Foodivore: In search of turtle iii…and Luau

Our turtle viewing yet to be satiated, we head slightly closer to home; 30 minutes up the road – we had traversed the island in search of turtles and so far, had seen but one.

Location 4: Two Steps (Honaunau Bay).

Immediate elation was found from pulling up, finding an easy car park right just across the road from the rock

Snorkeling with turtle

shelf we would be snorkeling from (we had heard parking was difficult). Not having to walk miles along a black pebble beach was great – we walked our 20 metres from the car and jumped straight in….and lo and behold there was a turtle swimming literally right where we entered the rock shelf.

One in the eye for over-researching stuff: sometimes, the close spot is actually worth prioritising. Sure we can get a warm, intrepid glow from searching far and wide, but in reality there are reasons why some of the great spots are right near where people stay.

Turtle hanging out in rock pool

The fish were also abundant, a great snorkeling location overall. Having just floated watch our turtle for a while we venture further out. The fish and coral we see are just as good as our scuba dives earlier in the week and significantly cheaper. A short while later, there is another turtle, a much larger one swimming gracefully along. We start to wonder why we traveled so far and walked in the heat, humidity and challenging terrain in search of turtles in the previous days. The answer is simple though, because we treasure the chance to encounter these gentle creatures. We would highly recommend snorkeling at this spot, and judging from the growing numbers as the morning wore on this is widely agreed. Apparently, there are sometimes dolphins swimming here also, we didn’t see any but were happy with our turtles.

Close encounters of the Trump kind

Imu earth oven...cooking our pig

Having safely navigated our Trump encounter.....clean and dry (we’ve been wet a lot this holiday so far) we Ubered to our luau at the Royal Kona Resort…along with another couple of hundred people, apparently this is a quiet night. Mai Tais were included and the barman topped up the level of rum cheerfully and without question.

The entertainment included a traditional Hawaiian band and dancers, both were great. The drinks were plentiful as was food. The whole pig was cooked in, and literally unearthed from, an Imu. It had been cooking below ground since early that morning wrapped in banana leaves, cloth and the covered in coals and soil.

It's become a cultural cliche, but the rosy sunset, replete with silhouetted coconut palms, Hawaiin steel guitar and ukelele soundtrack, finally drew the last of our pre-holiday tension from us...........