Hilo, Champagne Pond, waterfalls and sunsets - April 27-30, 2011

The last three nights of our Big Island vacation was to be spent at a vacation home called the "Champagne Pond Cottage", located in the Kapoho Beach Lots community.  The community was hit by lava flows in the 1960's; once the flows stopped and cooled, the original cottage owner and a friend decided to dredge the area to create the pond, and we were really glad they did.  Imagine swimming in a crystal clear freshwater pond warmed by volcanic heat, schools of fish drifting by, with a few exotic creatures here and there, and if you are lucky, a turtle or two (or nine, as claimed by the authors of the guidebook)?

Check-in wasn't until 3pm, so after we checked out of the treehouse at 11am, we headed to Hilo for some lunch and shopping at the farmer's market.  Since this was downtown Hilo, it was hard to find parking next to the businesses.  There were two big lots next to the waterfront and those were full too, but fortunately someone pulled out when we arrived.  The guidebook recommended a hole-in-the-wall restaurant named Puka Puka Kitchen.  Babe had the special which was chicken katsu with Japanese curry, and I had their sauteed lamb.  Both were very flavorful and delicious.  The katsu was well fried, and the Japanese curry tasted like the "Golden Curry" blocks that you can buy at the store.  The lamb was dressed with mushrooms and eggplant that were really tasty.  The restaurant was packed when we arrived (place was small to begin with) and we got the last two seats on the bar facing the street.  We noticed lots of people coming in and buying the "to-go" pre-packed meals on a shelf. 

After lunch, we hit the Hilo Farmers Market nearby.  There were tons of produce and fruit, with vendors sprinkled here and there selling baked goods, snacks, and drinks.  I bought a ton of papaya - just $1 for a bag containing 6 small rainbow papayas.  $2 for a bag of 4 small strawberry papayas.  We also bought some longans and lychees, as well as a dozen farm-fresh eggs, a loaf of the same bread we had eaten at the treehouse, and a lemonade.  There were lots of small purple yams in bags sold everywhere, but there wasn't an oven at the cottage so I refrained from purchasing any.

Noticed we hadn't eaten any dessert yet?  The guidebook suggested a place to get homemade mochi called "Two Ladies Kitchen", another hole-in-the-wall in Hilo.  The strawberry mochi is the specialty of the house, and the guidebook had warned that it needed to be ordered in advance, so I didn't have any intentions of buying any.  Conveniently a van pulls out of the parking space near the shop.  There was a sign in front of the screen door, and I was certain it said that it was closed.  Babe went to check it out and said that the sign proclaimed that "Yes, we have strawberry mochi today"...yay!   The strawberry mochi is baseball-sized, so we bought 4 of those, along with a 10-pack of assorted mochi.

most were filled with azuki, some tasted fruity

It still was not yet 3pm, so we passed the remainder at the University of Hawaii at Hilo's Imiloa Planetarium.  It was kind of a mix of planetarium and Hawaiian history museum.  I had a $2 off coupon from the "101 things to do on the Big Island" tourist magazine, but the front desk person was kind enough to give us a $12 kamaaina (local's) discount. :)  In the planetarium, we watched a 3D presentation called "Awesome Light" that explained the different observatories found at the summit of Mauna Kea and "flew" through the galaxy looking at different stars, planets, and what can be seen via a "submillimeter array".  The 3D glasses were treated like precious jewels, and I can say they looked brand new with not a scratch.

this is what I'd probably wear when I am 90 years old

Finally time to check-in to Champagne Pond Cottage!  We get the keys to the house from a lock box on the side of a realty office, stopped by Longs Drugs for some groceries, and headed off to our home for the next three nights.  The road to the Puna district is so beautiful.  The trees are just awesome.  It was hard to tell that lava had flowed nearby.  I was excited to see some papaya plantations.  If I ever owned one, it'd never make money as I'd always eat all the profits!

Once inside the gated community, the directions said to turn right after seeing a tennis court, but we never saw it (as we found out on a second pass, it was in disrepair and overrun with weeds); fortunately there was a big sign outside the gate of a home proclaiming it to be the Champagne Pond Cottage. 

The cottage was clean and homey.  Turned out there was a toaster oven in the cottage, so I could've baked some purple yams. :(  Both bedrooms were small, but adequate for the two of us.  No air conditioning, which would have been nice, but with all the windows open to let the trade winds through and ceiling fans on, the temperature was tolerable (it may feel worse for people sleeping on the top bunks).   The hot and cold plumbing was swapped in the shower, as you'd expect hot water to come when the single knob is turned all the way on, so close to "off" was the best temperature.  There wasn't an indoor dining area, just a picnic table on the covered lanai, but it worked fine as it hardly rained while we were there.  The pond outside was what we were here for, and it did not disappoint.  It was crystal clear, and we even had a resident eel in our part of the pond! (though it disappeared the next day and we couldn't find it)  We also had a resident gecko...when it landed on the kitchen granite countertop, it actually changed color from green to a salmon hue, amazing! (it wouldn't stay still for photographs)

this pathway is public access, so lots of people were walking by our cottage

crystal clear water

these few homes also on the pond

Dessert time!  We broke open the strawberry mochi, and it was the bomb!  Huge gargantuan strawberries covered with a thin layer of azuki beans (red bean), surrounded by soft mochi.  I didn't like mochi until recently, when I was able to find super fresh soft mochi.  Stale mochi loses its soft chewy texture and becomes plastic-y, yuck.

huge lychees!  some with small seeds

We spent all three days here lounging, reading, relaxing, snorkeling in the pond, and walking on the beach (access through a gate in the backyard), hardly heading out besides getting dinner at Ning's Thai Cuisine (yummy Massaman curry) in the nearby town of Pahoa (a hippie town), and getting a few groceries at the local market.  We didn't even make time to drive a few minutes over to the Kapoho Tide Pools. Unfortunately, there were no turtles in the pond the entire time we were there, but we saw lots of colorful schools of fish as well as the eel, and small and large blowfish.  The pond did get a bit salty whenever it was high tide, as the ocean poured into the pond.

Sunsets weren't as cool as we were located in the southeast of the island, and the sun set behind homes.  We did find a lot of white coral on the beach right behind the cottage, so we made our own "graffiti" against the black lava.

more life fighting to survive

neat site on the beach

baby black sand beach

sunset on this side of the island

"b" for babe

whew, this house just missed getting hit by lava

It was sad to leave the cottage on the last day, as it was so relaxing.  We finished our driving tour counter-clockwise around the island, hitting Rainbow Falls in Hilo, followed by Akaka Falls (and its baby brother Kahuna Falls) north of Hilo.  If you are not a Hawaii resident, they charge $5 to park in the Akaka Falls parking lot (or you can park outside the gate for free) and $1 per person to walk in.  Last time I was here, I didn't recall paying any fees.  We parked outside and walked in.

where's the rainbow?

banyan tree

Kahuna Falls

Akaka Falls

For lunch, we stopped in Waimea (also known as Kamuela) for some BBQ at Huli Sue's.  Drinks were served in canning jars, and the milkshake was good.  The portions are huge!  If I had known, I would have just shared one plate.  We ended up taking a doggy bag with us, even though we were headed to the airport.

St. Louis-style pork ribs

beef brisket

I was too full for dessert there, so we drove to the town of Hawi up on the north coast and had some Tropical Dreams Ice Cream.  We were lucky to have someone pull out of a parking spot as we arrived, as the town was small.  Tropical Dreams is known for exotic flavors.  We tried the lemongrass sorbet and the Tahitian vanilla ice cream, yum!  Hawi is sort of a hippie town, as evidenced by frequent sightings of ladies with unshaven legs, some carrying babies in slings.

As our flight wasn't until 9pm that night, we watched our final sunset at Anaehoomalu Bay (or "A-bay", which is easier to pronounce).  We laid out on the beach, enjoyed our last papaya, and watched as the sun made its way towards the horizon.  A nice way to end this wonderful vacation.

found a lot of green glass in the sand

can't beat a sunset in the west

Babe and I did manage to eat a few more bites of our BBQ leftovers before we chucked it into the garbage at the airport (almost all of you probably wouldn't have taken the risk, especially before getting on a plane...).  We got upgraded to first class on the leg from Kona to Los Angeles, but again, not on the puddle jumper, oh well.  Even though the flight was a red-eye, we were still offered a "midnight snack" of soup and sandwich or turkey pasta salad.  The snack basket was also available, of which I enjoyed a couple of mini Toblerone bars. :)   My next trip was in two days, heading to Singapore for a solo mileage run...