Hawai'i Day 3 – Kayaking, Coffee, and The Place of Refuge

We woke up bright and early on Monday morning to go rent a kayak and get out on the water. We were told that in Kealakekua Bay (Kee-al-a-kay-coo-ah) dolphins visit routinely in the early morning, so we were out the door at 7am to go find them! We rented a double kayak (not the best decision), somehow strapped it to the top of our convertible, and drove 5 miles to the bay.

After a little struggling to get us AND the kayak into the water without tipping it (the dock was about 5 feet above the water….) we were on our way. Let me just say that neither Taylor nor I are going to be professional paddlers anytime in the near future ;) But after a little getting used to it, we made our way across the Bay. The Bay was surrounded by tall cliffs, and the depth ranged from 10 feet to over 300 feet in spots. The water was so clear and blue that we could almost always see the bottom.

We were aiming for the Captain Cook monument – according to Wikipedia: “Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Cook died in Hawaii in a fight with Hawaiians during his third exploratory voyage in the Pacific in 1779.”

The monument lies on the site where he was killed in a scuffle with the natives. It wasn’t too terribly impressive, but it was a beautiful day, and we had fun exploring the Bay. Sadly, this must have been the only day in ages that the silly dolphins didn’t show up, so after some snorkeling, a snack on the beach, and some wading in the clear, warm water, we packed up the kayak and headed back up the cliffs to see what else there was to explore.

We were told by some friends we had to go to the Coffee Shack for lunch. When we pulled up, it seemed like a pretty unassuming place: a few tables, a short menu, decent prices… but when we were led to our table the appeal was immediately revealed – a spectacular view of the Bay we had just paddled end to end!

We had a yummy lunch of sandwiches and pizza (and an iced Kona coffee!) and even indulged in passion fruit cheesecake. While we were leisurely eating, we made a few friends – bright green geckos kept slipping in through the cracked window and licking the condensation off our cool glasses :) They were so cute! And had the coolest colors!

After lunch we headed to a coffee farm – our guidebook recommended Greenwell Farms. We learned it was the oldest coffee farm on the Island and we really enjoyed our tour. We learned that the trees flower up to 6 times per season, and that getting coffee from the raw coffee cherry is a really long and complicated process. I’ll save you the details, but it’s pretty extensive! We did some tasting, graciously accepted their offer of free fresh avocados, bananas, and oranges from the trees on their property, and made our way to the last stop for the day.

The Place of Refuge (or Pu’uhonua o Honaunau…) was a fortified area on the coast. If you were being persecuted, had committed a crime, or were too old to fight in a war, you could be saved by making it to the Place of Refuge. The only catch was it was surrounded by 15 foot walls on 3 sides and ocean on the 4th side. I guess a lot of people swam in?

Anyway, today it is supposed to resemble an ancient Hawaiian village – there are huts, temples, boats, shrines, fishponds, etc. We did the “self-guided” tour (ie – read the pamphlet as you wander around in ridiculous circles) and even came across a sea turtle! It was cool to see the statues and the old walls: they still looked pretty formidable to me.

We made it back to the condo, watched the sun set over the ocean from the golf course, and headed to dinner. We went to this amazing Indonesian place and I had fantastic satay and Tay had a great shrimp and macadamia nut stir fry. We had to stop for the local favorite for dessert – shave ice. NOT shaved ice – just “shave”….the small was about the size of my head, and we sat by the water and enjoyed the light, fluffy sno-cone-like yummyness.

Oh I forgot something! Interestingly, we ran into a young doctor we met while we were working at the hospital last year. We saw him at Greenwell Farms – and then AGAIN at the restaurant we randomly picked for dinner. What a small world! I still can’t believe we picked the same island, the same coffee farm, and the same restaurant all at the exact same time – what are the odds?

Anyway, it was another great day in Hawai’i. It was cool to get out on the water and go snorkeling (a sneak preview of the awesome water for our dive tomorrow!), and after packing up all our Scuba gear we were off to bed.

See all the pictures here: http://kristynspictures.shutterfly.com/