1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (105 page)

A Night in Old Hawaii

Big Island, Hawaii

As a sienna-colored sun sinks slowly into the darkening cobalt waters of the Pacific, the haunting drone of a conch shell pierces the air, calling all to assemble. In the distance, the alpenglow on majestic Mauna Kea
fades from fiery red to hazy purple and finally to inky black as the full moon rises over the mountain’s shoulder. This is the setting for “Twilight at Kalahuipua’a,” a monthly Hawaiian cultural celebration. Its special location is the grassy oceanside lawn of the Eva Parker Woods Cottage, a modest 1920s structure on a small spit between the Kalahuipua’a fishponds and the Pacific at Mauna Lani Resort. (Eva Parker was the great-granddaughter of Parker Ranch founder John Parker; see p. 941.) The unscripted event recalls another time in Hawaii, when family and neighbors would gather in yards and on porches to sing, dance, and “talk story.” Each month features guests ranging from famous Hawaiian entertainers to virtually unknown local
kupuna
(elders), all of whom meet to perpetuate the art of traditional storytelling, accompanied by plenty of music and dance. Unlike resort luau with their spectacle and pageantry, this is a casual gathering permeated by the spirit of aloha.

Begun in the late 1990s, Twilight at Kalahuipua’a occurs on the Saturday closest to the full moon. Things get underway at least an hour before the 5:30
P.M
. start, when hotel guests and people from across the island begin arriving with picnic baskets, mats, coolers, and babies. A sort of oceanside pre-music tailgate party takes place with
kama’aina
(local resident) families and visitors sharing their plate lunches, sushi, and beverages. The man behind these magical events is the serene, soft-spoken Daniel Akaka Jr., who serves as Mauna Lani Resort’s director of cultural affairs. “The spirit of the Twilight at Kalahuipua’a is
ho’okipa,
sharing hospitality by giving,” he says. “We want to share our culture, our music, and our dance.”

An audience listens intently as a group of locals tells a
Kalahuipua’a, plan to arrive by 4:30
P.M
.
story from the porch of the Eva Parker Woods cottage.

W
HERE
: 30 miles north of Kailua-Kona; Mauna Lani Resort, Mauna Lani Dr. Tel 808-885-6622;
www.maunalaniculture.org/twilight
.
W
HERE TO STAY
: Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, tel 800-367-2323 or 808-885-6622;
www.maunalani.com
.
Cost:
from $430. Or the Fairmont Orchid, tel 800-845-9905 or 808-885-2000;
www.fairmont.com/orchid
.
Cost:
from $329.
B
EST TIME
: To get a good seat at Twilight at

The Big Island’s First Temple of Tourism

Kohala Coast, Big Island, Hawaii

The year was 1960. Laurance S. Rockefeller, grandson of industrialist John D. Rockefeller, was touring the Big Island when he spotted a long, crescent-shaped white-sand beach called Kauna’oa, bordered by two
distinct lava points and facing a bay frequented by fishermen. By 1965, he had built a luxury hotel on the spot, creating Hawaii’s first resort destination. The hotel, the Mauna Kea Beach, is now the cornerstone of the Mauna Kea Resort, a complex of over 1,800 acres that also includes the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel (“The Prince”) on another spectacular white-sand beach just to the south. The resort features two championship golf courses, the Mauna Kea course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. on the ancient oceanfront lava flow, and the newer Hapuna course, designed by Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay. With a 13-acre, 13-court tennis park, the resort is also a top tennis destination, and guests can take to the turquoise water for swimming, snorkeling, scuba diving, kayaking, fishing, and whale-watching.

Today’s affluent guests aren’t the first to treasure this place: Long ago it was a recreation spot for the island’s
ali’i,
or royalty and nobility. Next door to the resort is Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site, where in 1791 Kamehameha I built the sacred heiau whose name means “temple on the hill of the whale,” a project meant to incur the favor of the war god Ku in advance of Kamehameha’s successful campaign to unite the islands. The temple stands 224 by 100 feet, with three narrow terraces on the seaside and an amphitheater with views down the hills and onto the ocean.

W
HERE
: 32 miles north of Kailua-Kona. Tel 800-882-6060;
www.princeresortshawaii.com
.
M
AUNA
K
EA
B
EACH
H
OTEL
: Tel 808-882-7222 (808-882-5400 for golf). The hotel is currently closed for renovation after being damaged in an earthquake; it will reopen in 2008. Golf, tennis, and luau still available.
Cost:
from $390; greens fees $210 ($150 for resort guests).
H
APUNA
B
EACH
P
RINCE
H
OTEL
: 808-880-1111 (808-880-3000 for golf).
Cost:
from $370; greens fees $145 ($120 for resort guests).
P
U’UKOHOLA
H
EIAU
: near Kawaihae Harbor. Tel 808-882-7218;
www.nps.gov/puhe
.
B
EST TIME
: Sept for the Aloha Festival Poke Contest at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel.

Aquatic Playground

Big Island, Hawaii

The serrated Kona coast on the west side of the Big Island is a marine playground par excellence. In Hawaiian,
kona
means “leeward” (as opposed to
ko’olau,
“windward”); two nearly 14,000-foot volcanoes, Mauna Kea
(see p. 937) and Mauna Loa, shield this part of the island from northeasterly winds. A dry climate and calm waters prevail 350 days a year. Geologically speaking, the island is relatively young, and its underwater topography is dramatic, with cliffs, caves, canyons, lava tubes, arches, and pinnacles. Fascinating in themselves, these features also serve as diverse habitats for a wide range of marine life, from technicolor tropical reef fish and moray eels to sea turtles and huge pelagic predators.

Snorkelers and scuba divers come to this garden of Neptunian delights to swim with angelfish, puffer fish, darting wrasses, brilliant yellow tangs, and the occasional dolphin. If you are a beginner, Kahalu’u Beach Park is an excellent place to start, as much of the protected cove is only 3 feet deep—if you get tired or nervous, just stand up. More experienced snorkelers have plenty of other places to choose from, including White Sands Beach, Kekaha Kai State Park, Ho’okena, and Honaunau. Several establishments offer exhilarating night dives for up-close experiences with enormous manta rays.

Kona’s calm waters also make it ideal for sea kayaking, which allows a sea-level view of the coastline and often the wildlife; December to April is the best time to see Hawaii’s winter visitors, humpback whales. Beginners can practice in the calm area of the lagoon at Kailua Bay or in the protected waters of Kealakekua Bay. The Kona coast is renowned worldwide for its big-game fishing, with “granders” (Pacific blue marlin weighing more than 1,000 pounds) reeled in every year from the fleet of high-tech sport fishing boats based in Honokohau Harbor.

The Kona Coast is the place for all manner of water sports—from snorkeling and scuba diving to kayaking and canoeing.

S
NORKELING
: Kahalu’u Beach Park.
How:
Snorkel Bob’s, tel 808-329-0770;
www.snorkelbob.com
.
K
AYAKING
: Kailua Bay at Kailua-Kona.
How:
Aloha Kayak, tel 877-322-1441 or 808-322-2868;
www.alohakayak.com
.
Cost:
from $50 for an afternoon tour, includes equipment; from $20 for half-day kayak rental.
F
ISHING
: Honokohau Harbor.
How:
Charter Desk at Honokohau Marina, tel 888-KONA-4-US or 808-329-5735;
www.charterdesk.com
.
Cost:
from $80 for a shared half-day charter.
B
EST TIMES
: June–Sept for fishing; 5 days in late July or early Aug for the Hawaii International Billfish Tournament (
www.hibtfishing.com
). Avoid Jan–Feb for snorkeling, as the water can be choppy with poor visibility.

Java from the Lava

Big Island, Hawaii

Weather conditions on the Hualalai and Mauna Loa Volcanoes—hot, sunny mornings, humid afternoons with rain showers, mild nights—make their slopes perfect for growing coffee. For this reason, a 20-mile
stretch of land, from Holualoa to Kealakekua, is known as the Kona Coffee Belt and is home to some of the world’s most prized beans.

In 1828 an American missionary, Samuel Ruggles, planted the first coffee in Kona. Within a decade, it was being grown commercially, and before long earned a reputation for high quality. Mark Twain concurred in his (1866)
Letters from Hawaii,
“I think Kona Coffee has a richer flavor than any other.” By the beginning of the 20th century, Kona had over 6,000 acres in coffee, spread out among family farms of a few acres apiece, mostly leased by Japanese immigrants who had emigrated to work on the island’s sugar plantations. Today, after a century of boom and bust, the Kona bean grows on 600 farms covering around 3,500 acres. Hawaii remains the only U.S. state with a commercial coffee crop.

One of the best places to explore the Kona Coffee Belt is in the little village of Holualoa, just off the two-lane Mamalahoa Highway above Kailua-Kona. Nestled amid a lush, tropical landscape, this funky upcountry hamlet is a two-block cluster of brightly painted, tin-roofed plantation shacks, an old-fashioned general store, several art galleries, and coffee trees in everyone’s backyard. In February and March, the branches are covered in the jasmine-and-orange-scented blossoms known as “Kona Snow”; in late summer they’re laden with cherry-red fruit. As you might expect, the village also has a terrific coffee shop, the Holualoa Café, where you can linger over the freshly brewed local java.

About 10 miles to the south, in the village of Captain Cook, the Kona Historical Society’s Kona Coffee Living History Farm offers a taste of early 20th-century coffee country life. Guided tours of the 7-acre working farm cover the orchards, the 1925 six-room farmhouse, the Japanese bathhouse, the
kuriba
(pulping mill) and the
hoshidana
(drying platforms). Die-hard coffee enthusiasts will want to visit in early November during the 10-day Kona Coffee Festival, held at multiple locations throughout the Coffee Belt, with dozens of events including a picking contest, cupping competition (blind tasting judged by experts), art exhibits, farm tours, and even a Miss Kona Coffee pageant.

W
HERE
: 20 miles between Holualoa and Kealakekua.
H
OLUALOA
C
AFÉ
: Tel 808-322-2233.
K
ONA
C
OFFEE
L
IVING
H
ISTORY
F
ARM
: Captain Cook. Tel 808-323-2006;
www.konahistorical.org/tours
.
When:
closed Sat–Sun.
B
EST TIME
: early Nov for the annual Kona Coffee Festival (
www.konacoffeefest.com
).