Coffee + Luau

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

To make up for the lazy day yesterday, we planned two big outings today: first, to visit a coffee farm, and second, to go to a luau at night. 

Even though we don’t drink coffee, it is a major industry on this side of the island, and I like to see how things grow. We drove about an hour to Greenwell Farms where the Greenwell family has been producing 100% Kona coffee for several generations. We had a little guided tour to the coffee orchard and then saw coffee beans drying in the sun on a retractable roof. The whole process is very labour intensive as the berries have to be picked by hand as they ripen and turn red. The red part is sent to Maui to be made into an energy drink and the beans are roasted. At the end of the tour we tasted one of the 10 brews available for sampling. We also saw fruit trees—banana, papaya (or was it mango?), avocado, orange—and one friendly chameleon.

 

Gloria holds some coffee beans

Banana tree

 

We left the farm and drove down the mountain to the coast. We stopped in Kona for fish and chip take out to eat at an outside table. The fish was Mahi Mahi which Jim didn’t like that much but I liked it. And the side dishes are not fries, but white steamed rice and macaroni salad. I think the macaroni salad was something the missionaries introduced back in the 1800’s and it’s still popular. On the way out of Kona we saw a Costco.

At 5:00 we left for the luau at a nearby resort. Jim was a good sport and wore the Hawaiian shirt that I bought for him and I wore my Hawaiian dress. We will probably never wear these clothes again! The luau started with the imu ceremony where these 2 guys dug the pig out of the underground oven where it had been roasting. It was wrapped in leaves which are used as we would use foil. It smelled delicious.

   

We were seated at long tables outside by the water’s edge. The buffet was plentiful and not crowded, with a good mix of familiar and unusual foods. Jim’s favourites were the shrimp cocktail, the teriyaki steak and the coconut cake. I tried some unusual dishes such as lomi lomi salmon and ahi poke, which I think both contain raw fish. Did not like the poi, not even sure what to do with it or how to eat it. The kalua pig was good, kind of like a pulled pork. And desserts were interesting – one was a warm bread pudding. Did the missionaries introduce this too?

We were not allowed to take pictures during the show. The dancers were amazing, lots of drama and costume changes. It was dark by then so the guy with twirling fire batons was pretty impressive. And no, neither one of us went up on stage to do the hula. A really fun night!