POA - Hawaii LIVE Sep 30, 2023

[carohs]

Skipping a bit to dinner this is the ship's version of Loco Moco....

 

 

Kids ate ar Aloha but we headed downstairs. Service was pretty bad but the food was better. 

 

[LouChamp]

20 hours ago, cruiser2015 said:

So why not SHAVED ice?

Hey, it's New York, baby!

LOL

Aloha. I could tell you why it is spelled that way but I can’t lol!

[cruiser2015]

2 hours ago, LouChamp said:

Aloha. I could tell you why it is spelled that way but I can’t lol!

Gee, it sounds cool to me.

I had one in front of the Missouri after exploring the ship - now that was re-freshing!

[carohs]

22 hours ago, NellieVA said:

Question.  Are you renting a car in Kawaii?  If so, where are you overnight parking?

Yes renting. I heard on the book there's nearby street parking. We'll see tho.

[carohs]

I posted til I couldn't no more last night. By that I mean lost cell service. So continuing on from where we left off. I believe late lunch. At this point it was 3:30 and we knew we only had another two hours until all-aboard. Hmm was this enough time to get to Rainbow Falls, get gas, return the rental, and catch an Uber back? We went for it. The falls are wonderful and big. The overlook gives you as close of a view as you can hope for and yet a 2 min walk from your car. It was further to the bathrooms depending where you parked. 

 

And you can climb some steps to see the river. Following the theme of half the paths we've taken, the steps are uneven but worth the climb.

[carohs]

After dinner we went to see Alex Ortiz for PG13 comedy. DH was saying he'd come but was tired and would probably fall asleep. Well Alex was funny enough DH stayed awake and even gave Alex a fist bump coming out of Hollywood Theater. The comedian even mentioned in the act how he loves karaoke. A couple on the elevator with us mentioned seeing him there the other night. It was a great way to end the evening and the first night I wasn't immediately ready to crash after dinner. 

[carohs]

Aloha from Kona

 

And a little pixie dust

[carohs]

As of 20 minutes ago, NCL has not updated the app version of the freestyle. But the stewards have been dropping them off the evening before. From there DH gleaned tender tickets would be available from Pink's starting at 6:30 am. CD also made an announcement that tickets would not be needed if you were an early worm to tender by 7:15. By 6:35 groups 1-2 were gone but DH grabbed group 4 with an estimated tender time of 8:15. Group 4 was called out at 8:25. They are packing us in to this tender boat. Be ready to touch butts with your neighbor.

[philv]

Kona was one port we didn’t plan properly on our POA cruise in 2022. We thought from what we read we’d just walk around. Walked around a lot but didn’t see much. Nice little town but next time we will plan an adventure a little further afield.

[carohs]

I didn't have much planned for today other than seeing Greenhill Farms. We were shore and at the rental office by 9am via Uber again. Actually the enterprise near the pier offers a shuttle; we did use it otw back. The driver let us know for next time to just give em a call once we're by the tree. You can't miss it it's in the immediate area outside the pier. Also to the immediate left of the pier is a small beach area. We didn't plan on getting in the water today so we didn't have our suits. Idk what took the one other couple in front of us so long but it took us til 9:25 to hit the road.

 

Our first and best stop of the day was a coffee farm tour. They took us on a small circle of the property but gave us quite a lot of info of the history of coffee on the island and what defined Kona coffee. There's only about a 4000 acre stretch of land that makes up the coffee belt. 

[carohs]

Also on property, you can see mango, avocado, peppercorn, banana, and pineapple growing. So cool! 

[carohs]

The tour guide informed us on so much let me see how much I can remember. I almost wish I had taken a video. Here's a pic of the difference stages of the berry. 

 

The initial picture is what the berry looks like on the vine, not ripe, ripe, and over ripe. He showed us the beans after pushing them out of the berry too. Gooey and slimy and smelly. After picking the berries they use a machine to remove the slimy beans. These are then fermented which helps remove the goop, then dried. They sun dry the beans for 2 days and then put them in big driers for 30 hours. They don't sun dry all the way because it would a- take more time and b- the beans have too much varied residual moisture. They don't use the driers right off the bat because these are propane powered and they cut their propane use in half by sun drying. Then the beans are let rest for 2 months (iirc) so the moisture is evenly distributed through osmosis before they're cooked. 

[carohs]

They have old trees on property which don't give much fruit and newer trees too. The old trees have been around forever so they're being kept more for sentimental reasons. They only give a out a lb of fruit per harvest where the newer trees are about 25 lb per harvest. Once we reached the newer trees the fruit growth differential was immediately evident. If you looked closer, you can see berries in every stage of ripeness. 

 

The trees are harvested about 6 times, every two weeks for three months. The elevation of the trees impacts when they fruit. Greenhill Farms actually has trees in varying elevations so they're harvesting 11 months of the year. 

[carohs]

Also of interest, is that about 90% of coffee grown on the coffee belt is sold to the mills for processing. Greenhill Farms is one of two major coffee processors on Kona. They buy bulk beans with up to 5% of beans being less/more than ripe. This helps motivate farmers to pick their berries even if they're not the best quality which in turn combats beetle population, keeps farms cleaner, and resulting in overall increased berry quality. Also to combat the beetle pests they periodically stump sections of trees which reduces their beetle population to zero. The row next to the fully berry producing tree was stumped and had about 5 months of growth. 

[carohs]

Lastly we were let to taste one peppercorn. WOWSA. Okay so I don't like pepper, but that was incredibly full of flavors, although I did end up discreetly spitting it out. Many thought it was delicious and amazing, including DH. On the way out I admired their flowers. 

[carohs]

Next we want to see the Painted Church. It was a quick stop. If I'm honest, I wasn't all that moved. 

[carohs]

We went in search of lunch next. I'll skip the deets. We weren't trying for Mexican or American fare so we immediately dismissed several options but did eat near Kahaluu Beach Park, which was our final stop on our visit to Kona today. This park offers lots of snorkeling opportunities and there's signs everywhere reminding you to be respectful of the endangered reef. DS and DD, we didn't feel, are strong enough swimmers, but this would have been an excellent spot for trying snorkeling for the first time. 

 

DH saw some fish in the water and I saw a couple of crawlies near the edge of the shore. Video because otherwise it's a search and find and I can't spot them in the still image. 

 

This is supposed to be a great place for sea turtles but despite others have spotted a turtle in the water, I never did. We stayed for a bit then headed back; made it back on board by about 3:30. 

[carohs]

Oh and I got today's daily. 

free-style-daily-5.pdf

[carohs]

Aloha from Nawiliwili Kauai

free-style-daily-6.pdf

[Ellis1138]

I have a question, if it can be answered. Does the 24/7 Cadillac Diner serve breakfast? If so, what time do they switch to the breakfast menu from the overnight? TIA

[carohs]

1 hour ago, Ellis1138 said:

I have a question, if it can be answered. Does the 24/7 Cadillac Diner serve breakfast? If so, what time do they switch to the breakfast menu from the overnight? TIA

I'll see if I can find out

[carohs]

We took a slow morning today. After breakfast we went to Pink's to learn to dance the hula. Well DS and me, DD was feeling grumpy because she just wanted to make her 🌺 lei. The class was led by the Hawaiian Ambassador, Moana. 

 

We then dashed over to Mardi Gras where the lei class met. We had been advised to get there early because supplies are limited. Sure enough, there was quite the line. 

 

A good amount of people did make it in, and the crew even said they'd never had this turnout before. The last few people had to go around asking people to donate their flowers. Not knowing how many would be needed, it was hard to say whether we had extra. There were 5 of us making leis here. We did share and made wonderfully smelling leis. We were even demonstrated how these flowers are edible. Later one one flower would fall off DDs necklace and she tried it and ate it. 

[carohs]

We took got the rental from the airport. When we got outside the shuttle was already sitting there waiting. We had a slight hiccup at the rental having been misdirected by the shuttle driver, but otherwise as seamless and quick as typical from National. Highly recommend signing up for their emerald club. Then we decided to head to Waimea Canyon. I probably have a thousand pictures or more of us just driving in the last few days; it's always so scenic. 

[carohs]

The Canyon was worth visiting even if it was one hour from the ship and we only stayed 10 minutes. 

 

 

 

[carohs]

Then we headed to Blue Dolphin Charters for our trip to Napali Coast, but made a quick pit stop at McDs. The menu was pretty much the same with the exception of Haupia pie. Tried it, yummy and coconutty. On the drive down DD took a little nap. Her boundless energy finally found its limit. 

 

The coast is nice, but the highlight for me of the trip was feeling the sea spray and wind in my hair. On the drive up to Waimea it had rained. From the catamaran you could see sunshine and clear skies to the north, and dark clouds over the island to the east. 

 

But before we made it to Napali, the waves got real choppy. DS was the first affected. Then DH, who had been sailing, boating, fishing, before and never been affected got sick out of nowhere. DD held strong til the worst of it was behind us, but she didn't make it either. The crew was so nice about it too, making sure we had aloha bags, ice and napkins to get us through. My thrill loving, roller coaster riding, cruise ship afficionado kids..felt so bad for them. So ironic that out of the four of us I was the only one totally fine the whole time, yet I'm also the only one of us who has ever experienced vertigo (or been otherwise affected) on any cruise ship. DH and I surmised that pit stop earlier had been a horrible idea in hindsight. 

 

I wish pictures could capture the essence of the Napali Coast. Despite being sick we all did enjoy seeing it. DD says she wish she had been forewarned how much movement it would be. DS recouped and was laughing and dancing before we made it halfway back. He said he would do it again (sans prior snacking). 

Edited October 6, 2023 by carohs