Kona, Hawaii

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Today we are in Kona on the big island Hawaii. 

We had to be tendered into Kona today.  At least it is a beautiful day!

This is what we saw when be got off the tender boat. WOW beautiful!

This is where we were waiting for our tour bus at the dock.

 This is our first stop of the day. 

 We walked across old lava flows as seen above. Below is one of a few petroglyphs we saw in the lava.

This is supposed to be a woman giving birth.  This was said to be a birthing stone.

We continued on to the beach to see the Honu or Green Sea Turtles. 

Above is looking out of a replicated hut the natives used to store their canoes in on the beach. Below is more of the beach in the park.  So gorgeous.

 Above is a couple of green sea turtles sunning themselves. Obviously they have been out of the water for a while.  Below is a turtle leaving the water. We saw him working his way up on the sand.

We did get pictures of the green sea turtles in the water but they are hard to see so I'm not including any in this blog post.

Our next stop was the cloud forest which was on the property of the Kona Coffee Farms.

 This is the entrance to our hike through the Cloud Forest which will end the Kona Coffee Company.

The foliage along our path was marvelous.

 There were several cockatoos that had been rescued and lived here.  This one was very vocal.  I caught him with his feathers up.  I have a video of him talking and squacking, but cannot post videos in the blog.

These are buttress roots of a rainforest tree which may be a kapok tree.

This is a rainbow eucalyptus tree. The trunk was so colorful! God's creations are so amazing!

We arrived at the Mountain Thunder Kona Coffee Company.

 This display shows the red coffee bean shell after it has been soaked.  From right to left the light roast, medium roast and dark roast are displayed. The red shell used to make Kona Coffee Cherry Tea.

 This small lava tube was on a wall surrounding the sitting area at the coffee store.

 During our tour of the coffee processing plant, we learned that coffee beans are sorted by size before they are roasted.
Our tour guide was very informative on the entire process from picking of the beans to the roasting.

I got some of the Cherry Tea and Tic got some Kona Coffee. We won't get to try these until we are back home.

It was beautiful today and we enjoyed our tour. We were back to the ship in time for dinner.

Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii Day 2

Monday, December 11, 2017

Today's tour is called "natural Highlight of Oahu". We are starting at Diamond Head Crater, an extinct volcano.

 Trees were planted throughout the crater.  They were lined up like an orchard.

Diamond Head was used as a fortress in the past.  Interesting.

We stopped at so many beautiful places. I took pictures every stop and some through the windows.  Here is the list in the order the tour listed them: Halona Blowhole, Makapu'u Lookout, Hanauma Bay & the Pali Lookout. I'm hoping I will be able to tell the location of everything.

Hanauma Bay

 The dish shape in the size of the mountain fascinated me.

The roots of this tree were mostly above ground and gathered air to feed the tree. We learned that 90% of the foliage in Hawaii is non-native.  That includes this tree.

Above is Halona Cove in the movie "From Here to Eternity" made in 1941. Below also shows the outer edge of this cove. WOW beautiful!!! 

 Above is down the beach from the Halona Blowhole. Below is a close-up of the waves coming in on the lava rocks.

This is approximately where the blowhole is supposed to be.  However, we never saw it blow.  We were told the waves were too gentle today.

Above and below are pictures of the mountains across the highway from Halona Cove and Blowhole.

This was out next stop. We stopped along side the road.

I believe this is Kahauloa Bay in both the above and below pictures.  Below the smallest green looking island is a bird sanctuary.

What a gorgeous view!

Our next stop was the Pali Lookout.

Ugh, this battle looks horrific.

The views from here are absolutely sensational!! See the pictures below.

That's Kailua on Kailua Bay.  What a setting!

 We saw this hen and her chicks on our way back to the bus. Chickens are everywhere in town.  The story is, different groups brought chickens to the islands and many were turned loose. Now all the Hawaiian islands have many ferrel chickens running around.

After we got back to the ship, we decided to take a walk into downtown, which was only a few blocks.

 As we were walking back to the ship, we could see the Aloha Tower and clock while we were standing near this fountain downtown.

 We found this an interesting perspective.  The old building and the new buildings in the same block.

These beautiful trees are all over town.  These islands have been as beautiful as I imagined.

Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii Day 1 Part 2

Sunday, December 10, 2017 continued

At the end of the day we attended Germain's Luau.

We got our picture taken just before we entered the main grounds.

 Tic took the pictures above and below just after we got our picture taken.

Here's the main stage where the show will happen later.

The sun was setting so Tic went to take the following 5 pictures.

Awesome sunset pictures!!!

The pig was about to be removed from the pit where it had cooked all day.

 They are carrying the pan which the pig will be put into.

Dinner was an all-you-can-eat buffet line. You served yourself whatever and as much or little as you want. The pig was especially good. I tried the poi, but it was not something I wanted much of.

 This young man was walking around and more than willing to pose for a picture. He was in the show later as a fire dancer.

 These are 4 men from the audience who volunteered to learn the hula. It was hilarious. The guy in the yellow did the best.  It was fun to watch.

This woman sang several solos and had a fantastic voice.

I tried a video of a hula dancer that was amazing. Sorry no go. I can hardly believe how she can move those hips. I'll try to put it on Facebook.

Most night we were in our room and the room stewards were not able to come in.  Tonight when we got back from the luau this critter was on our bed.

It was a long but fantastic day!