Day 6 + Final Day: Big Island Style

Day 6 was our last full day on the Island. I was very sad…time flew by way too fast. With that said, we knew we needed to site-see some more of the island.

This day we decided to head down towards Kona to tour a coffee farm and go check out a Beekeeping Museum and sample some honey!

But first, breakfast (and a selfie)!

While waiting for the car, Bob’s friend was back in the lobby! Butterscotch!

Now time for breakfast. We stopped at this little placed called The Coffee Shack. It’s located on Highway 11, between mile marker 108 and 109. They are open everyday from 7:30am-3:00pm. They serve breakfast till noon.

The coffee they serve is grown on the mountainside directly below the lanai. They are perched high on the mountain overlooking the lush mountainside of fully producing 85 year old coffee trees. The view on the lanai is spectacular. It overlooks 26 miles of coastline — including a view of Kealakelua Bay, where the famous explorer Captain James Cooks first arrived in Hawaii. My pictures don’t do justice.

They bake their own pies, cakes, and other special homemade pastries, and freshly baked bread for their sandwiches.

Breakfast: French Toast, Made with their Homemade Luau Bread with a side of Papaya

What is Luau Bread? It is made with Mac Nuts, Carrots, Pineapple and Coconut!

It was sooooo good!!!! And the Papaya, that was delish as well.

Bob got the Black Forest Ham and Smoked Turkey Sandwich on Homemade Rye Bread. He loved his dish as well.

Also, you will be greeted with geckos. They have little food dishes for them to come up and eat from. We were definitely entertained while waiting for our meal.

Next Up: Big Island Bees!

They offer free tours daily from 9:30am – 11am (weather permitting) to explore actual hives, learn where the queen resides, and how the hive is organized, and what makes bees so special and interesting.

Unfortunately, the tours were all booked the night before, so we were unable to do the tour, but we did check out their Beekeeping Museum and tried some samples of honey! You can make reservations directly on their website: Big Island Bees. Their museum is open Monday-Friday 11am-4pm.

Some fun facts I learned while visiting the Museum:

Honeybee Movement: At Big Island Bees, they move their beehives into a “honey flow”, which is an abundant nectar source. Three times a year, they move the hives by loading them onto flatbed trucks at night when all the bees are in the hive and not foraging. The bees are unloaded at the new site in the same configuration as the previous site so the bees are not disoriented when leaving the hive in the morning.
When a honeybee stings a human, the honeybee dies!
They produce their honey organically without heating, filtering, or blending
Pesticide and herbicide residues in non-organic honey can taint the flavor

Say hello to Kevin while you are there! Tell him ‘Sweet Dash of Sass’ (Sara) sent you!

Check in on Yelp and you get 5 free Macadamia Blossom Honey Sticks!

What is a honey stick? It’s basically honey that has been sealed in a plastic straw. They are perfect when you don’t feel well. It can help soothe a sore throat and have you feeling better in no time. They are low in calories and can be a great pick me up. These sticks can also be used in tea or iced drinks – pour contents of stick into your beverage and stir using the stick.

I can’t wait to try the Mac Nut Honey Blossom and Hawaiian Honey Mustard in some recipes. I also purchased Mango and Passionfruit Peach tea to try – which happen to be new items!!

Next up: Coffee Tour!

We drove up the road to Greenwell Coffee Farm. They offer free tours daily from 8:30am-4:30pm. Free samples of all their varieties of Kona coffee too!

All their coffee is 100% Kona. If you want to purchase coffee that is grown directly from their farm – purchase the Private or Jeni K blend. All other varieties use a blend of theirs and from other local farms — however, they are all 100% Kona.

Wayne was our tour guide – who was awesome. He walked us thru the process. Each coffee cherry is picked by hand. They only pick the cherries when they have turned a bright red color. Then, the cherries are soaked for 12-14 hours. This process ferments the fructose in the cherries, to help remove the skins.

When the coffee bean is first removed from the cherry covering, it’s white and slimy looking. Then, it turns into brown color that we are familiar with after the roasting process. Check out their website to watch several videos of the process: Greenwell Farms.

After the tour, we definitely were in the mood for an afternoon snack. I definitely could go for some shave ice. Instead of going to the same location as before, we decided to head back up north to try a different place near the Kohala Burger and Taco place that we went to the other day.

After the drive, we decided to grab a snack at Kohala Burger and Taco again and then get some shave ice. Guess what? It was 99 cent taco day! I got 2 fish tacos!

So good. Definitely one of our favorite spots. If we lived here, this restaurant would definitely be a regular for us.

Now time for a sweet treat! Shave Ice from Anuenue – which is right next door to Kohala Burger & Taco.

This time I got Grape, Mango, & Passion Orange. I decided to try it with a Sno-cap.

What’s a Sno-cap? It’s where they drizzle sweetened condensed milk over the top. My initial reaction when I heard this was ewww. However, after the number of times of ordering shave ice and seeing how many people order it, I decided to try it. I have to say it’s pretty good. Gives it a creamy taste.

Since this was our final shopping day — I wanted to grab a few more Hawaiian food items to bring home. This store was located in the Queen’s Marketplace near our resort — I wish I would have stopped here on our first day. Lots of cools items!

Once we got back to our room, the sun just started going down. We decided to get one last swim in.

We spent the rest of the evening packing up our suitcases and watching the finale of Big Brother. Anyone else a Big Brother fan?

The next morning was our final day. We were sad. We didn’t really have time to do anything exciting, so we decided to go to breakfast at the resort one final time.

Plus, we decided to see if Butterscotch was out and about one final day. Unfortunately, she wasn’t. So, we hung out with this little guy.

For my final breakfast, I filled my plate with…..

Even though we are smiling below — we were very sad….

I hope you all enjoyed our adventure over this past week. We had a great time and we will definitely be back for sure – so much more sight-seeing to do.

I’m looking forward to re-creating some of the dishes we had while we were here for all of you.

Here is a sneak peak of all my souvenirs I got while I was there.