Noordam in Kona
We came into Kona with no set plans figuring to see what was there and find something to do. I was hoping to find parasailing, but out of a group of 4 nobody else was that interested so we were going to do an island tour first and then see about parasailing when we got back. When we got back we saw the parasail boat on a trailer getting hauled out of the water, apparently done for the day. Either the water got too rough or they just finished all their bookings and didn’t figure on getting more. Anyway whatever the reason the boat left the area on its trailer so that was it for that.
flower in Kona
Some discussion had taken place regarding the hop on hop off bus, but there were guys with signs for van and taxi tours so we ended up with a private taxi tour for just us and another couple we met on the ship.
coffee beans on the bush
The first stop was a place called Kona Joe who has a patent on growing coffee on a trellis like grapes are sometimes done. Our guide said the owner of that farm had previously had vineyards and patented growing coffee that way so nobody else can do it. Apparently it allows for better sun-ripening of the coffee beans. Their website mentions tours of the coffee farm, but we just went into the store and nobody said anything about a tour.
shop at Kona Joe
They did have free samples of coffee and chocolate covered coffee beans for anyone who wanted them. The others said the coffee bean didn’t taste like coffee so I tried one, but they were wrong. It takes longer to chew the bean than the chocolate surrounding it and once the chocolate was gone it did leave a bitter coffee aftertaste, so not particularly something I would enjoy eating much of since I don’t like coffee. The others liked it though.
view from outside the store at Kona Joe
The pure Kona coffee is seriously expensive. At the time we were at that store it ran from the cheapest bag at $36 to the most expensive at $100 – and these are not big bags, just little 8-ouncers.
Kona Kettle Chips store
Next we went to the place that makes Kona Kettle potato chips. It was a little store attached to the factory. They did not do any factory tours, but they did have some free samples for the asking. The chips weren’t as expensive as the coffee, but still somewhat pricey unless you buy the bag of bits, which is the pieces that are too small to go into their regular bags. They still taste the same though.
painted church outside and inside
After that we went to see a painted church. On the outside it looks like an ordinary little church, but the inside is covered in scenes hand painted by the first priest there, Father John Velghe. He was quite talented for someone with no artistic training. It was all done in house paint of which he only had 3 colors available. He created all of the other colors using dyes made from plants. The paintings are still the originals which have never been touched up or restored yet remain colorful and intact.
inside the painted church
There are different scenes all around the church walls. Even the ceiling and columns are painted. The church is called St Benedict’s and was built in 1899. The priest used the scenes for teaching as most Hawaiians of the time had not learned to read.
garden outside of the painted church
On the way to the next stop we saw a sign by the road about a lava tube being open, which was not included in the places we were scheduled to stop. The guide said that was because it was unregistered which means the place holds no responsibility over any accidents that might happen there if someone were to fall or something.
monument at the site of the island’s first Christian funeral
We went on to a beach which was the exact site of the first ever Christian funeral service on the big island (or maybe in all of Hawaii), performed by Captain Cook for a dead member of his crew. However he used a spot sacred to the natives of the area for their own rituals without their permission so they were quite upset about it. They were also curious about the nails holding his ships together and stole one of his small tender boats to check things out.
obelisk at the site of Captain Cook’s death
Cook’s response to that was to kidnap one of their kings to offer up in trade for the boat back. They made the trade to get their king back, but he knew they were angry and he was no longer welcome there. While fleeing back to his ship one of them stabbed him with a knife he’d given them as a gift followed by a blow to the head with a native rock and rope weapon. An obelisk on the other side of the little bay marked the exact spot where he died. He traveled all over the south seas before his death. There are Captain Cook monuments on a lot of islands in the south Pacific.
stand back or you’ll get wet
The bay there was quite rough, with some serious splashing sometimes coming up and out far enough to shower anyone standing too close to the water. The area for people was a raised paved area rather than the beach itself, though not one that juts out into the water like a pier, just on the edge of it. There was nobody out in the water and signs warning of it not being safe.
lava tube
After that stop the driver agreed to go back to the place with the lava tube. He pointed out where to go, but stayed with the taxi and did not come down there with us. Getting there involved walking down a driveway to a coffee farm where coffee beans were in the process of getting turned into coffee. There were piles of beans and some spread out to dry. Many machines looking somewhat like semi-barrel shaped oversized rock tumblers churned away, though there were no people in site. The partially processed coffee beans let off a fairly strong smell of vinegar which when asked the guide said was the sugary coating that grows around the beans fermenting as they are soaked to remove said coating.
coffee bean production by the trail to the lava tube
A pathway past the coffee building led to a ramp with a bright yellow rail down the center, which in turn led to the entrance of the lava tube. As the guide mentioned, it was a fairly short walk through to the other end. You could see one end from the other, but the passage through still would have been fairly dark on uneven ground except for the motion lights that came on in several places along the way whenever anyone passed by them.
inside the lava tube
The lava tube is pretty much a stone tunnel, any active lava having long since passed through and gone someplace else to cool off. It was quite big in circumference though so quite a volume of lava could have flowed through it at once way back at the time of its creation. It did not cost anything to walk through the lava tube. When we got back to the car the driver had tiny samples of rum cake for everyone from a store next to the lava tube parking lot.
lava tube
Next we paid a quick visit to a small grocery store because some people wanted a few supplies. Our guide had mentioned bananas called apple bananas that grew on the island, and how good they were. The other cruisers we were with bought enough for everyone including the guide to each have one and they were quite good. Also as the guide had mentioned that these were smaller than the bananas we buy on the mainland. The perfect size really for making one banana split or adding to a bowl of cereal. A free rum cake sign at a nearby store to that one brought us to another impromptu stop where we got larger free rum cake samples, and one person bought a few things, which is of course why they offer the free samples to get people into their store.
dog on a boogie board
After that we went back to the pier where we watched a couple people with a little dog out boogey boarding with them. The dog sometimes did tricks and jumped from board to board. I thought they might have a collecting tin on the shore since they were entertaining a small crowd, but they didn’t. It was just something they did for fun. Or maybe to train or exercise the dog. All around the pier there are good places for photo ops of the ship, though the sun wasn’t really in a good place for it. We took a few anyway and then boarded a tender back to the ship. Kona is a good place for people with no prior plans. Besides taxi or bus tours, there’s also a little booth on the dock where people can book a lot of other last-minute activities.
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