A little breakfast by the pool, a quick stop at KTA for provisions, and we were on our way to the Pu'u O'o Trail. The trail begins off of Saddle Road, a thin strip of asphalt running east-west between the island's two major peaks, Mauna Kea to the north and Mauna Loa to the south. We found the trailhead and headed out for a hike that lasted nearly 6 hours across a landscape that continually alternated between lush greenery and barren expanses of lava rock. Unfortunately, Alec forgot the camera at the hotel, and had to resort to his low-grade cell phone for photo documentation.
What would have been even better than a camera for this outting, however, would have been an audio recorder -- we didn't see very many birds, but we sure heard a lot of them. So melodious!Upon returning to the car, we headed over to the nearby Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station. We watched a video about the natural wonders and cultural legacy of Mauna Kea, had a cup of hot chocolate, and then skipped out before the evening stargazing program in order to seek warmer elevations.
Monday, April 4
Besides beautiful sandy beaches, tropical forests, volcanos, and plate lunch, what else is Hawai'i known for? Kona coffee, of course!
Our Monday morning coffee adventure kicked off at Holualoa Kona Coffee Company, an organic farm and processing facility with a short self-guided tour of said facility and an informal tasting setup in the gift shop. Those are their (scrumptuous!) beans in Natasha's hand.We dropped by Sugai Coffee Farm next; they don't have much to show the public, but we got another sample and chatted with the staff for a bit.
Our third and final stop on the bean trail was Kona Blue Sky Coffee. This place was a little more fancy. After yet another sip of paradise, the guy working the counter took us to see some of the coffee trees, which were budding:
Our caffeine fix satisfied, we stopped by Kimura Lauhala Shop to check out the various wares weaved from the leaves of the hala tree. We didn't buy anything, but learned that the proprietor's family came from the same small island in Japan where Alec's great-grandmother lived before she immigrated to Hawai'i.After a cheap lunch at Choice Mart, we visited Puuhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. The reconstructions of ancient structures like this temple were interesting:
But the real treat was taking in the views along the park's back-country trail:
We returned from our hike as the park was closing. There was time for a quick dip in the ocean at dusk before we made a return visit to the Big Island Grill, where we were pleased to find that the loco moco was just as good as the kalua pig.
