Day 7: Kona - snorkeling and luau

A very lazy day today. We go for a short stroll along the main drag, Alli Drive. It’s nice watching the waves crash onto the rocks.

There’s a place called U Top It that’s supposed to have nice breakfast, but even though the signs says they’ll be back at 0730, it’s after eight and no one’s there. Maybe living on island time? But since we have no idea if they’ll be there in a few minutes or not at all we walk back to nearby Lava Java where we find an outside table overlooking the bay.

Breakfast is pretty good and it’s a great spot. There’s a big cruise ship unloading passengers, people swimming far out in the bay (kind of scary) and lots of little birds hoping for scraps.

We pass the ABC store on the way back to the hotel so of course we stop and pick up breakfast for tomorrow.

We stop by the hotel lagoon, which looks kind of small and boring after snorkeling Two Step yesterday, then it’s nap time. Kind of embarrassing, but I really needed to catch up on my sleep haha.

Time for some pictures of our hotel

View from the balcony

The woman at the activities desk places a courtesy call to the hotel luau for us so now we just need to make sure we get there by 4:30pm to get our seats. Not a lot of time left between that and me snoozing the day away, but there’s just enough time to get some snorkeling in.

This time we head for popular Kahalu’u Beach Park. There's a little bit for everyone here; a small sandy beach protected by a lifeguard, snorkeling in shallow water with an easy beach entry, snorkeling and paddle boarding on the far side, restroom and a mobile snack bar.

It’s a bit murky near the shore and there is very little coral left (my guess is from people touching and/or standing on it), but the further you go out the clearer it becomes and there’s some amazing coral too. Not quite as rich in coral as Two Step, but no lack for fish. I'm just uploading the pictures now, but won't add their names until later so I can at least get more days online.

Hawaii's state fish; the Humuhumunukunukuapua'a. You got that, right?

Must be some tasty stuff around here.

One of the weirdest fish I have ever seen. Kind of wiggles instead of swimming. 

Sandy tells me some people saw a turtle out there, but of course I missed it. The next time I go in I get lucky though. How adorable is he?!

Would you like to come for a short snorkel trip with me?

Quick shower at the hotel, then we get in line for the luau. We pay a $5 fee to upgrade to priority seating which turns out to totally be worth it. We get to sit directly in front of stage and we also get to enjoy the buffet first. Btw, poi is disgusting! I really wanted to like it, but the stuff is just putrid. Ick!

My favorite things were the salad with papaya seed dressing, the special pig, cucumber salad with fish cakes and of course fresh pineapple.

The unearthing of the pig is very interesting. They roast it in a special “oven” of hot coals, then taro leaves and some kind of rags to keep the dirt off. Then the whole things gets covered by dirt. Fun to see them dig up your food.

 I was really looking forward to the open bar ... whoops, just realized that sounds like I’m a huge alcoholic, but what I mean is that I was looking forward to trying some of the famous Hawaiian cocktails without paying an arm and a leg. Anyway, turns out they only have mai tais and wine, etc. The mai tais are so watered down it’s pretty much non-alcoholic so we’re knocking them down like it’s lemonade. Luckily the bartender adds rum to the next couple and he’s very generous. Now it tastes like a cocktail!

The show is very entertaining. The stage is right by the ocean so we get to watch the setting sun as the show progresses and listen to the waves at the same time. Sometimes the waves are so rough it’s sending a fine mist of ocean spray to our table.

There’s lots of dancing, representing tribes for all over the pacific.

Maori warrior dance - scaring off your opponent by making funny faces. Hey, apparently it worked!

My favorite is the fire knife dancer … I have no idea how that guy does what he does. I can kind of see how he does the twirling and stuff, but he actually holds the fire in his hands and touches his tongue to the flame, then transfers it to the other end of his stick. It hurts just to think about it, but there must be a secret to it.

What a fun night out!

Miles for today: