Hawaii – Oahu 2025 Day 4

Posted on November 28, 2025 by jmatie22

Started the day early at 5am to venture to Haunama Bay.

As an fyi, we got tickets the day before noticing that there were two tickets available on the site for the 5:40am pick up.

From getting picked up, we stopped by a water sports rental place (ie to get towels or snorkel gear).

When we got to the entrance, needed to wait to hear a 10 minute orientation (about what to not do while snorkeling like touching fishes and turtles). So we effectively started our snorkel session at 8am.

Snorkeling at the bay was pretty decent. Still not as good as Big Island (specifically Cook’s Island). But there were still a variety of fish to see, and also got to see a turtle!

The beach itself was fairly clean, and well maintained. Water temperature went well with the weather.

And to sum it up, as one puts it, Haunama Bay experience is like Disney Land for snorkeling, in that it is fairly organized in terms of getting there and entrance fee (there is even a museum before the entrance area).

Pro tip for next time, bring a flask of whisky!

After snorkeling we went back to the hotel, and I got an Açaí bowl for lunch. Not gonna lie, I’m sold on it!

We then waited till 5:30pm for our Luau plus (thanksgiving) dinner.

At the luau they had things like temporary tattoos, and creating flower bracelets.

The show itself was around 1 hour. They did dances from various Polynesian countries. Two thing I learned:

-New Zealand is one of the corner of the Polynesian triangle.

-Fire flame dance is from Samoa.

Overall, I did enjoy the show and food, but not sure if it was worth $300 for a ticket (plus thought the luau show could have been at least 1.5 hours, and have more than 1 dance with fire).

And that pretty much ended the night (although watched Roofman as a night cap).

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 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 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/