After two days on the Hilo side it was time to get a move on and head over to the Kona side for the remainder of our vacation. We took a cue from a friend and got some snacks at KMC's general store because the ride to the other side would take us between two and three hours. It was weird to see a sign that said "Kailua-Kona 96 miles," because that kind of distance doesn't exists on Oahu.
With snacks and caffeine in tow, we checked out and were on the road by 7:30 a.m. The drive was a nice change of pace from all the traffic and buildings on Oahu. We drove through miles of lava fields and farm lands and saw some moos and ponies along the way.
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| Hello Moo! |
We passed the Monkey Pod tree that Albert Einstein planted and walked around a black sand beach.
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| He is just delighted to have his photo taken. |
The most eventful part of our vacation was just a few mile markers down via Saddle Road. This area boasts South Point which is the southern most point of the U.S. (NOT the Florida Keys people!). On our way down we passed some broken wind farm mills, abandoned Navy quarters and some bumpy terrain. In my guidebooks there was a section about a green sand beach. Yes I said green sand beach. Eager to check it out, we drove a lil further down until we hit a boat ramp, per the guidebook. Parked our car and ventured out for a two mile along a quote "flat, grassy, plain."
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| Do you notice something about the way this tree looks? |
Not wearing the proper shoes, hey the book said the terrain was FLAT, we started off on what I thought was a never ending journey to nowhere. Despite it being early, it was hot, I was lugging around my camera, not wearing the wrong shoes and we both had no idea where we were going and we were hiking through dunes, lava, hard and soft sand NOT a FLAT GRASSY PLAIN!
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| Does this look like a flat, grassy plain!? |
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| Green Sand Beach |
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| Right before my melt down. |
We spotted a family ahead of us and they were going to the same place as us so we knew it did exists and we weren't the only knuckle heads on this quest. We also came across some locals that pointed us in the right direction and offered to shuttle us over to it. Stupidly, I said, "Meh, I walked this far, I think we can manage." Shoulda paid the surfer dude and hitched a ride! The guidebook did say if we had 4WD this trip via vehicle woulda been no biggie. After seeing the terrain, I wouldn't want to mess up my car, but we did see a ton of jeeps and big pickups tackling the earth.
After what seemed like for-eeeever, we made it and I was epically dis-a-pointed! It looked more gray than green. UGH THIS WAS AN EPIC WASTE OF TIME! Feeling pretty annoyed, it hit me that we had to walk all the way back. Now oober sweaty, dirty and dehydrated and not to mention that my feetwere killing me and my hands were swollen, Chris and I turned around and headed back to our car.
Nearly halfway back I had a melt down. I stopped dead in my tracks, threw my hands down and cried. I lost it. I told Chris to go on without me, talk about dramatic. Chris talked me off the "building" and I made it back to the car. Muttering and telling anyone we passed to turn around because this was NOT worth it. Aren't I charming.
Being hungry and having to use the loo didn't help my situation much (read my husband is a saint) we continued on our trip, no more pit stops, and drove to The Shack to have breakfast with some Madagascar geckos. The food was good, their coffee revived me, and the view was stunning.
With still a ways to go, we made it to the Kona Brewery were we manage to snag the last two spots on the free brew tour. Success! The food was okay, but the location and decor itself was pretty nice. Anxious to check out our swanky hotel, we skipped hitting Kailua town and opted to check into out hotel.
The price was def. worth it! After the long drive through nothing but lava fields, we reached what I called our "oasis" in the dessert. The Fairmont Orchid was AMAZING! We were greeted with lei (even in the plural form it doesn't have an S, much like the word Keiki, Hawaiian for kids), the bellman took up our luggage and valet parked our car (self park was only $3 cheaper), so we felt like ballers!
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| Bridal Falls =) |
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| Typical. |
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| The grounds here were beautiful! |
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| Lagoons. |
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| Hawaii's state flower: Yellow Hibiscus. |
The hotel grounds were luxurious and stunning. No wonder why our friends who had stayed there a few weeks before for a family wedding never left the premises. After a tour of the joint, we checkout our room. Amazing! Our view was of the gardens and our bathroom, had TWO showers! Since we were sweaty from our trek, we took showers, me in one and him in the other, because, well, we had TWO showers and headed into Kailua town for some grub.
We had spent some time here during our Honeymoon in 2009, so we didn't check out the Kona Coffee Farm or the Sanctuary, instead we hit up a photography store that we liked last time. Since we were newly weds and didn't have much extra dough, we weren't able to snag some cool lava pics. Now that I am working, Chris didn't hesitate and nabbed some sweet art.
We walked around Kona, this is where the Iron Man begins, and thought about getting some food at the Kona Inn but we were still full from lunch. Instead, we headed back to our hotel and had cocktails and pupus (read appetizers) at the Luana Lounge under the stars. After our adventure in the morning it was the perfect end to the day.
