Exploring North Kohala

Previously: Another Side of the Island (Part 2)

We awoke Monday morning bright and early — well, I woke up early, anyway, since our room had hardly any curtains, and the dawn brought not only the morning light but chattering birds within the brush here in our corner of paradise. Ray, as usual, stayed asleep as I rolled out of bed and tried out the outdoor shower.

Without getting too much into an advocacy of the naturist lifestyle, I must say that it was exhilirating being able to shower while watching whales play in the ocean, my bare feet on volcanic rock. Granted, I wondered how much privacy I actually had, since our hosts were int he adjacent building, and the privacy screens were not 100% opaque and largely botanical. But it was early yet, and I did not hear anyone moving around, so I felt fairly safe.

After Ray and I were both up, fed, and dressed, we sat on the porch reading our books. Our host (the husband, whom we hadn’t met yet) introduced himself and proceeded to regale us with tales about his life story, the property, and the new neighbors (apparently Cher and Harrison Ford purchased property in the area recently). He gave us some tourist information about North Kohala (the north side of the island), as well. After listening to several (unsolicited) assurances that weed was not illegal on their property, we excused ourselves and decided to explore Hawi Town.

Hawi (pronounced “Ha-vee“) is a cute little town on the north shore of the Big Island. Hawi and its neighboring town of Kapa’au sprung up as bustling plantation towns when Kohala Sugar Company owned most of that part of the Big Island. After the sugar mill closed in 1970, the area suffered from neglect and fell into disrepair. Recently, though, North Kohala has been experiencing a little bit of a renaissance, with an influx of artists and craftspeople opening shops and galleries along Highway 270 (the main road running through Kohala). A few restaurants have sprouted up, too (although we seemed to have missed them in our quest for dinner the night before).

Lunch at Luke’s Place was exactly what we needed. Our host had advised us to go in the back entrance straight to the bar, where there was supposedly music, but we’re not much for music while we eat, and besides, it was lunch time, and we didn’t hear anybody playing, so we went in the front entrance. Even though we had to wait a while to get seated (there seemed to be only one person running the front of the house and the lady in front of us had some sort of business with the owner), once we sat down, we had a very pleasant, quiet lunch.

We wandered around the center of town (about two blocks) and wound up in the fudge shop, where I bought some chocolate/lilikoi fudge: tart and sweet and definitely a one-of-a-kind fudge. We bought some other flavors, too: coffee/macadamia, plain chocolate, and orange/chocolate, which we brought back to the hut and stuck in the fridge for later enjoyment throughout the vacation.

Ray and I spent the rest of the day lounging around the hut, reading our books. We took one more sojourn back out to Hawi for dinner at Sushi Rock, which I enjoyed immensely, but Ray simply tolerated (he’s not a fan of sushi, and they didn’t have that much in the way of non-sushi, despite our host’s comments to the contrary). After dinner, it was back to the hut for more reading until we fell asleep to the chorus of frogs.

Next: Happy Anniversary