We came into Kialua from the south, an area which is somewhat populated and somewhat dry. The environment felt "comfortable," however you care to interpret that. As we left town and headed north, we entered a stark desert, a landscape dominated by lava, a few sparse clumps of bunchgrass, and not much else.
It didn't get any better for quite a while. Occasionally we would see a green spot and a clump of high palm trees coming up. They were always isolated, as if screaming "We don't belong here!" They don't. They were always planted at the fancy entrance to a fancy real-estate development of some kind. Buy your piece of Hawaiian paradise at some inflated price so the shysters can make a killing.
We drove on, not wanting to see yet another perfect-for-television display of conspicious consumption. We also wanted to get to our campground, and get camp set up so we could head into the town of Hawi for what had been promised to us by some friends would be a great meal and a great time.
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| Lava Flow, Mauna Kea in distance | Lava Flow, Mauna Kea in Distance |
Eventually we got to an area with a little more grass and a little less lava. There were a few shrubs growing here and there. Things kept improving; the flat-ish lava flow we were driving across dwindled, and soon we were working our way across the side of an even older volcanic flow; when we looked uphill, we could see green pastures further up the mountains.
We were heading for a county park named Kapaa, and eventually we found the turn-off. We wound our way down to the pacific, and on its edge in a windswept grove of trees was the park and our camp spot for the night. As with the other county parks we visited, there were no assigned campsites, so we found a suitable spot and pitched the tent. I changed into my "better" knocking-about the backcountry shirts, and Dona changed into her new mu-umu-u. She looked great! But then, she always does!
Hawi wasn't too far up the road. We found the Bamboo Restaurant, highly recommended by some friends and neighbors of ours. Unfortunately, it was closed Sunday and Monday, and we were there on Monday. Damn. Dona had been looking forward to this for some time. It seemed highly unlikely there would be anything else in this small town that could compare to the good time and good food we had been led to expect at the Bamboo, but we decided to make the best of it. We had two choices that we found: a sushi place (neither of us are particularly fond of sushi); and another place which I can't remember and whose name doesn't show on google street-view. Anyway, Sushi Rock had a number of people inside and a sign proclaiming they had been voted best restaurant of some kind in some area at some time by some audience; the place next door was empty. We looked the menu over, and they had some things besides sushi which sounded good. We didn't really want to go back to camp and boil water for a backpack meal, so we decided to take a chance.
We were mostly hoping not to be disappointed. We started with drinks. Dona had a three-rum Mai-Tai made with Passio Fruit and Guava, or something like that; I had a mango margarita. I think it was mango. It was outstanding, all the more so because instead of salt on the rim it was garnished with Lilikoi (Passion Fruit). It was by far the best margarita I've ever had.
Dona and I often split an entrée. That usually works well with "regular" restaurants, with "regular" sized servings, whatever those are. It always works well with Chinese and Mexican restaurants, which seem to understand that real people need to eat a reasonable amount of food, no matter how fine it looks all decorated up as it does in a French restaurant. But this place advertised itself as a sushi place, and we were ordering something besides sushi. We didn't have a clue, so we ordered a big mixed-greens salad with candied macadamia nuts, apples, gorgonzola, and a papaya and pommegranite vinegarette; and a "Hamakua Grass-Fed Beef Tenderloin, carmelized Maui Onion, fresh island wasabi butter." It came with brown rice and it came with cole-slaw.
Wow! Maybe it was the last few days of camping food; maybe it was the passion fruit in the drinks; maybe it was being in Hawaii; maybe it was nice weather after a few days in nothing but rain and clouds; or maybe, just maybe, that was the best salad, and the best beef tenderloin, and the best brown rice, either of us have ever eaten. I'll say it again: "Wow!" Dona will even say it -- "Wow!"
After we finished that all off, we sat there thinking we should have ordered two of them instead of splitting it. So I thought about the time we decided we were grown up and could make cookie dough just to eat it, and figured there was no reason not to order again. So we did. The second one was every bit as good as the first.
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| Sushi Rock, Hawi, Second Entrée |
We awoke the next morning to a double rainbow over the ocean. We packed up and prepared to head back to the rainy side of the island.
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| Kapaa Rainbow | Double Rainbow! |
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| Looking towards Maui | Kapaa coast |
We drove back through Hawi, then continued to the end of the road, at a place called Pololu. We were once more in lush, rainy forest.
This page last updated on 2013-10-23.
