What a day. Today we were on the opposite side of the Big Island from Hilo, in the popular tourist town of Kailua-Kona, and we made the most of it. We did so much, in fact, that I’m going to split the day in half and describe it in two separate blog posts. I’m not sure if I can get the second post out tomorrow, as we’ll be out and about in Honolulu, but I’ll try. In any case, let’s get on with part one.
We arrived at Kailua-Kona early this morning to a sparkling, sunny day, and that in and of itself merits a brief discussion. Kailua-Kona is on the dry side of the island, and typically gets only ten inches of rain a year. Hilo, where we were yesterday, is on the wet side of the island, and gets ten FEET of rain annually. The giant volcanoes on the island block the moisture carried in by the prevailing winds from crossing over them, creating the dramatic difference. Think about ten inches versus ten feet if you’re considering a vacation on the island of Hawaii.
On with our day. We tendered into town early this morning and met our guide for the morning on the pier. We climbed into a ten passenger van and headed off to Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park, which is an oceanfront recreation area just outside of town. The park is located on the site of an old indigenous fishing village, and there are petroglyphs right in the parking lot, protected by a small lava wall, and consisting of rows of indentations in the lava rocks. We were told that the indigenous people played a game similar to checkers, and the petroglyphs were their game board. Not much to look at, but interesting nonetheless.
From the parking lot we hiked along a lava stone trail for a bit, stopping from time to time to look at trees or plants of interest. We really had to watch our footing on the uneven lava rocks, as it would have been very easy to roll an ankle if we weren’t paying attention. In short order though we broke out of the trail to the shoreline, which had a bit of beach but, at least at low tide, consisted mostly of lava rocks from old eruptions.
It’s a very pretty spot, but the highlight is the almost certainty that there will be sea turtles there, either feeding in the shallows or sunning on the rocks. We weren’t disappointed, as we saw some doing each. You’re not allowed to get too close to them, but I think we got some nice photos. Michele got some nice photos of some of the birds we saw with her good camera, but I couldn’t get close enough with my iPhone, so watch for hers on Facebook after she gets a chance to download and post them.
After the park we climbed back in the van and started up the side of Hualālai, the active volcano that looms over Kailua-Kona, stopping at an elevation of around a thousand feet, in the heart of Kona’s coffee belt. Kona is famous for its coffee, and it grows best in a long strip of this side of the island at between 700 and 2000 feet of elevation. There’s no single big player in Kona coffee, and our destination was one of the 600 small farms that make up the bulk of the industry. Oka Family Farms grows their top rated coffee on just seventeen acres, an area that surprisingly holds 4000 to 6000 small trees.
We had an opportunity to see the trees, watch beans being roasted, and then sample Kona’s precious liquid gold. And precious it is, because Kona coffee generally goes for $40-$60 a pound. That’s not a typo. We walked around town later in the day and didn’t find any locally grown beans going for less than that. So, why is it so expensive? Well first of all, there isn’t that much of it, and what there is has all been hand picked and sorted. Of course the big thing is the flavor. I found it to be so smooth, and lacking in bitterness, that I had no desire to add my usual milk and sweetener. It was absolutely delicious straight out of the pot.
Here’s a bonus fact that you probably know but I didn’t. I always assumed that darker roasted coffee, with its stronger flavor, was correspondingly higher in caffeine content, but the opposite is true. Roasting removes caffeine from the coffee, so less roasted coffee is more caffeinated than darker roast coffee. Oka Family Farms sells a variety of coffees, including a very lightly roasted variety appropriately named White Lightning. I’ll bet a couple cups of that would wake you up in the morning.
We had one more stop after our visit to Oka Family Farms, plus some time in town afterwards, but I’ll save that for part two, because that third destination was special. So, enjoy the photos from our first two stops, and I’ll be back with the rest as soon as possible.
This was our first stop this morning. It’s a short drive from downtown, and worth the trip.
Those little dots in the lava rock are petroglyphs, a game board of sorts for a checkers-like game played long ago by the island’s indigenous people. The petroglyphs are right in the park’s parking lot, and are protected by a lava stone wall.
This lava rock trail takes you from the parking lot to the beach.
Along the trail we passed a couple noni bushes. They were introduced to the island by the Polynesians, who used them for medicinal purposes.
There is a bit of beach at the end of the trail, where the native Hawaiians had a fishing village. This is a reproduction of what their huts looked like.
Most of the waterfront looks like this, though. Lava rocks from an old eruption.
The highlight was seeing green sea turtles.
This one looks a little greener, probably because it just crawled out of the water.
We saw some swimming in the water too. And yes, someone carved initials and numbers on its shell.
We saw quite a few birds. Wish I could have gotten closer. This is a black crowned night heron.
Then it was on to the coffee farm, where the first thing we actually saw was this African grape tree. You pluck the grapes right off the trunk and chew them before spitting out the pit and the skin. They were delicious.
Oka Family Farms runs their successful operation on just seventeen acres. These are some of their trees.
Close up of a Kona coffee tree.
The family is starting some new trees.
This is what the beans look like before roasting.
This is their roaster. We got to watch a batch being roasted, and if I recall correctly it was at a temperature of around 430 degrees Fahrenheit.
Here the beans are being dumped out of the roaster.
Stirring the roasted beans.
Different sized beans before and after roasting. The smallest ones are the best and most expensive.
Oka Family Farms has won a lot of awards for their outstanding coffee. It really was good.
The finished product, ready for sale. They have a website and ship, so if you’d like to order some (and can afford it), look them up online.
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