First, a little background; the first time we planned a trip to the big island of Hawaii, we wanted to stay at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. Alas, just before that trip a sizable earthquake seriously damaged the hotel so we ended up staying at the Fairmont Orchid (meh.)
This trip (our 4th to the Big Island, see 1 and 2, & 3 and our 6th to the islands in total) we planned to again return to our favorite spot on earth, Kona Village Resort (KVR), only to have it seriously damaged by the tsunami! So we decided now would be a good time to try the Mauna Kea. KVR is closed for a while for a complete remodel, and we’re hoping it keeps its original experience with just a bit more panache, but I am concerned that they had started adding A/C to some of the hales before the quake, which does not bode well for maintaining the experience of staying in a hale on the beach with silent nights, and bird-call filled quiet days. Here’s hoping! What I’d love to see would be hales with hydronic cooling (using cool water run through pipes in the ceiling/roof to cool the air in the room) and just a bit of updated decor, but nothing else changed. I’m also hoping the shipwreck bar (how I miss that bar) and most of the other dining and entertainment facilities remain the same, or get a sprucing up with the guidance of a top designer/architect. Oh and keep the “all-inclusive” model, I really liked just taking a taxi from the airport, plopping our bags in our hale and bumming around for a week with the fewest worries.
Friday – Flew out, drove north loop, stopped at the Waipi’o overlook, grabbed some baked goodies from Mr. Ed’s Bakery near the Akaka falls. Got there too late to see the falls but we drove further up the road to a nearby gulch and enjoyed the natural jungle environment. Dinner at Puka Puka Kitchen (we remembered it from a previous trip, and it was very good the second time around too!) Arrived at our B&B, the Hale Kai, just north of Hilo overlooking the water.
Saturday – Pancake breakfast at the Hale Kai, then a trip to the Tropical Botanical Gardens. We had trouble with our GPS taking us weird directions, so we wandered along the “scenic loop” only to find the gardens. We first stopped and took a trail down to the beaches that flank the gardens. Then when we got to the gardens we decided to lunch first (at Low’s Store, excellent teriyaki chicken sandwich and kalua pork nachos), then the tour of the gardens. Not as fun of a tour as the Allerton Gardens but it was a free tour. Lots of rain and lots of photos later, we headed out to Kapoho tide pools to watch the sunset and to see what it was like. Beautiful tide pools, wished I could have snorkeled. Dinner was at Nori’s Saimin in Hilo, which was a big disappointment after all the hype. I had the miso butterfish, which tasted more like a black bean sauce butterfish, not that I could taste much fish. Wife had the house special saimin, which was not special at all with tiny pieces of pork, tiny fish cakes, lots of cabbage and noodles.
Sunday – Breakfast of a egg/potato dish (quiche?) and fruit and then we headed to the Pana`ewa Rainforest Zoo & Garden for the morning, wow what an amazing, wonderful zoo! Sure it’s small (on the order of Atascadero Zoo or Happy Hollow in San Jose) but it was free and well cared for. Their parrots, many many parrots, were all in beautiful enclosures, and their Siberian tiger Namasté had a 1/4-acre enclosure to run around in and play. Their collection of palm trees was AMAZING, definitely a highlight of the trip and a must-visit (particularly as they have occasional plant sales at the zoo, I’m sure rare palms are to be had at those sales.) Lunch was at a food court at the local mall at a place called Kalbee. I’ve had a lot of good Korean food and this place was VERY good Korean food, particularly for a mall food court. For the afternoon we headed to the downtown Hilo Japanese garden, where we lazed about and enjoyed the scenery and the drum circle and the general laid-back attitude. Driving up Saddle Rd. to check out a trail before sunset, we didn’t realize (nobody told us) that he road was being resurfaced and was a mess, but we made it and enjoyed the misty and wet trail at mile marker 23 (forgetting we intended to go to marker 28, but whatever.) Back down the mountain and evening dining at the Hilo Bay Cafe, which was good but not faboo.
Monday – Heading to the Kona side of the island, we took the southern part of the loop through the Volcano National Park. Having been here before, and the weather being cold and wet, it was a short stop, but an enjoyable one nonetheless. I look forward to when the lodge remodeling is done, I wanted to stay in the lodge before but will really want to stay there after it’s done. The art gallery is always a joy too. Then on south, lunch at Punalu’u and then an aborted attempt at making it to the green sand beach. When folks tell you it’s 2mi each way, they fail to tell you it’s a rough 2mi each way on foot. We were wearing good shoes and still turned back halfway just because it was slow and rough going. Besides, I am not that big on what color a beach’s sand is, and there were a lot of folks trekking back and forth. Plus all our luggage was in our car and there were some sketchy folks about. Then up to the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel to check in to our palatial room (we estimated that the bathroom was about the size of a college dorm room). The hotel exterior was interesting, very 60′s modern, but enjoyable nonetheless. The artworks in the hotel, something everyone talks about, were pan-Asian …crafts. I don’t know how best to describe them, lots of roughly-carved wood and large hammered brass pieces, but interesting nonetheless, just not my cup of tea. The Hawaiian quilts and printed bark paper was more interesting to us, as was the woven bamboo screens in the southern wing (which were, sadly, mildly damaged by termites.) After unpacking, we had a light dinner at the Hau Tree restaurant by the beach. Food was meh and pricey, and what’s with the bar drinks in plastic cups? I can understand for the kiddies but at $12+ for a mixed drink, can it at least be in glass?
Tuesday – Yay snorkeling! I made it in the water before dawn and had a blast tooling around the reef. Not quite as nice as KVR’s bay/reef but decent. A turtle on occasion, many reef fish (not as much variety), a moray and a snowflake moray swimming between corals for a morning bite was a highlight. Then lunch again at the Hau Tree just because we didn’t feel like hitting the road, and the menu was similar but more lunch-oriented, again over-priced and mediocre. No other restaurants open for lunch meant we committed to going out for lunches on following days. Some afternoon snorkeling and playing in the waves at the beach. A bit busy of a beach, but not “bump into folks” busy. Afternoon we drove north a bit to take in a sunset (a cold and occasionally wet afternoon) and some lovely views of the sun to the west in the clouds and the Keck Observatory to the east. Amazing dinner at Merriman’s in Waimea, many thanks to our friend for the recommendation. We made our meal a sampler of samplers; I had the appetizer sampler and an amazing flight of Italian wines, wife had an entree of two meats, and we split the dessert sampler of 3 items. We were stuffed and happy as clams.
Wednesday – Another morning of snorkeling, this time seeing an octopus within a couple feet of my face. I tried to get even closer, but it realized the camouflage was insufficient and it dove into a crevice. After snorkeling, we headed north to Hawi and Kapa’au as we’ve never gone up that way before. Lovely overlook at the end of the road looking out at the Pololu valley, some folks trekking down the trail. I was enjoying watching the ‘io
hover on the updraft. I’d never seen one before, and this was the second one I’d seen this trip (the first being a short glimpse, and no photos, just north of the Tropical Botanical Gardens). We headed back towards Hawi for lunch, and decided to skip the touristy spots and shoot for a plate lunch and locals pointed us to the CSC Cafe and we found exactly what we were looking for, cheap and yummy fried food (wife got breaded salmon, I forget what I had but it was good.) Returning to the Mauna Kea, I played in the waves after disappointing snorkeling conditions. Apparently an Alaskan storm was sending heavy surf our way, sad! Dinner was at Manta at the hotel and it was very very nice, much better than my expectations. I had the “WOW tomato salad” and chicken under a brick, wife had lamb chops. Not quite as good as Merriman’s but very good nonetheless.
Thursday – An aborted attempt at snorkeling again, followed by some body surfing in the waves and then we headed into Kailua. We struggled to find the plate lunch place we went to previously in Kailua only to find out it was closed. Some nice shave ice, and a mediocre plate lunch, then we went to the Old Kona Airport park, which is a real find! They had a lovely community garden (not a veggie garden, a walking garden.) It was very relaxing and interesting to see some of the plants folks planted and tended. The beach was nice and local too. All so close to Kailua, why they don’t advertise it more I don’t know. Oh and driving down the runway (which is in sad shape nowadays) was amusing. Dinner was at Monette’s back at Mauna Kea, and it was a real disappointment to me. The extensive wine menu was impressive, but I don’t drink much wine. It did list Suntory whiskey, but I was not familiar with Suntory (or any other Japanese brands of whiskey) and the waiter knew nothing about it (why he couldn’t ask the bartender, or offer a sample if he couldn’t describe it?) So I passed and asked for a bitter lemon soda, only to find that they didn’t have any. Huh, ok how about a beer? Well, it showed up after the dinner, so I refused it and the waiter was kind enough to throw in a dessert (a sign of a good waiter). But the biggest disappointment was that we had the duck ravioli appetizer, and I thought the ravioli entree sounded intriguing as well so I ordered that (and noted that we were getting 2 ravioli dishes.) Both came on the same tasteless spinach (?) bed and were ok but not justified by the high price. A pro-active chef or waiter would note the redundancy and ensure that there was a distinction between the two dishes, or recommend against the pairing. Conclusion: given the sparse descriptions of items on the menus (incl. the wine menu) I came to the conclusion that Monette’s is a restaurant for snobs, if you don’t know what it is, you are obviously out of your league. I’d stick with Manta in the future.
Friday – Breakfast at Manta (skipping the pricey buffet) was meh and we were off to fly home. Overall conclusions: Want to return to Hilo and the Volcano Lodge, hoping KVR returns. Mauna Kea is nice and probably worth a return visit on occasion, and Manta is good for dinner but otherwise it’s a hotel where we’ll be sleeping and relaxing but not dining. The Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, a sister hotel to Mauna Kea, was intriguing and we might want to check that out further on a future visit. Not as posh, and a different feel, but interesting.
