Itinerary:
- Kona Farmers Market
- Kahaluu Beach
- *Teshima Restaurant (couldn't go as it was closed for emergency repair)
- Lunch at Sun Dried Specialties
- Greenwell Coffee Farm Tour
- *Captain Cook Monument (didn't see it as we couldn't find it)
- St Benedict's Catholic Church
- Puuhonua Honaunau Park
- Shave Ice at Scandinavian Shave Ice
- Ahuena Heiau
- *Hulihee Palace (was closed, so just took some pictures outside)
- Dinner at Kona Korean BBQ
Today's itinerary is to head south and explore all the sights. I talked to the concierge in the hotel and he recommended that we don't go all the way to the south as there is really nothing there. We should stop at Puuhonua Honaunau Park and head back.
We took some pictures around the hotel before heading out as the hotel is really pretty.
Our first stop was to go to Ahuena Heiau which is behind the Courtyard Marriott hotel in Kona. We reached our destination and couldn't find any nearby parking so we decided to drive by the downtown to look for parking. On the way, we saw some parking lot and it was next to Kona Farmers Market, so we stopped to check out the farmers market.
It's a small farmers market with about 30-40 stores and the prices for fruits are double what we saw in Hilo farmers market.
We asked the kids if we can walk to Ahuena Heiau which is about 10-15 minutes walk and they didn't want to as it was pretty hot. So, we left to head to Kahaluu Beach. It is listed as one of the best places for snorkeling in Big Island. There were even trucks renting out snorkeling gear right by the beach. We saw lots of fishes in the water.
After the beach, we decided to go for lunch. There is a 100 year old Japanese restaurant that I wanted to try which is called Teshima Restaurant. We reached there and didn't see any cars in the parking lot which was a bad sign. We walked to the front door and there was a sign saying that the restaurant is closed for emergency repair.
So, we had to search for another restaurant for lunch. We went to Sun Dried Specialties as it was highly rated in Yelp.
The restaurant is famous for their poke which we didn't ordered as we don't eat raw fish. I ordered their grilled catch of the day which was mahi mahi and it was pretty good. Mason had the cheeseburger which he didn't like at all. Anthony had the Teri Furikake Chicken which was very good.
After lunch, we headed to the Greenwell Coffee tour just a few minutes away from the restaurant.
The tour starts every 30 minutes from 8am to 4pm every day and while waiting for the next tour, we tried out their coffee and one of the workers pointed out a chameleon on the tree. He says their entire family live on the tree. Can you spot the chameleon in the picture below?
Turns out the worker even wrote some books on the chameleon.
Soon after, the tour started and the tour guide asked us to bring an umbrella as it can get pretty hot during the tour since there is no shade. He pointed out the fruit trees on site and how fertile the soil on Big Island is. I saw how big the avocados were and was very surprised. The size is like a mini watermelon.
I also saw my favorite lychee tree and wish I could pick from the tree.
After introducing that coffee can only be labeled at Kona coffee if they were grown within the 26 miles wide and a few thousand feet elevation from the sea area in the Kona area. The weather in Kona is very suitable to grow coffee as it is hot in the morning and rains in the late afternoon. Greenwell Farms not only grow coffee trees but also buy coffee beans from local farmers.
Since this is not the season for coffee, we were lucky that another farmer in the higher elevation had some coffee and sold them to Greenwell Farm. That's why we could see the coffee being dried in their facilities. The coffee season usually starts in September for a few months. The original coffee seeds that was planted in the farm was from Brazil. The oldest coffee tree in the farm is more than 100 years.
The coffee fruits need to be red before they are ready to be picked as red means the fruit is ripe. The coffee fruit resembled cherry, so it is often called "cherry". They hire seasonal workers to pick the "cherries" and pay them by how much they picked. The workers don't get paid by hour but by pounds. They also have dorms on the farm for the workers to live while they work there for a few months.
The "cherries"are then run through a pulper to separate the beans and the pulp. The beans are then dried and later roasted. The pulp was later discovered as having antioxidants which is good for us, so they sell the pulp to someone which makes the Kona Red drink.
After the 30 minutes tour, we went back to the front to buy some Kona coffee. We bought the flavor of the day "Chocolate Macadamia Nuts" coffee.
Next, we decided to go to check out Captain Cook Monument. Earlier in the restaurant, I asked the worker if we will be able to view the monument without the hike as I read that the hike is not easy. The worker told me that we should be able to view the monument from the top without any hike. We entered the address in our GPS and parked at the destination. It's not a parking lot but just on the side of the road and we also saw some other cars there.
We got off the car and couldn't see any monument on sight. However, we saw a big warning sign about the hike. Once Mason read it, he refused to take any step forward. I wasn't planning to do the hike anyway but just wanted to view the monument. We drove around to the other side to see if we can view the monument but unfortunately, we couldn't see anything.
We continued on our journey to St. Benedict's Catholic Church. It's a fairly small church but it's very beautiful.
We took a quick look inside the church before heading to our next destination, Puuhonua Honaunau Park. There is an entrance fee of $5/car which is valid for 1 week and we got our map to tour the place ourselves. Before we start the tour, the kids got the junior park ranger booklet to fill.
There were many fruit trees around the entrance.
After the self guided tour, we went back to the front to meet the park ranger for their pin and badge.
We also passed by another good snorkeling site named Two Step which is just next to the park. As it was getting late, we decided to head back north and stop by Kona downtown again to visit Ahuena Heiau since we couldn't do it this morning. After we parked our car, we stopped by Scandinavian Shave Ice on Alii Drive for some shave ice. It was very delicious and the ice was like snow.
We were going to eat outside but it started drizzling, so we went inside to eat.
After visiting the Heiau, we headed back to our car. On the way back, we passed by the Hulihee Palace which is the summer vacation home for the royalty. Since it was already past 4pm, we couldn't enter, so I just took some pictures from the outside.
Once we got inside our car, I started yelping for dinner. I found a restaurant nearby called Kona Korean BBQ. All the dishes were pretty tasty except the hot & crispy chicken. The hot & crispy chicken was way too salty. I am not sure if the chef accidentally pour too much salt today or it was always salty.
With that, it concluded our day trip to the south today and returned to the hotel. It was a pretty packed day, so we decided to take it easy tomorrow. The kids still wanted to swim, so I took them to the pool while Anthony took a rest since he drove the entire day.
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