The Big Island

The Big Island has already proved itself to be much more of a pain in the ass than O’ahu when I stepped off the plane and had to pay $25 to get a shuttle bus 9k in to town, and despite 2 emails to the hostel, they hadn’t got my booking and were full. Just when I thought I’d have to trudge crestfallen to the $75-a-night hotel round the corner, the lovely guy at the desk said that someone hadn’t shown up and as it was technically past check-in time I could have her bed and fight over it with her if she showed up. Result!

The Koa Wood Hale Inn (also known as Patey’s Place) is the only hostel in Kona, and brilliant with it. It’s got a uni-dorm feel, but the crowd is much older. In my bit of the hostel are a 50-year old Mancunian woman, a 45-year old Canuck, a 30-something Washington bike shop owner and other lovely people around my age or a bit older. The owner, Zero and the girl and guy that work there are heaps helpful and lovely to hang with, the girl being from New Brunswick and the guy being from Nashville, Tennessee and so having one of those accents that you only ever see in movies.

The main towns on the Big Island (which is officially Hawaii) are Kona and Hilo, on opposite sides of the island and a 3 hour drive away from each other. I am staying in Kona, mostly for the coffee. Kona coffee is grown between 800 and 2000 feet on this side of the island, and the process of picking and roasting these beans is so labour intensive that only a handful of family-owned farms do it. They control the Kona coffee market, and also therefore the quality of the coffee available, meaning that it is of the highest standard, and not sold to places like Starbucks who will buy the lowest quality available and peddle it as some sort of new wonder drug. This makes me happy.

The island is also relatively big compared to O’ahu, and to see everything I want to in my 3 days here, I think I will have to hire a car.

On my first day, however, I contented myself with wandering down to Kona town, meandering through the holiday markets and having some awesome grub. I stumbled upon another free display of hula dancing by the most beautiful women, and as is custom for hula dancers, they were elegant and fantastic, wearing gorgeous clothes and amazing hair adornments. I fell in love with one of them a little bit.

I was searching for a decent wave or two, but it turns out that in the town, all the breaks hit onto a mad amount of rocks, so only the most skilled or desperate really go there. The strong tides and relatively big waves mean that it certainly wasn’t an option for me, as I didn’t have travel insurance and didn’t fancy paying the US hospital bills to deal with my broken back.

The amazingly beautiful hula women of Kona