Day 8 Capt Cook and Green Beaches

Today, waking at our side of the road camp, we were pleased to have made it through the night without incident. To celebrate we made our way to Walmart for our week’s food supplies and headed for some local grown coffee. Avoiding corporate coffee shops we chose Bikini Bottom Coffee strictly because of the name. We had a busy day ahead of us so we were eager to get moving. The area around Kona is much more of a beachy town vibe than Maui, with tourist shops and restaurants. There was even a sale on spam musubi. We walked past Hawaii’s oldest church, then off we went to a world renowned snorkeling spot called Capt Cook. This is where a monument is located for the late Captain James Cook who discovered what the Hawaiian’s had already discovered, Hawaii. Deciding to hike vs pay for a boat ride to the location, we started the 4 mile trip, fins and masks in hand, down the mountain to a cove surrounded by rock. The hike down was literally 2 miles down the mountain, meaning the way back was going to be 2 miles back up. Along the way we ran into some Billy goats, one of which thought we were trying to get to its baby and ducked his head down moving towards us and almost had us running down the mountain. In under and hour we were sliding, stumbling, and flopping off the rocks gracefully as a beached fish, into the water. Once in, we could see why this was such a popular location. Beautiful coral and fish were everywhere. We spent about an hour then started the trek back up the mountain, with several breaks on the way. Off we went, now heading for the south of Hawaii to the southernmost tip of the island. We have found that a lot of the popular places are not really easy to pinpoint once you arrive close to the destination. Here we knew we were close, but there was not monument or marker, just a parking area and open coastline. Using google maps we found the location and can now say we went as far south in the US as possible. We still had some time left in the day so we decided to make one more stop on our list and visit one of only 4 green sand beaches in the world, Green Sand Beach. Again, there were 2 ways to get there, another 4 mile hike, or a very rough ride in the back of an old 4x4 truck with a well weathered Hawaiian with an unlit cigarette hanging out of his mouth promising not one, but 2 beach visits for $20. We figured this second option provided the best opportunity for adventure and we weren’t wrong. Off we went, about 10 of us, bouncing into each other as our guide somehow made this truck rock crawl over the rugged terrain. Several times he would have to throw it into reverse to get into a low gear. Once at the beach we were shocked to see it really was green, colored by a mineral that comes out of the lava rock as grains of sand. We went for a swim in this very remote beach, enjoyed the views, then bounced our way back, stopping to see the site of an ancient Hawaiian fishing village (piles of rocks) and to pay homage to the ancestors by me being given and asked to pour out an ice cold highly desired beer. I didn’t dare risk angering the spirits by sneaking a sip. Dusty and beaten from the ride we returned to our van and started our search for our new camp. Annemarie found us a macadamia farm to stay at so that’s where we headed. It was a beautiful property with a macadamia nut orchard and nice wooded camping area. What a treat for a camp after a long day exploring.Læs mere