Day 3: Captain Cook to Hookena

November 19, 2014

(Flash: it is noon on Nov 20. We have climbed out of Hookena and are headed for Manuka. Internet signal is almost totally non existent, but at least we are getting this bit of post through. Here below is what was written last night. Sorry, no photos for now and not sure when we will be able to post again.)

We feel now that we have a good feel for the Kona Coast and that we got a chance to see and understand. We were lucky, really, to not make it to Hookena yesterday. Hookena could be called the end of the Kona section, and it is way way down, by the sea. Captain Cook turned out to be the top (of the road), with an elevation of about 1500 feet.

So we were perched at the top, in the Manago Hotel, and today we could just slide down, looking at all (sort of) the stuff as we went. In our original plan we were going to come to Hookena and then go back to Captain Cook to look around. That would nevef have happened, since the ride down was pleasant coasting for 16 km followed by a brake burning 4 km descent.

Our first stop was the Amy Greenwell garden, right across from the hotel. It'sw an 8 acre site that has been taken over by the Bishop museum to preserve and display indigenous plants. What it meant was first off a gift shop full of terribly interesting books about native plants and culture, though of course we could buy and carry none. Then there was a lava path through the site, with markers describing most of the trees and plants. This is the kind of thing we love. The garden had field a field manual of Hawaiian plants that one could borrow, but we did not feel we had the time, this time, to try to become Hawaiian horticulturalists. Rather, we got a walk through lush flora, and a small inkling of what we were looking at.

One tree was being visited by a lot of little yellow birds. I asked one of the staffers what this is, found out, and have now forgotten it. He did say it is non native. That turns out to be a safe bet, since (he said) an avian malaria had wiped out native birds below the elevation where the carrier mosquitoes range.

We also learned a bit more about that moth we had seen yesterday. It is Secusio Extensa, introduced as a biocontrol for the Fireweed (senecio madagascaria) and Cape Ivy, which are apparently rampant along the saddle road between Moana Loa and Moana Kea.

Coffee, of course, was next on our list. We began by finding a bakery and cafe. "Cafe" or "coffee shop" here has a little different slant than elsewhere. In general, they are selling custom label local coffee. The bakery, called the Oven & Butter, actually was making very good looking artisanal bread. Their other offerings were few,but they had banana and macadamia coffee cake, and pineapple scones, all of which was excellent. There is nothing like finding good coffee and bakery to make one feel that all is well with the world! The coffee in this case was from "Bebo's Kona Coffee", a small farm that we later passed -down the road.

We did not stop at Bebo's, but rather at Royal Kona. This is a major buyer and processor here, and they have a very informative film, posters describing the coffee production process, and most wonderfully - nothing to stop you from wandering all around the place. In fact, as we rolled onto the property looking for a place to put the bikes, we naturally followed the pavement. This lead us to what turned out to be the spot where the farmers come to deliver their ripe beans, or "cherry". After having watched the film, we were of course experts on what ripe cherry should look like, and I didn't feel the farmers were bringing stuff that was ripe enough. So I asked the workers on hand, and got shown what was good, ok, and bad in a sample. What happens is that each bag brought is sampled, and the price the farmer receives is based on the assessment of his stuff. Later, the company will grade what they have from the day. The people were too busy for me to go on and bug them for details of what they then do with cherry of different grades. I still got the feeling, though, that they were accepting product that looked a lot less impressive than the plump all red berries I had seen in the film.

One thing that stands out from what we saw is that the whole industry here is basically a cottage industry. The whole Kona coffee region is just 2 miles by 22 miles in size, and comprises not much more than 600 farms, each of only about 5 acres. Similarly the processing and roasting is done on small and old equipment, in scattered open sheds. Beans are dried on concrete pads or on tarps in the sun, and turned by hand with a wooden rake. It is all much like the more familiar scenes of small wine villages in France. In fact, the similarities are many. Here we have the trees growing on slopes, just like grape vines often do. And their feet are in lava rock, reminiscent of the rocky soil at Chateauneuf du Pape.

Now the controversial bit. Frankly, I can not make out what all the hoo hah is about. The Bebo's coffee, and the various tasters at Royal Kona seemed just normal, to me. Had I sipped and closed my eyes, I could have believed that I was sitting in McDonald's, and that is not necessarily a compliment to McDonalds. Dodie says I am just not worth wasting good stuff on. On the other hand Dodie, forced by me to try some of this costly elixir, also declared it yucchy. But then, she would say the same in McDonald's.

So, impressed by the mountainside farms, the volcanic soil, the artisanal production, and all, but not with the product itself, we cycled on. Just like in France with wine, the final object is lost on us.

Ok,ok, so next up is Macadamia Nuts. This is also a cottage scale industry, and we stopped at the Macadamia Nut Factory. It is an operation with what looked like two employees. But at least, macadamia nuts are not lost on us. Whether chocolate covered or salted, they are super. The factory's smallest package was one pound, for about $16. Too heavy for us, but we found a half sized package down the road, so great.

We had kind of thought that the Captain Cook area and beyond would be short of services and supplies, but in fact all along our path today were fruit stands, cafes, and even one large looking grocery store. Maybe it's tomorrow that we will enter the "desert". Certainly, once we round the south point of the island we will be in the lee of Moana Loa, and into the Kau Desert. That is a spot where I really once almost died from lack of water on a previous trip. But all that is in the coming days. Right now we are set up by the beach, and getting ready to dine on Griessklosschen Suppe - a package of soup that came back with us from Germany. So, we are running our own ethnic restaurant down here!

The camping on the beach here is pretty free form, with just sand and scattered picnic tables. There is a hot shower for washing off the sand from swimming, but so far we have not spotted any regular drinking water. We have also not spotted anyone to check our permit. Besides, it seems like had we set up without having bought a permit, we could have paid anyone who came around - since there are no reserved, numbered sites involved. So it means we kind of threw away our money for here from yesterday (that's for sure), and probably did not have to pay for today.

Tomorrow we are going to try to wake up at 4:30 a.m., so as to climb out of here in the cool.

Ah yes, swimming in the ocean was great!