Big Island Big Trip - March 2010

Tue. Mar 2 flew from Portland to Maui to Kona on the Big Island. Took our rental car for supplies at Wal-Mart & Safeway, then found our condo Kona Bali Kai , not far from where we stayed years ago with the kids. We had dinner at Big Hawaiian Grill, and settled in.

Wed., Mar 3we played golf north on the Kohala coast. Windy would be an understatement. But at the beautiful

# 3 par 3 Carla hit into trees on right. Rex hit above green, chipped to 8 feet and missed putt for a 4. One of most photographed holes in the world. It was so windy on #9 at top of hill heading down, Rex couldn’t keep ball on tee – Looked like a Charlie Chaplin movie. Wish I'd had the camera.

Afterward we drove north along Kohala coast and around n point of island, stopped at Hawi for ice cream (sorbet coconut & lilikoi ) & drove to the overlook of Pololu Valley (end of road). We hiked part way down, so we could see the dead whale but didn’t go down to smell it at the beach. We could see waterfalls down cliffs in the distance, & almost to Waipio valley.

Drove down inland along the Kohala mountain road to Waimea, and went down looking for food along route to Kailua Kona using tom-tom and arrived at our “destination” (a Philippine restaurant) in the middle of nowhere – so we continued to Kailua along vast reaches of prickly pear, and went to dinner at Tante’s – and had good Hawaiian food luau and special plate. (We were pretty hungry by then) It was an open air restaurant along waterfront in town.

Thursday Mar 4- We golfed at Mauna Lani South Course. #7 along the ocean is a beautiful par 3, and Rex got a par over the forced carry. At tee box – wonderful whale watching – breaches, blows, flukes hitting, and even could hear their vocalizations above water (calves?). So many we couldn’t count, and pretty close, 100-150 yards, and dozens in the general area. (also on 15, but not as many).

The course was built on a’a and it came into play as the rough – it was very rough with stark contrasts, and flatter than Mauna Kea.

After golf we went to historical site National park Pu’ukohola Heiau and did a quick tour and got a good map. Went to Mauna Kea beach and went snorkeling on their pretty beach along north end rocks – great fish and Rex found a manta ray – swimming back and forth below us about 10-15 feet – about 8 feet across. Really spectacular.

Went to Costco after and bought shrimp dipping tray for dinner and great (big) mango sponge cake we ate all week for breakfast and dessert.

Friday, Mar 5 – snorkel at Kealakekua Bay (near Captain Cook Monument (but we didn’t have a sea kayak to get there – should have rented one on highway with soft carrier for rental car. (Thought there would be one at beach…) so we snorkeled there and then off the dock – where the coral was the best Rex had ever seen, and we saw large schools of Yellow tangs and other bright fish. It was fairly protected and not over-used.

Home for leftover lunch, Rex practiced golf at Kona CC and then went to Avatar movie (2d only there – we’ll look for it at Imax in 3d). Went to dinner at Tante’s – but really slow and bad this time – don’t get soup or Phillipino there.

Sat. Mar. 6, to the Volcano. The drive was safer after Rex finally found a mango tree with ripe mangos on the ground underneath, so he could focus on the windy road.

I bought apple-bananas while Rex got gas and we brunched at a golf course near there the volcano.

At the Park: Kilauea visitors center, Jaggar museum, Lava Tube in rain forest; Kilauea Iki hike where there was a 1959 eruption. We walked down into the crater and across the bottom, where the ground is still warm and there are steam vents where rain water seeps down and evaporates. (Please note that this was not a display… the rain was authentic.)

Drove down the Chain of craters road to the end – and there were some really interesting lava flows. There is a significant drop in elevation where the land probably slumped down into the sea a long time ago. We walked into where there are petroglyphs carved into the lava – many of them were for umbilical cords from new babies for protection. We went to the end of the road – literally, due to a lava flow over the asphalt, nearly burying the previous end of the road sign from an earlier eruption.

We decided the flow was too far off from there to get a good view (3 miles), so we drove back to the museum at the kilauea crater, where there was a deep, smaller active caldera. Earlier we could see the plumes of gases (sulfur dioxide) and at night the gas was lit up in an orange glow. Our little snapshot camera couldn’t get a good view of it, so you just have to trust us on this one. (there was a Japanese tourist with a good camera, and his viewfinder showed it nicely…).

Couldn’t find any dinner, so we were pretty much on snack foods and hungry. Bring a big lunch next time. Cooked spaghetti at home. (and ate cake)

Sun, March 7

Nanea golf course. a very private & exclusive & relatively remote course. Heard about it from John Flanagan, and said Beano the caddie at Bandon Dunes had a relative that worked there as a caddie, as he had. We asked for a contact at Mauna Kea, and the director of golf was expecting a call from us. We went there and had “BlueJay” as a caddie (he’s in Bandon summers, there winters.) He was great reading the very weird grain on the greens, and a pleasant fellow. He told us the club costs $250,000 to join, and $2000/month. It’s 7 years old, designed by David Kidd, and has 150 members, with a max set at 200. It takes a nomination and 2 separate interviews to join, so it’s pretty homogeneous. It was the brainchild of two men – Charles Schwab & Roberts. And it’s classy; the club house is relatively small, but a large part of it are the sumptuous locker rooms with showers that extend outside to a rock walled area. There’s a golf shop and a small restaurant and bar. The look is subtle. You can’t see the course from the road, and there are no signs, just a gate some distance from the road, with a call box, followed by a long road to the course. We pulled up to drop bags, and were met by the Director of golf, followed by a caddie who parked out car and took our bags around back. They were so friendly and gracious. No houses anywhere around – just lava fields and sweeping vistas of the Kona coast.

A fun time, but more for the overall experience than just the golf (fairly links style – a la Kidd), and its surrounded by a’a..

Later we went to the farmer’s market, bought papayas and had lunch at the condo. Lots of fresh fruit! We were ready to snorkel, but it rained, so we napped and watched the sunset through the rain on the ocean.

We went to see mantas at Sheraton, but couldn’t find any, so rented a movie (Indiana Jones) to watch at condo.

Mon. Waikaloa golf with two Japanese women (a mother and daughter?) who didn’t really speak English (although the starter said they did), so it was lots of smile and nod. They played pretty quickly, about like us. Windy again (surprise??)

We went back to Kailua Kona to snorkel at a rather crowded but nice reef area Keauhou Bay– they usually have turtles, but we didn’t see any in the water (saw some from outside on rocks a couple of days earlier) Lots of bright fish, and too easy access (so crowded).

We had asnag in packing due to lost golf luggage (stolen when we moved rooms); so we had to go shopping, and bought the movie Stargate at Wal-mart we started that night and finished on the plane home the next day.

We had a wonderful last night dinner at Bubba Gumps, with beautiful sunset right along the water, and really good, fresh fish.

Tue we breakfasted on cake & fruit, and then headed home with a 3 hour layover in Maui (not too great a place for layover – Honolulu is nicer since it has outside patios with flowers, but we did have a view of Haleakala volano.)

We watched our movie on the plane and arrived to 39 degrees at PDX.

Best & Worst:

Best snorkeling: seeing the manta ray at Muana Kea or the great coal & fish at Kealakua

Best food – 1. Bubba Gumps 2. Tante’s Hawaiian – Worst Tante’s Philipino

Best golf – Tie: Mauna Kea & Nanea

Best sightseeing/hike: volcano – all day

Best (and only) dessert: Mango sponge cake – but best with fresh mango slices for breakfast on Sunday

Most relief: when Rex found mango tree with fruit on the ground so he could drive to the volcano safely