Hawaiian Restaurants, Beaches and Wildlife

We had some wonderful meals in Hawaii.  There are so many restaurants to chose from, and we were lucky to make some good choices.
Happy Hour.  We absolutely loved Huggos on the Rocks in Kailua-Kona.  Sitting with sand at your feet, watching the sunset, listening to some really good music with a Mai Tai...doesn't get much better.
They have Mai Tai's for $4.00 and other drink specials, their appetizers were (we had a quesadilla) good size, but we did not ever eat a full meal here.  Music starts around 5:15.

 

Restaurants:
Bite Me   Honokohau Harbor Marina.  Casual setting, outside picnic tables, great seafood.

Island Hopper Steak and Seafood.  Across from Kailua pier.  Open air.  Scott felt this place had the best shrimp cocktail of all the places we ate.  There was a Hawaiian singer (singing Hawaiian classics).

Bubba Gumps  Kailua Kona, on Alii drive, on the water.  Very nice atmosphere, with average food and it's family friendly.

Kona Canoe Club  in the Kona Inn shopping village.  Average food, open air seating along ocean.  They also have a happy hour from 2-5 pm.

Kona Inn Restaurant  in the Kona Inn shopping village.  Outdoor tables, good food, view of ocean.

Pancho & Lefty's Cantina.  Mexican restaurant.  We were here early so I had Macadamia pancakes which were very good and Scott had a variety platter.  A nice view of all the activity along Alii drive.

Jolenes  In Honoka'a, corner restaurant on main street that we stopped at after viewing Waipi'a valley.  There aren't many restaurants to choose from, but this one turned out to be quite good.  I had a teriyake burger, and Scott had a Okazu Platter as we watched locals walk by.  This restaurant advertised that Honoka'a was the site of an episode of Hawaii 5-0.

 Sam Choys           By the name I was thinking Chinese, but this was mainly a seafood restaurant.  Open air, some outdoor seating.  All meals between $20 and $30.  Fresh bread was placed on the table, which was very good but what was really interesting was everyone got a small salad and a cup of soup as we waited for our orders.  Everything was very good!

Courtyard King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel Restaurant.  They advertised a seafood buffet on Fridays so Scott and I checked it out.  A large selection of food, the king crab legs were excellent, but overall a good but not superior seafood buffet.  

BEACHES in Kailua-Kona

(my underwater camera got sand in the lens so the pictures are grainy)

Magic Sands Beach Park:  Really nice sand beach.  Reef along one side with snorkeling good when the waves are overpowering.  

I saw a Trumpet fish along with some colorful pools of fish

Kahalu'u Beach Park   further south on Alii Drive.  The beach has an offshore reef and has better snorkeling since its in a protected bay, but the beach is somewhat rocky.  Here I saw a Helmut Gurnard fish.  (the Helmut Gurnard fish actually grunts when it feels threatened and the name Gurnard is french for grunt).  Also a large turtle swam by me so fast that I only could capture part of it, but it was so cool!

Helmut Gurnard

Turtle swims by

The best area for snorkeling is about 22 miles south of Kailua-Kona.  It is across from the Pu'u Honua O Honaunau (City of Refuge) National Historical Park which we didn't visit.  It was a place of sanctuary in the early 15th century either for those who broke the law against the gods or for women and children and defeated warriors.  Visitor center open daily.

This beach is located in Honaunau Bay and has a small shallow section that allows easy access into the water but you have to swim deeper out or around the rocks to get to the coral reef.  You can also enter the water from the rocks since the water is pretty deep but I suggest wearing water shoes because of the slippery rock surface and the coral reef.  Also the water current can be strong so if you are not a good swimmer wearing a life jacket or vest is recommended.

Shallow beach area

Rocky area overlooking bay

The best snorkeling is at the northeastern section of the bay, Ka awaloa Cove.  This is where the water ranges from 5 to 120 feet deep with a huge diversity of technicolor fish and coral.  This is also the area the spinner dolphins frequent mid afternoons.  I have never snorkeled in such deep water before and it was exceptional.  When the dolphins made their appearance, I was too far away but just knowing they were in the same cove made it really cool.  

Cornet Fish

Kekaha Kai State Park Beach   Manini Owali section.  North of Kona International airport.  Nice sand beach but you must climb down about 4 feet of lava rock to get to the beach.  Nice waves made body surfing very popular here.

Then off in the ocean I noticed people pointing, and there was a water spout, a few minutes later another another spout.  A whale was making its way north.  I climbed up the side to where people were taking pictures, unfortunately I took pictures of the same area but could not capture the whale spouting water.

Lava Tube in Mike and Lynn's backyard.

Mike's Banana Trees

a smaller lava tube

 Makalei Golf Club

Breakfast view

In the Wild:

Feral Cats at the Old Kona Airport State Recreational Center

Wild Goats

Wild Kalij Pheasants

Mongoose found all over Hawaii.

I hope these blogs were informative but mostly entertaining.  There is so much to see and do in Hawaii where the weather is always wonderful.  We want to thank Mike and Lynn for allowing us to crash at their wonderful home, and also to do a little lava rock landscaping.   Volcano National Park and Mauna Kea Summit are a must for visitors.  Waipio'o Valley is breathtaking and exhausting if you choose to walk down into the valley.  The beaches were great!  This is a land of diverse topography, from desert to tropical rainforest and everything in between, Hawaii is truly paradise!

Let's end with a sister/brother picture!

Waipi'o Valley Overlook

Time for another breathtaking valley.   Waipi'o Valley was our next destination plus it's listed that there is the highest waterfall on the island visible only in the valley.  The Waipi'o Valley is located on the northeast side of the island and we took Hawaii Belt Road, then went east at Waimea until we got to the small town of Honoka'a, went north on Route 240 until it ends. Wow, what an amazing view!  Waipi'o Valley is a mile wide at the coast and six miles deep.  The other side of the cliff below is the Pololu Valley.

 Scenic view of cliffs dropping 2,000 feet into lush vegetation and black sand beach.  This beach was the dry land in the last scene of the movie Waterworld.

Tour companies offer horseback riding or ATV rides along the rim and down into Waipi'o Valley.  Only cars with 4WD are allowed on the road that decends 1,000 feet to the valley floor.  Another option:  Walk.

Some reviews about Waipi'o Valley:  To venture into the valley 4WD is required and nerves of steel.........  

 Anyone who feels the urge to hike down this bad boy is flippin Nuts!  

We went to our car's trunk to get our backpack but it wasn't there.  Luckily I had a couple sodas and a candy bar in a cooler, so we were set.

So after reading the signs we started the descent.  

There were only a few cars at the lookout when we left.  As we rounded the first curve, a young guy ran upward past us.  Scott asked, "How bad is it". (thinking that this guy was just on his way up) and the guy replied, "I'm going to get the car."  Oh.
We continued, and in a few minutes, he drove by us in his jeep and picked up his girlfriend just ahead of us.  At this point we are still thinking, this isn't that bad.  But, as we continued, and Scott's toes kept hitting the front of his hiking shoes, we realized why not everyone could do this.  It is a 27 degree grade, at many places its gravel, and pretty much just wide enough for one car. When you see a car coming up or hear one coming from behind, you have to stand off to the side...which isn't always easy when one side of the road is mountain and the other side is cliff straight down.

The road ahead

The road behind.

About 45 minutes after starting our journey we were at the bottom crossroads.  Left leads to the waterfall, along a stream, and past some interesting houses.

Here is the valley diagram

road runs along this river

Right leads to the beach.
We decided to go left first and almost immediately we came upon a woman.  She has a house in the valley and was out for an afternoon walk.  We asked her if this road lead to the waterfall.  She said, "Yes, you can see it just around the bend, but to get to it you will have to cross over a little river runoff, and then over a little deeper stream, and then swim over the river."  Hmmm I pondered.. probably not going to get too close to that water fall today.   She continued, "Any other waterfalls are deeper into the valley."  She didn't explain how to get to the any of the other waterfalls, but she did mention we may see some of the wild horses if we go towards the beach.

In a couple minutes we could see a waterfall in the distance.  At this time a van with some tourist stopped and got out.  The tour guide said that this is Hillawe Falls, 1,250 foot drop.  The camera did not pick it up very well.

 We were able to jump over the first stream runoff without any problem, but when we got to the next water spot we realized it would require us to removed our shoes and socks (this was actually deeper than it looked and the water was running quite rapidly...about 8 inches deep and about 4 feet wide.  Knowing that the next obstacle required us to swim across the river we turned around here.

(I did see the advertisement for horseback riding into the valley, and they showed the horses in water up to their bodies and alerted riders, that your legs will get wet on the ride.)

So we headed for the beach.  Along the way we did see a couple mongooses darting across the road.  Then as we got closer to the beach, jackpot, we viewed the first horse in the marsh.  I called to him and without much hesitation, he came out.  Then a few yards further up the road, mama horse was also off to the side and with a little coaxing she came over to say hello.  Another 20 yards and a colt was on the road, we enjoyed the whole family.
 In a couple descriptions of this area it warns people to not touch the horses because they will bite, but anyone who knows me knows I love horses and I couldn't just walk by these wonderful creatures.  I was cautious at first but once I saw that they weren't afraid of us I wasn't afraid of them.

The colt

In the old days (early 1900s) horses were used to carry taro and poi up out of the valley.  There was a large population of Hawaiians living in this area at that time.  Eventually life became modernized and farmers started using motor vehicles.  The horses were released to run wild in the valley and they been here now for generations.  Its rumored that some years ago a quarterhorse was released into the valley creating new bloodlines.  As cool as the idea of wild horses are, the farmers that still grow their crops in the valley are not happy when horses destroy their produce.  There is talk that the Hawaiian government would like to protect these horses from any harm but no law has been constructed yet.

A little further down the road we came to the beach.  The black sand, the waves, the surfers, all were amazing.

Watched some experienced surfers.

The scenic overlook is at the top of this cliff

 We sat on a stone, watched the surfers and other people walking on the beach.  We drank our sodas, split our candy bar and saved a small piece and gave it to the only horse we saw on the way back to the crossroads.  Once we got to the bottom of the hill, we knew that Scott's toes could not make the walk up that steep grade, and we also knew we did not want to huff and puff what would probably take us well over an hour to drag ourselves up that incline.  So we decided to hitch a ride  and asked the first SUV that came from the beach and turned to head up the hill.  It was a couple from Virginia and their adult son was driving.  They were happy to give us a ride which turned into a less than 10 minute drive up (since vehicles on the way up have right of way).
The whole parking lot was now full.  The overlook was really crowded with people.  Even if you don't have a 4WD vehicle, and you don't think you could walk down the steep grade, just coming to take in this view is worth the trip here!

Thanks for the ride up!

We stopped for something to eat, and then made our way home.

When I got home I investigated the Waipi'o valley.  I found very little specifics on what is actually located deeper into the valley.  I read that when you go deeper into the valley, after swimming across the stream, you can walk on a bridal path for a ways, but then its mostly just a path created by the last people who walked it or by the horses.  One article said it could take 9 hours to walk in, but it didn't say what you would find once you got that deep into the valley.  Except for the road we walked on, everything in the valley is actually private property, no manicured trails for people to hike, no maps, but rather raw nature at it's best.  I would imagine this is probably a challenge for even the most experienced hiker.

Waipi'o Valley a must see, even from the overlook it's worth the drive!