. There is nothing up there! In fact, its barren, with acres and acres of lava flows, looks not unlike Idaho and Oregon!

View from our room

m

Our hotel

Mahalo means " Thank You"

Grand Circle Tour of Oahu

Up early to watch USA vs. Germany in World Cup. Had to leave it just into the second half to catch our tour bus for a day-long guided tour of Oahu. M&S had done it before, so they stayed in Waikiki to enjoy the beach.

Our first stop was a beautiful state park and Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve known for snorkeling. Just down the road was Sandy Beach, a popular surfing place. Then around Makapuu Point and heading north on Rt 72, around the city of Kane Ohe, for a stop at Byodo-In Buddist Temple, with interesting history about the Japanese and Chinese laborers who came here in the 1850s to work in the sugar plantations. The sugar industry was booming, but the population of native Hawaiian had been decimated due to diseases brought here from other lands. There were not enough Hawaiians.

Continuing north on Rt 83, we stopped at the Kualoa Ranch for lunch and a quick tour of the facility. Continuing north through the little town of Laie, location of BYU Hawaii and the LDS Temple. The northern most point of the island is called Kohuku Point, then heading down the western coast you come to Sunset Beach, known for serious surfing in the winter (Bonzei Pipeline). We are now on the "dry side" of the island, heading inland through the Dole Pineapple plantation, site of a pretty impressive gift/rip off the tourist store. Highlight of that stop was a delicious "Dole Whip". Also, a very cool grove of Rainbow Gum trees.

Back to the city of Waikiki by about 6:00PM. Total miles today was said to be 120. Our driver, Pablo, was great. He never stopped talking but he was a wealth of information about the island. The industry of moving tourists around the island is amazing. Very efficient.

Met up with S&M and had nice dinner at LuLu's, a few doors down from the hotel. Tomorrow we fly out to Hawaii, the "Big Island".

Hanauma Bay

Our ride

Byodo-in Temple

Red Headed Cardinal

Beautiful flowers everywhere

Monkey Pod trees

Chinaman's Hat

They grow coffee here, too

Dole Plantation

Rainbow Gum Tree (Eucalyptus)

Polynesian Cultural Center

This morning we picked up the tour bus for our 1.5 hour ride to the north side of the Island to the Polynesian Cultural Center, Hawaii's most popular tourist attraction. It is situated right next to the campus of Brigham Young Hawaii. LDS Missionaries had established a school here back in the 1800s. In 1963 the Church opened the Cultural Center with two goals in mind. First, to celebrate and share the Cultures of the pacific islanders; second, to provide jobs for the students at the university. Today, there are 2600 students at BYU and kids have the opportunity study expense free if they work at the Cultural Center. The LDS church also built a temple here, the first one outside the continental US.

The place is Disney World-like. Our day featured shows by the Tongans, New Zealanders, Hawaiians and others, showing off their costumes and dancing and music skills. Two "boofays", a canoe parade,  and an incredible show after dinner in the big amphitheater with the famous "fire show".

It was sunny, hot and VERY humid - made for a really sweaty day! Didn't get back to the hotel until 10:30.

Out the bus window

Our guide for the day, "cousins"

New Zealand

Note the tatoo

BYU

LDS Temple