Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [170]
Just Ukes (322-0808; Hwy 11; noon-5pm Mon & Wed-Fri, 1-6:30pm Tue, noon-4pm Sat) Pick up a good quality but affordable ukelele ($100 and up), along with sheet music and Hawaiian CDs. It’S also a gallery for photographer Kim Taylor Reece, whose sexy hula portraits are everywhere.
Yoganics Hawaii Limited (322-0714; Hwy 11; 10am-5pm Mon-Fri) This eco-boutique carries bamboo T-shirts and Organiks brand clothing; an attached studio has yoga and Pilates classes (drop-in $15).
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KEALAKEKUA
pop 1700
Kealakekua is the commercial center of South Kona. With the lion’S share of essential services – banks, a post office, the hospital and so on – it makes a useful if unexciting town. However, it contains a few standout places to experience the region’S ‘living history.’ Its name means ‘Path of the Gods,’ to recognize a chain of 40 heiau that once ran from Kealakekua Bay all the way to Kailua-Kona.
Information
A post office (800-275-8777; cnr Hwy 11 & Haleki’i St), several banks with ATMs, and the primary hospital serving the leeward side, Kona Community Hospital (322-9311; www.kch.hhsc.org; 79-1019 Haukapila St) are in close proximity. The Kona Historical Society (323-3222; www.konahistorical.org) runs several of the town’S sights.
Sights
KONA COFFEE LIVING HISTORY FARM
Many free coffee farm tours are a perfunctory 15 minutes. To really understand coffee farming, and for an evocative look at rural Japanese-immigrant life, visit the Kona Historical Society’S 7-acre, working coffee farm (323-2006; www.konahistorical.org; adult/child 5-12 $20/5; tours on the hour 10am-2pm Mon-Fri). The Uchida family lived here till 1994, but the farm has been returned to the era of the 1920s to 1940s. Several docents grew up on similar farms, so they speak from experience as they present the orchards, processing mill, drying roofs and main house. You’ll learn how to pick, how to heat a bathhouse, and how wives prepared bentō (Japanese-style box lunch) for the field. It’S worth the high ticket price. Call ahead, as time slots can fill up.
GREENWELL GENERAL STORE MUSEUM
Next door to Greenwell Farms (right), the Kona Historical Society has turned the 1890 stone-and-mortar Greenwell General Store into a very clever museum (adult/child $7/3; 10am-2pm Mon-Fri). Shelves and walls are meticulously stocked with brand new or re-created dry goods and farm equipment authentic to the period. Inside, docents hand you a shopping list and a ‘character’ (based on actual customers from Henry Greenwell’S journals). Then, you shop, learning as you do. On Thursday afternoon, the Portuguese oven turns out fresh-baked bread. It’S between the 110- and 111-mile markers; the society’S headquarters are behind it.
GREENWELL FARMS
This is one of Kona’S oldest coffee farms, and it’S still run by the Greenwells. Established in 1850, their beautiful 35-acre farm (888-592-5662; www.greenwellfarms.com; Hwy 11; 8:30am-4pm Mon-Fri, 8:30am-3pm Sat) became known worldwide as a large-scale producer of quality Kona coffee. Henry Greenwell achieved this fame by trading dry goods from his general store for other farmers’ coffee cherry, which he blended with his own. As the line of farm trucks during harvest season indicates, that practice continues today; if it smells like burnt sugar on a stove, they’re roasting. The free tour includes the wet mill (which other coffee-farm tours skip) and information on family history.
AMY BH GREENWELL ETHNOBOTANICAL GARDEN
Without pottery or metals, ancient Hawaiians fashioned most of what they needed from plants. This ethnobotanical garden (323-3318; www.bishopmuseum.org/greenwell; suggested donation $4; 8:30am-5pm Mon-Fri, free guided tours 1pm Wed & Fri, 10am 2nd Sat of month) preserves Hawaii’S original native and Polynesian-introduced plants in a typical ahupua′a, the ancient land division system that ensured all Hawaiians had access to everything they needed. Plaques are informative, but guided tours are helpful to appreciate the humble grounds. Bring insect repellant. The garden is just south