Kona coffee and more water adventures

Kona Coffee

We spent some time at one of Kona's oldest coffee plantations and coffee processing operations.  Greenwell Farms was established in 1850. They have cultivated and experimented with coffee plants that whole time.  We took a tour of the coffee processing operation with Kewana, who picked coffee as a boy, and now works on the farm.
     In addition to cultivating their own coffee plants, the farm also purchases coffee "cherries" from local farmers, and process it mostly for export.  They do roast some of it for sale in their small gift store where they also provide short tours of the operation.
     At the end of the tour, they provided a coffee tasting opportunity.  Kona coffee is truly tasty!

Kayaking on Kealekakua Bay

I am so fortunate to have Lynn with me, otherwise, I wouldn't have even thought about the snorkeling, let alone kayaking.  We rented a double kayak from a little mom & pop enterprise, Ehu and Key Adventures, just south of the bay.  We then pointed the kayak around the point at Napoopoo Park, and toward the monument on the north side of Kealakekua bay. The map below shows our kayak route.

Google Maps: https://www.google.com/maps/@19.4721252,-155.9350245,3877m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

When we arrived at Captain Cook Memorial, Lynn jumped off the kayak, then had to encourage me to do the same. After a moment of hesitation, I did jump in!  We snorkeled for about a half mile dragging the kayak behind us because our permit to be there did not include landing.  I did not take the phone, which is my camera, as I was worried that I would drop the thing in the ocean. so, pictures are courtesy of the internet with appropriate citations.

After snorkeling for about a half mile, we climbed back in the kayak, re-applied sunscreen, then

Courtesy of Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinner_dolphin

paddled to the middle of the bay in hopes of seeing the spinner dolphins up close.  We had stopped at the bay a couple of days before to scope it out, and saw many dolphins.  Today, we only saw a momma dolphin with her baby surface a couple of times.  We sat there enjoying the view, hoping to see more dolphins, but we had to be content with our one sighting. We encountered a paddle boarder and visited for a bit, before heading back.

http://plainadventure.com/2011/08/07/honaunau-bay-aka-two-step-%E2%80%93-big-island/

Once we got the kayak returned, we got in the car and went back to Honaunau Bay and the Two-Step snorkeling area, which we enjoyed the first time we went. After another short snorkel, we packed up to head back.

The picture to the left was courtesy of a website that had underwater pictures of the Two-Step snorkeling area. This is pretty representative of what it looks like. So beautiful.

Diving Tour for Lynn, more snorkeling for Lori

We purchased a dive/snorkel tour when we were at Jack's dive locker renting my snorkeling gear. So, the day had come to go out.  I bought a dive shirt for my poor sun-kissed (read: sunburned) skin.  Good investment.

So while Lynn went on her dives, I snorkeled around the boat, watching the divers and admiring the seascape below.  Again, I have no pictures, as I had no camera to capture the moment, but you'll just have to trust me, it is beautiful under the water.  A whole new world. The rocks providing an anchor for corals, crevices for urchins, and holes for fish to hide in.

Plus, the sunlight, having its red wavelengths absorbed by the water, leaving only the lovely cyan color that deepens with water depth.  And really, it is a bit disconcerting when you look one way and see all of those interesting rock features with the assorted fish, then looking in the opposite direction, and see only that deep blue drop off into the ocean. Amazing, and humbling at the same time.

As we were getting off the boat at the Marina we spotted a sea turtle.  Pretty cool, no?

So, today is our day of rest and preparation for the move to Pahoa tomorrow morning.




The sunsets here in Kailua-Kona have been pretty spectacular.  Tomorrow, we drive to the east side of the island, so we'll report back on whether the sunrises are as spectacular.  Stay tuned!