Another early morning to head out to Punalu'u Black Sand Beach on our last full day on the Big Island. This would be the second black sand beach we were visiting on our trip, with the other one being on Maui near Hana. Flip flops and shorts are fine for this trip, but you'll need water shoes if you want to venture into the water. The drive wasn't as long as the past few days, but it was just a little closer than Volcanoes National Park and off CR11 (so it was still far). Signage, again is great and there was no problem finding the place or parking.
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| a plaque about the story of Kauila and the Sea turtle of Punalu'u |
The sand here is a little different that the sand at the other black sand beach on Maui. The sand was more granular and ran through your fingers. It was less packed together and felt more like sand. The shore for the most part was rocky with some black sand areas - definitely not swimmable due to the rough waves. This beach has signs all over saying that it is a nesting ground for sea turtles (Honu) and not to go within 15 feet of them - we didn't think we would see anything, but were delighted to see a couple of sea turtles nesting on the beach.
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| black sand beach |
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| the sand felt grainy here |
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| one of two sea turtles we saw (the other one swam away too quickly to photograph) |
There's also a nice lagoon behind the beach with some birds. As soon as we made our way back to the car, a few large tour buses showed up letting out a lot of tourists - we've been having pretty good luck beating the tour buses and crowds.
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| the lagoon |
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| birds at the lagoon |
We started on our way back to Kona, since we were planning on going to the Ocean Rider's Seahorse farm in the afternoon (you can only visit when they have tours - check their website for times: seahorse.com). Since we had a little time to spare, we decided we wanted to stop by a store we passed a few times called Donkey Balls. Just after you get out of South Kona District you'll come to a small strip with the eye catching store - there is street parking and public parking lots both for free, and the area is not very crowded. Donkey Balls is awesome, although a bit pricey. They do provide you with free samples and we were hooked, so we spent quite a bit there. If you like spicy, try the buffalo spicy chocolate covered mac nut; if you like coffee try the gogo beans (chocolate covered roasted kona peaberry coffee bean). Check out their site and be sure to visit them if you're in the area (
http://www.alohahawaiianstore.com)
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| Donkey Balls in Kona |
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| Donkey Balls storefront |
There is also a small musical instrument store which is apparently the only one around the area, but there are others on the island. My husband wanted to check it out since he was looking forward to bring home an ukelele (pron.: ook-a-lay-lee.). The prices were a bit high especially since the items in our price range were made in china, they did have nicer ones made in Hawaii for $600 and up. You can also pick up ukes at some of the shopping areas, however, these are not playable, made out of plywood and from china. Since most ukes are made in Oahu we decided to wait to see what we could find when we got there.
Next stop, Ocean Rider's Seahorse Farm. The street isn't marked very well off the highway, but you have to turn into where the Natural Energy Laboratories of Hawaii Authority is and drive past the security gate. Follow the road and there will be signs which guide you. The tour doesn't take all that long, but it is very informative and you also get a once in a lifetime opportunity to hold a seahorse - this makes it totally worth it. My hubby was lucky enough to feed tiny shrimp to some of the baby seahorses - all of them in the tank raced to where the food was. The tiny shrimp are actually grown on site, in a specially and naturally maintained environment (man made tube to the ocean which provides an ocean and fresh water brine ecosystem).
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| seahorses in a feeding frenzy |
The seahorse farm is raising domesticated seahorses to curb and eliminate the extraction of wild seahorses for aquariums, and they have had great success. Wild seahorses only live for about 1 year in captivity and need to be kept with their mate - they starve themselves, get sick, and eventually die if separated. After a few generations of domesticating seahorses they were viable in aquariums and have survived in aquariums for 13 years and counting (the same number of years the farm has been around); they have also managed to make them sort of swinger seahorses so they don't get heartbroken and will pair up with other seahorses.
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| I got to hold a seahorse |
Seahorses are the only species where males give birth - the females put the eggs into the males' pouch and the males then fertilize and give birth to them. Fun fact: the female seahorse can give a male seahorse as little as one minute before impregnating them again. There are a bunch of different seahorse species on exhibit in their aquariums some which are also not native to Hawaii.
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| other seahorses in an aquarium |
We were also fortunate to see a rare Leafy Seadragon which they are attempting to domesticate, but we weren't allowed to take pictures. For the tour, children under 4 are free and they aren't allowed to touch the seahorses. Check out their site for more info (
http://www.seahorse.com); you can also purchase seahorses, but not when you are visiting the farm. As we passed by the Kona piers on the way back to the hotel, NCL's Pride of America (which we had seen the day before in Hilo) was there and we were able to get closer look at it.
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| We spotted the NCL Pride of America Cruiseship again |
For dinner we headed over to Quinn's, which was across the street from the hotel.
The atmosphere was great, there is a covered patio with a garden view where we sat - didn't feel crowded at all due to the well spaced layout, but it was busy. Food portions were huge and the food was good (local and fresh). We all had Ono as a fish with side options including ships, pineapple coleslaw, or rice.
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| Fish and Pineapple Coleslaw--Delicious! |
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| My mango smoothie--yum! |
We walked around the harbour area after dinner for one last time, since tomorrow we would be on our way to Oahu.
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