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A Week in Hawaii
Tag：rental car companies in kailua-kona, hawaii
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 22 Viewers|  gneissgrrl 2009-04-29 05:11:44 Publish:We left Pittsburgh on Tuesday morning and landed in Kona, Hawaii around 4:30 that evening. Kona’s airport is like none I’ve ever seen. It’s all open – as in there are no walls, just a collection of small hut-like structures. It’s pretty cool – and very easy to navigate. We headed over to the rental car area and were pleasantly surprised that we were given a Jeep. The rental car was free with our hotel package and we weren’t sure what we’d end up with. A Jeep would give us full access to just about anywhere on the island! The drive to our hotel was about 30 minutes. There isn’t much between the airport and Waikoloa Village – just a lot of basalt. We stayed at the Hilton Waikoloa Village. It’s 62 acres of paradise with beautiful landscaping, exotic birds, museum-quality art – which is Thai, Japanese, and Chinese influenced. The place seems like it goes on forever with winding rivers for the mahogany boats and the twisting lazy river pool. There is also a bay which comes into the property and wraps its way around into a small cove where you can go snorkeling, kayaking, etc. I guess if you’re the resort type, you wouldn’t have to leave this area. There are tons of restaurants and shops and great beaches. But of course, we’re the more adventurous type. We come back from our vacations needing another week of just laying on the couch. After we checked in and dropped our things at our room, we got back in the Jeep and headed down to Kailua-Kona for dinner. Our first stop was Kona Brewing Company. One thing we like to do is find local breweries and sample their wares. It’s nice when they serve food as well! I was wanting more of an authentic Hawaiian dinner. Honestly, I have no idea what that is, but in my mind’s eye; it was fresh fish and exotic fruits. KBC’s menu was pretty typical for bar food, although, I had their equivalent to a po’boy sandwich and the Longboard Lager. The sandwich was pretty good, but I’m not really a “sandwich for dinner” type person. I can’t seem to remember what Josh had – and this was before I started writing things down on my iPhone to remember. I do know that he had the Porter. Neither one of us was crazy about the beer and hoped this wasn’t the start of a week long of mediocre meals. Believe it or not, there is a Wal-Mart on Hawaii. Even more insane is that we stopped there before heading back to the hotel for the night. We picked up some sundries and some beer. How nice that you can get it anywhere down there, but I digress. We crashed pretty hard when we got to the room. It was about 4am Pittsburgh time and the jet-lag was kicking in. Wednesday morning we got up and saw there was a voicemail on our hotel phone. It was the concierge. She said to meet with her before 2pm and she’d give us a gift and some information about the island. She recommended a couple of restaurants, Huli Sue’s in Waimea and Café Pesto in Hilo. Our plans that day were to head over to Volcanoes National Park and those restaurants would be on the way there. So after our little meeting, we headed north on Route 19 and made our way to Waimea. We got there around 11 and Huli Sue’s didn’t open until 11:30. We poked our heads in a few stores and grabbed a coffee, then went to lunch at Huli Sue’s. Huli means BBQ in Hawaiian and they had quite a selection of BBQ pork, ribs, chicken, and beef brisket. I ordered the brisket and it came with hand-cut fries, and homemade cole slaw. The slaw was really good and had a nice creamy dill dressing. The brisket was tender and their BBQ sauce was really good. They also had a sauce called “Chili Water” which consisted of vinegar, red chilies, and pineapple. Yummy! I had a pineapple-mint iced tea to drink. I need to figure out how they made that! Josh had the sampler plate and the chicken and pork were very good. I stopped in a small store next door to pick up some coffee that a co-worker had requested and we were on our way. We left Waimea and got back on the road towards Hilo. We stopped at Akaka Falls National Park, which is just north of Hilo. I pulled this from Wikipedia – because you should learn something too! Akaka Falls State Park is a state park in Hawaii, located 11 miles north from Hilo(at the end of Highway 220) on the Island of Hawaii. It includes ‘Akaka Falls, a 442 ft. tall waterfall. ‘Akaka is the Hawaiian name for this feature. “‘Akaka” means "A rent, split, chink, separation; to crack, split, scale". The accessible portion of the park lies high on the right shoulder of the deep gorge into which the waterfall plunges, and the falls can be viewed from several points along a loop trail through the park. Also visible from this trail is Kahūnā Falls. Local folklore describes a stone located here called Pōhaku a Pele that, when struck by a branch of lehua ‘āpane, will call the sky to darken and rain to fall (Pukui, Elbert, & Mookini, 1974). Lehua ‘āpane or ‘ōhi‘a ‘āpane is an ‘ōhi‘a tree (Metrosideros polymorpha) with dark red blossoms. ‘Akaka Falls is located on Kolekole Stream. A large stone in the stream about 70 ft upstream of the falls is called Pōhaku o Kāloa (Pukui, Elbert, & Mookini, 1974). Once we got into Hilo, we made a few stops – Hilo Hattie’s (a suvenier store), the mall, Jamba Juice, and Wal-Mart. Josh was looking for a long-sleeved t-shirt or hoodie and can you believe, he couldn’t find one! We also stopped at Hilo Harley Davidson to pick up some t-shirts for my parents and then drove over to Volcanoes National Park. We stopped in the visitor’s center and I found a park ranger to ask what we needed to see. She circled a few places on the map, but since it was nearly 5:00 and raining, we realized we weren’t going to get to do all of those things today. The sun sets at 6:30 and we had no rain gear. The ranger suggested driving back up towards Hilo and getting on Route 130 South. The road ends where a recent lava flow covered the road. From there, you can hike to the coast and view the current eruption. You can get as close as a mile away and all you can see is steam. The lava is flowing through an underground lava tube into the ocean, creating huge clouds of steam. When the sun sets, you can see the bright orange glow of the lava reflecting off of the steam clouds. The basalt is rugged and you need a flashlight to get out of there at night. Once we got to the parking area, several vendors were set up selling t-shirts, posters, photographs, stickers, and other volcano suveniers. I’m still bummed that I didn’t pick up one of the “Go With The Flow” shirts. The hot dog/taco stand that we saw on the way in had already closed, so we drove back to Hilo to find dinner. After several thwarted attmepts to find dinner, we ended up at Café Pesto. It was recommended by the concierge, but I wasn’t in the mood for Italian. Josh wasn’t feeling well, so he wanted something basic and that worked. I had wild mushroom and artichoke pizza and took home a slice of coconut tart. We made the long drive back to the hotel – nearly falling asleep at the wheel. Thursday morning, we had our timeshare meeting at 8am. We were tempted with the idea of being able to travel anywhere in the world with our home base in Hawaii for just a couple hundred dollars a month. The timeshare unit in Waikaloa was nicer than our house. Like I said, it was very tempting. All in all, it’s just not right for us right now. Maybe some day, though. After our meeting, we decided to make the trip to the green sand beach. From what we were told, it’s down near South Point and about 5 miles to the east. Hmmm…ok. The green sand beach is actually called Papakolea Beach. The only other green sand beach in the world is in Guam. *Nerd Alert* The sand is green because it is rich in olivine, which is an abundant silicate mineral in volcanic rock (basalt). Since olivine is very resistant, all of the other minerals have been washed away, leaving mostly olivine. This beach is the result of the erosion of a cinder cone, not a typical lava flow. Before we headed out, we stopped for lunch in the Kings’ Shops near our hotel. We went to Merriman’s Café which had received tons of great reviews and has won many awards for best restaurant on Hawaii. They use only locally and organically grown vegetables and local free-range meats. I can still taste it – I had the grilled mahi mahi on ciabatta with spicy aioli, cilantro, and Waimea tomatoes. OMG. It was one of the best meals I had. The fish was tender and even juicy and the tomato was one of the best I’ve eaten…like a home grown garden tomato…but better. Josh opted for a burger – he’s not really into fish. After lunch, Josh wanted to get some flip-flops, which in Hawaii are called slippers. Yes, yinzers, Josh bought flip-flops and he wore them nearly every day. Even on the plane home. For you non-yinzers, men in Pittsburgh don’t wear flip-flops. Ever. They even want to wear socks and shoes to the beach. Yeah, you learn quickly in Hawaii that this does not happen. From South Point, you can walk to the beach through a rolling, grassy hillside or you can drive – but only if you have a good 4WD vehicle. The roads are nothing but huge ruts in the soil, jagged paths through lava rock, and nearly vertical decents. I think Josh was not happy that I decided to drive! I think he bounced off of the door and seat 100 times or more….grunting each time. I was driving as slow as I could – but the road was just that bad. You can see the cliffs for the beach from a distance, so we parked the Jeep and started walking. I nearly died when I saw the vertical 500-foot drop down to the beach. You have to wind your way down – and there is a small set of stairs near the top. The climb down wasn’t nearly as bad as it looked and when I hit the sand I went right into the ocean! Finally I had gotten to the beach! The only other people there was a father and his daughter. She kept climbing up the sand and sliding down into the ocean. It was such a serene place – but it was getting dark and we had to make the treck back on that dirt road. Josh drove out and he got lucky by finding a shortcut – although he said it was because of his excellent drving skills. On the drive back, we stopped in Kailua-Kona for dinner at Quinn’s Almost by the Shore. We were basically flying blind with restaurants – using Yelp! to research restaurants and reviews. Quinn’s seemed like a place that the locals go – small bar/restaurant with surly waitstaff and a basic meat/seafood/pasta menu. I had the grilled Ono and shrimp with garlic butter linguini and steamed veggies. The Ono was really good – it’s a firm whitefish and tasted similar to chicken. Josh had ordered the ribeye, and it was pretty tough, so he wasn’t too happy with his meal choice. Friday we got up at 4am to catch a plane to Oahu. I had planned this trip weeks before and knew that I wanted to hit the North Shore, Diamond Head, and the Byodo-in Temple. We picked up our rental car and headed out. Our first stop was Aloha Shopping Center in Honolulu. It wasn’t even 9am, so nothing was open. I guess we’re not getting breakfast here! We drove through Honolulu and Waikiki and couldn’t find anything that would be quick to grab to eat. So we made our way to the Valley of Temples and spotted a McDonald’s. Oh the humanity! At this point, we were so hungry, we could eat McDonald’s. The temple was across the street, so this was really our only option. From there, we drove up to the North Shore. Our time on Oahu was really limited. We had about 12 hours to do everything. On a recommednation of a “nestie”, Sara, who used to live on Oahu, we had lunch at Kua Aina Sandwich Shop. They specialize in burgers with intersting island toppings. After lunch, we walked around Haleiwa stopped in a few shops, stopped at the beach, and then had shave ice from Matsumoto’s, also on the recommendation of Sara. She suggested the rainbow with ice cream and condensed milk. This really sounded bizarre, but I tried it anyway. Wow! Condensed milk on shave ice is awesome!! There was a line out the door of Matsumoto’s – so it must be the best in the area. As much as I didn’t want to, we had to leave Haleiwa and we headed back towards Honolulu to Diamond Head. Diamond Head is a volcanic tuff cone that was transformed into Fort Ruger in 1909 to defend the harbor. Fort Ruger is now just a shell. You do have to access the top via the same switchbacks and stairs that were used as part of the fort. You also have to climb through the bunker area near the top to get outside and to the peak. You can almost see the soldiers at their posts with telescopes and guns at the ready. The top gives you a spectacular view of Honolulu, Waikiki, the harbor, and surrounding mountains. The climb was worth it. I think once I hit the top of the last flight of stairs, my heart was near 200 bpm! The day was winding down, so we headed back to the Aloha Shopping Center for dinner. Sara had also reocmmended Don Ho’s for dinner there. It was so nice. The restaurant overlooked the harbor and the sun was setting. We both had pupu. Mine had fried calamari, coconut shrimp, and mahi mahi. It was too much for me to finish! Josh had teriyaki beef skewers. We flew back to Kona around 9pm and I fell asleep on the plane. Saturday, it was back to Volcanoes National Park. We had bought a small cooler and stocked up on lunch items at the amazing grocery store near the hotel. Amazing because it had everything – gorgeous produce, sundries, all of your typical groceries, and alcohol. On the way through Waimea, we saw a large BBQ trailer with rotisserie chicken, ribs, and pork. They were serving plate lunches – which consisted of your meat of choice, macaroni salad and white rice. We had the rotisserie chicken and it included a half chicken! It was the best chicken we’ve ever eaten. I guess the picnic lunch in the cooler will have to wait! At Volcanoes NP, we hooked up with one of the rangers and they walked us to the crater overlook to see Kiluea erupting. She also gave us some information about the park and how they are trying to eradicate the introduced plants and animals on the island. Apparently, they are destroying the native ecosystem. We didn’t get to see Kiluea spurting any lava that day, but she sure was smoking! So much so that there were warnigns all over the park about the high levels of sulfur dioxide in the air. Yum – air that smells like burnt, rotten eggs. We hit the Jaggar Museum and the steam vents. Since the air was so bad and visibility was down to mere feet, we didn’t spend a whole lot of time here. We went back to the visitor’s center to find out how to get to the black sand beach. The ranger told us that his favorite black sand beach is Punalu’u, just south of the park. Punalu’u is one of the main beaches that the endangered hawk-bill sea turtles come to rest. Unfortunately, we didn’t see any sea turtles. We may have just been there at the wrong time of day. When we were leaving Punalu’u Beach, Josh spotted a coconut on the road. Knowing my insane desire to find a coconut with a solid center (thanks, Les), he pulled over and I picked it up. It had water inside. Damn. He saw another one – with the husk still on it, so I picked that one up too. Damn. We took them both with us anyway. We continued south to get back to Kona since we would be meeting Josh’s friend Joe for dinner. We stopped along a scenic outlook area north of South Point to try and crack the coconuts. The area is nothing but jagged basalt, so we thought that would work. Josh got the coconuts open and we had a quick snack of coconut and mango (from the cooler). There was one last stop I wanted to make before going into Kona. I wanted to see the tikis at Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park. This is also called the City of Refuge. Hawaiians who broke a kapu or one of the ancient laws against the gods could avoid certain death by fleeing to this place of refuge or "pu Yahoo: car rental company A Week in Hawaii rental car companies in kailua-kona, hawaii Google: rental car companies in kailua-kona, hawaii A Week in Hawaii car rental company |
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