Last day

Sad day, today we spend our last day in the sunshine here on Hawaii. B says it is sunny at home. We packed up the last few things and after S's usual toasted croissant and our fresh smoothie we had almost everything ate up. There were 6 beer and a jumbo ice tea (which we stuffed in a plastic bag and ice) and some snacks for todays road trip. The bags were loaded, top was off and just before 11 am checkout we were on the road heading south.

We took a new high road for some of the way seeing more local Kona sights then jetted down hwy 11 on route to Punalu'u beach, the turtle laden black beach. What a lovely spot with a lily pond to boot.

see the turtles behind me?

here is closer, they are everywhere, on the sand in the water...

There are also lots of fresh water springs popping up, this is where years ago they fetch fresh water with gourds upside down to capture it

more turtles (above see on beach in front of life guard hut) and below behind us

Sheldon's favorite banyan tree roots

The day was lovely as usual and as we headed a wee bit farther south east we stopped to look at a few macadamia nut trees.

varying ripeness, green still has the husk layer on, brown the shell

A tour thru a little town had a sign for a coffee tour and even though not a huge fan I did want to see the process so off we went. The threatening skies soon turned sunny yet again. Free tastes of coffee and macadamia nuts  (nut crunch delicious, the spam flavoured nuts not so much) and we even got in on a Small seed to cup tour. Coffee is very labor intensive. Each tree produces about 10 pounds /yr for about 3-6 years then cut down to rejuvenate and wait a couple more years for production. Cherries sell like grain per pound and grade with 1.90/lb for good quality. This Kau coffee Mill plantation had 3000 acres of coffee trees and 15000 acres of macadamia nut trees.

coffee tree and a pea berry (R)

sorting machine

storage room in burlap coffee bags

the uber large roaster

see why they hand pick each one? some ripe some not

finally a plumeria I could reach

look at this gorgeous hibiscus color... coincidence I too wore coral?

picture on the fly by of the fields of coffee trees

We decided to head back towards Kona with a few planned stops. We did whip back to Whittington beach but this is basically a rest stop with black lava high surf and lots of locals, easy to skip this. Another little road side hut had us stopping and learning lots more from Barney the owner. He shared more about coffee and macadamia nuts letting us taste his roasted and fresh macadamia nuts and well as show us a pea cherry (single) and a regular and a triple coffee bean which he said was sooo rare. He also said we came at a perfect time as the air quality has not been this good since 1974!

poinsettias grow as shrubs/trees here!

Milolii beach was next on the list, The drive down is long and windy with a really nice view but as you get farther down it gets sketchier and slum like. The beach park was small and again no beach but rather lava and surf. Of course it is pretty but the junk/garbage/poor neighborhood is another skip we would suggest. (I did watch a beach hunters episode just after we got home and it was in the area just before the slum area and the place was listed for $649,000 US)

so many poinsettias and these trees below (top center) with deep red/orange flowers, I must find out what they are

We journeyed on to Kona again taking the high road over making it in time for sunset on Alula beach finally. (our condo owner says her favorite beach) It was close to town and Costco, our next stop. It is a quiet beach and not really for swimming/snorkelling as it is near entrance to the harbor.. that and a 16 foot tiger shark named Laverne frequents the area. We saw a whale spouting while we watched the sunset.

One last fill up at Costco and we headed to town to grab supper. We looked at the menu at Fish Hopper S wanted to try but fish was $39.95 US so we drove to another area. We were planning to go to Laverne's tavern but we had not missed happy hour by 30 min. The menu looked better at Bongo Bens so we grabbed a seat along the front to people watch. The fish tacos were $13.95 here compared to $19.95 I had at Huggos right across the street, and the mai tai was half price at $5.

We took a stroll around this coconut grove market area and saw Oceans sports bar in the center had tacos on special for $2.75 EACH inside (4 for $6 on the street) and margaritas for $4 all day. After another drive down the strip we decided that we still had a couple hours to spare so parked back near this sports bar for a couple frosty margaritas.

Finally it was time to head to the airport and drop off the car. Today we put on about 200 miles totally 1000 over the 12 days. Dropping the bags off (ice still had the lone ice tea frosty cold in the snorkel bag) we changed inside the open air terminal eventually getting on the plane for the red eye leaving just before midnight. Good bye lovely Kona, it has been an adventure. We will be back!