Tag Archives: off roading

Hawaii – Kona Day 13

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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 4

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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).