Hawaii – Kona Day 14

Posted on November 30, 2020 by jmatie22

Last day in Hawaii, which was pretty packed with small stops.

Started the day going to Green Flash Coffee. Here are the details:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/30/green-flash/

Then headed to Kahalu’u beach to get in some last minute snorkeling. I gotta say I liked the diversity of fishes here better than Captain cook monument (but the corals at captain cook were much better, and there were dolphins there). NJ did mention though he saw a turtle in the water while snorkeling.

After the beach, we cleared out our AirBnb (will always have the memories of watching season 28 of survivor there). We then dropped our bags of at Janie’s new place which is near Da poke shack.

From there, we headed to Kona Coffee and Tea to pick up some souvenirs (got some medium roast coffee. I also wanted to get the chocolate covered espresso macadamia nuts, but they ran out :().

We then headed to Kona Brewery, where we had a late lunch. Details can be found here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/30/kona-brewery/

After the brewery, we stopped by a small chocolate shop called Puna (had an art exhibition in the upstairs). Got a chocolate covered stroopwafel, which was pretty good.

We then headed to HiCo, where I got an iced mocha plus a spam musubi. Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/hico/

After, we went to costco to grab some additional souvenirs (macadamia nuts plus Kona account Crunch coffee).

After Costco, we quickly rushed to Pine Trees Beach to see a glimpse of the sunset. Afterwards, headed to ABC to get some souvenirs (a shot glass, a coaster, some chocolate covered macadamia nuts, and a shirt).

The last stop before heading to the airport was Janie’s place to eat a Sushi dinner (ordered from Sushi Cocoro & Udon, which details can be found here: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/30/sushi-cocoro-udon/).

We then dropped off our Jeep at Hertz, and boarded our flight. Till next time Hawaii!!!

Some things to check out next time I visit Big Island:

-Narnia

-Resort area 25 miles north of Kona (where there is other types of nightlife)

Hawaii – Kona Day 13

Posted on November 29, 2020 by jmatie22

We started off this day by traveling along Alii drive. We went into town first, where I was able to try an açaí bowl at Kona Wave Cafe (recommended by several of our friends). I thought it was was really good. Here are the details:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/29/kona-wave-cafe/

We then meandered to this beach in Kaloko-Honokōhau national park. We were promised several turtles by the park ranger, but only found one (see the pic below).

After the beach, we headed back to Keck, to see the sun set below the clouds, and the telescopes. Some tips about getting to the summit. First, you should drive to the visitor center and stay there for 15 minutes to acclimatize to the altitude. Second, the summit is like 1 degree Celsius, so wear winter clothes if possible. Third, you need a 4×4 to go past the visitor center. Four, park your Jeep facing the telescopes and sunset (so you can hop in and out of the car).

After Keck, we drove to Ola brewery to have dinner, and then stopped by MyBar for a quick drink. Updated Ola Brewery comments are in here: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/22/ola-brewery/

We then headed to Dersu and Elsa’s to end the night with more drinking 🙂

Hawaii – Kona Day 11

Posted on November 27, 2020 by jmatie22

This day was mainly focused on Thanksgiving.

Started off the day by going to KTA to buy groceries and alcohol for Thanksgiving dinner. Also grabbed poke for lunch / snack from KTA. You can find the details here: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/?p=1156

After KTA, we spent a couple of hours at On the Rocks, since Ben has not been before, and I definitely wanted him to check out the view. Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/on-the-rocks/

We then got back to our AirBnB to make the food for Thanksgiving dinner. I made bacon Mac and cheese, plus regular Mac and cheese (both from the “deluxe” version of Kraft Dinner). Ben made meatballs (and regular meatballs) plus spaghetti.

For Thanksgiving dinner, we headed to Brittany’s place. Pictures can speak for themselves 🙂

http://travel.johnmatienzo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/img_7272-1.mov

Hawaii – Kona Day 10

Posted on November 26, 2020 by jmatie22

Started off the day by visiting Da Poke Shack for lunch. Here are the details:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/26/da-poke-shack/

After lunch, we headed off to Kealakekua Bay to pick up kayaks for visiting the Captain Cook monument. Used this rental company: https://fareharbor.com/embeds/book/ehuandkai/items/?flow=19754&full-items=yes

Kayaking took about 30 minutes to the monument. The waters for kayaking and snorkeling were not too bad. This bay I supposed to have the best views for snorkeling in Hawaii. I thought the view under the water for snorkeling was ok. The view closer to the edges of the rock walls and shore were better than ones further out. I also added some more snorkeling tips after this trip here:

http://lessons.awesomenessoflife.com/2020/11/24/snorkeling-tips/

After snorkeling, we headed to a hotel bar in the Royal Kona Resort to watch the sunset while drinking pina coladas. You can find the details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/26/royal-kona-hotel-bar-don-the-beachcomber/

Ended off the day having dinner at Janie’s where Sam made a veggie pizza (starter kit from Costco, and NJ brought the fake sausage and vegetables), plus lobster pasta.

Hawaii – Kona Day 9

Posted on November 25, 2020 by jmatie22

This day was used to explore the eateries / bars in Holualoa.

Started off by going to a “dive” bar called Humpy’s Big Island Alehous, which has a really good view of the water. Of course I ordered the Pina Colada. Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/humpys-big-island-alehous/

Next, we stopped by a place with an even more dope view, a place called On the Rocks. Had lunch there, with a mai tai. Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/on-the-rocks/

Needed to get some orange juice and tide detergent, so ended up going to a Hawaii convenient store chain called “ABC”.

After some solid morning/lunch drinking, decided to get some coffee at a HiCo. Got an iced mocha, which was really delicious. Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/hico/

We then chilled at Janie’s place for a bit (which is where the sunset picture is from), and then had dinner / tried Kava at Kanaka Kava: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/25/kanaka-kava/

After drinking kava, we chilled at the volleyball courts for a bit at the same complex the Kava and Island Lava Java places were at.

Ended off the night drinking back at Janie’s place, where we played a game called Therapist (basically two rules are made up and two people designated as the therapists have to try and guess the rules). Great game.

Hawaii – Kona Day 8

Posted on November 24, 2020 by jmatie22

This day was a day of snorkeling.

Started off the day going to Costco to pick up some snorkeling gear. Decided to get the full face mask, but also had to buy the set with flippers.

We headed off to two-step beach at Captain cook, where I basically learned how to use the snorkeling face mask (key part is to make sure the face mask is tight enough using the straps at the back, and just breath with your nose normally. Admittedly it is difficult to breathe with it, and don’t really like to use it longer than 30 minutes), and got comfortable with the flippers. To finally get out there, as Dersu said “don’t think”. Another tip (but I think this is for the goggle type snorkels), to have no fog, you spit in your goggles (need to figure if this works for the full face mask).

The ocean floor had very few sea urchins. There were a good amount of fish. At the time I didn’t know this, but there were sea urchins between some holes in the rocks on the steps coming out of the water (although I had my flippers on, so my feet would have been ok regardless. I was using those holes with my hands though).

After two-step, we headed to Honokohau Harbor for our night time manta ray snorkeling adventure.

First time wearing a wet suite. Definitely see how it warms you up, and would consider buying one if I did more water sports (but would get between a small and a medium size).

To get to the snorkeling spot, we spent 30 minutes getting there. The boat ride was definitely bumpy. While we were there, we spent 45 minutes attached to this surfboard looking device, that shines light down the water to attract plankton, which attract the mantarays. I was fortunate enough to get a manta ray kiss (it’s bottom part touched my right hand). Gotta say it felt pretty rough lol.

The last 10 minutes I did start to feel light headed. Didn’t think I needed to throw up, but my stomach was also not super settled. Might have been a good idea not to drink a seltzer beforehand.

The ride back it started raining, but covering myself with a towel plus the wet suite helped.

We ended off the day having dinner at a ramen place, which you can catch the details here:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/24/daichi-ramen/

Hawaii – Kona Day 7

Posted on November 23, 2020 by jmatie22

This day was basically a day for just golfing.

We started off the say by just having brunch at our AirBnb, then drove to Makalei golf course for our Tee time at 1pm.

We golfed for 4.5 hours. You can find the details about the course and some golfing tip ani learned here:

http://lessons.awesomenessoflife.com/?p=63

We stopped by KTA Supermarket before dinner. It’s similar to Safeway, but it is a local grocery store for Hawaii, which means they do have Hawaii specific food like poke. I do think they’re alcohol selection was a bit expensive.

The rest of the say was spent having a bbq at Dersu and Elsa’s.

Hawaii – Kona Day 6

Posted on November 22, 2020 by jmatie22

We started off the day moving out of our current AirBnb, and then storing our luggage at Dersu’s place. We then headed over to Janie’s place to figure out what to do. The original plan was to go to Hilo, but the forecast was basically 100% chance of rain.

We ended up deciding on going to Makalawena beach (where Sam had his “near death” experience). It probably took us 4 hours to mobilize (as the others wanted to go camping and picked up supplies and grill). We then headed out, but went through the wrong off-road entrance, and had to come back.

After finally finding the real off-road entrance, it was clear this was the craziest off-roading drive of the trip so far.

We ended up getting to the beach at 4:30pm, and had an hour to do whatever. Did a late lunch with Poke shack to (which was amazing. Will go back there and do a proper review). And then some of us dropped a, which of course enhanced things.

In terms of the beach, it’s interesting since it’s divided into three “sections”. One is really good for body boarding, while the second one you can snorkel in. The third one is full of sea urchins, and you want to avoid that one!

We ended up leaving at night, and the off road experience was not as bad as I thought it would be. Perhaps because I was less sober?

When we got to the main road, we picked up our bags and checked into our new AirBnb, which is pretty fire (compared to our previous place).

After, rolled out to Magic Sands Beach for the moon set, and to ride the rest of the a out.

Hawaii – Kona Day 5

Posted on November 22, 2020 by jmatie22

Started off the day by going to Janie’s place, which as I may have mentioned before has an awesome view from higher ground of the water.

We then went to grab some poke (first time) at a new place called Kona Grill house (interestingly enough I didn’t order any red meat, only sea food). Here are the details: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/21/kona-grill-house/

After picking up the food we drove to a Kahalu’u beach, where we ate said food (and then NJ and ben snorkled… which Ben mentioned was the best place to snorkel as of Day 8 of our trip). Shortly after, had my first Kona Coffee and Tea experience, where you can read a out it here: http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/21/kona-coffee-tea/

Shortly after, we made our way to Green Sands Beach, where along the way we drove to the southern most point of the United States!

When we got to the entrance of Green Sands Beach, we met our second off road challenge (and my first time driving off-road!). This one was definitely much more of an experience than the previous day. Not only where there more sudden drops, but there were multiple ways to go (so trying to choose the less bumpy one was sometimes challenging). The secret though (which we found out on the way back) is to follow the paths closest to the only wired fence.

When we got to the beach, we basically had the beach to ourselves (one other group left shortly after we arrived). To be honest, I didn’t think the sand was super green, but Justin was mentioning it’s because of how late in the day it was. We only spent 40 minutes in the water, but I did body boarding for the first time, and got 1 really good wave.

We then headed back to Holualoa (right before sunset), and checked out the Ola Brewery:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/22/ola-brewery/

After, we went to a bar/”club” called MyBar, which was a reminding experience during COVID times.

We finished if day watching the moon set at 11:28pm at Magic Sands Beach. That one was a first for me, which was really beautiful.

Hawaii – Kona Day 4

Posted on November 22, 2020 by jmatie22

We started off the day getting brunch at a place in town (Holualoa) called Island Lava Java. The view while eating is absolutely amazing. Here are the details:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/21/island-lava-java/

Right after, we stopped by the coffee place right beside it called Kona Haven. The cafe also has a great view, where you could do work from it:

http://food.johnmatienzo.com/2020/11/21/kona-haven/

We then headed north to Waipio Valley. We took the Jeep for its first off road adventure, where we hit some mud puddles along the way as we descended to the valley. Definitely fun, but bumpy.

When we got to the bottom of the valley, we also had to cross a river (basically the water was at my neck with a pretty strong current) to get to the beach we wanted to chill at. The sand at the beach was super black (from the volcano). Although it was raining (lightly) half the time, the water was warm.

After the valley, we headed back to our place for a rager, where most of the other house came (although unfortunately we got a noise complaint by the caretaker early at 9pm). We ordered sushi from Kona Coco, which had a good deal on rolls (but the quality was just average).