Waking up on day 5 we quickly got our hiking clothes on and headed back to Queens Marketplace for breakfast. This time we opted for this deli grocery store called Island Gourmet Market. We needed to fill up because we had a big hike ahead of us.
Tom went for bacon, eggs, and potatoes while I had spam, eggs, and rice again. The combo is so good! I might start making it at home.
Once we were full on eggs and Kona coffee we drove an hour to the Pololu Valley. Our plan was to hike down 490ft to the black sand beach at the valley floor.
Hiking down in the early morning sun and the cool breeze was amazing. Every step we took brought us to a new view of the beautiful ocean below.
It was easy making it to the bottom and we were expecting what we saw when we got there.
Of course, you have the incredible black sand beach, but our hike also brought us to an incredible lush forest. The forest looked like it came directly out of Jurassic Park. We spent some time exploring our surroundings. Here’s a quick video of the valley:
We then moved onto the beach. The morning sun was growing hotter so we really enjoyed the breeze off the ocean.
The sand was super fine and soft. On our way down a fellow hiker told us to use it as a spa treatment and while I’m sure this sand has some wonderful skin care properties we weren’t really dressed to get dirty and to be honest she seemed a little crazy.
The hike back up to the top was a little more intense than our hike down. It was super steep and it just kept getting hotter and hotter out. We did eventually make it back to the top but not before I declared I was having a heart attack… I know… dramatic.
We were starving on our journey back to the hotel so we decided to stop at another place Jason suggested, Umekes. This poke spot serves up the freshest fish around and was even on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives.
They have so many different poke options, but we both opted for the Hawaiian classic. I paired mine with lomilomi salmon and Tom had cucumber kimchi.
We, of course, ordered Kona Beers to wash it all down with. The Big Wave golden ale which you can get here is seriously good!
After lunch, it was time for dessert and when in Hawaii that means shaved ice! We stopped in this awesome shaved ice place and order 1 to share with 3 flavors (white pineapple, coconut, and passion fruit). It wasn’t full of pretty colors and kind of looks like pee snow, but it tastes awesome!
We pulled over on the side of the road on our way back to the hotel to check out a lava tube and hike a little in the lava desert. The difference in terrain that we experienced on this trip is truly incredible.
Once we were back at the hotel we got cleaned up for dinner. This was our first fancy meal of the trip. We had reservations at Kamuela Provision Company at the hotel.
There were so many reasons why we wanted to eat her.
1. The menu looked incredible.
2. The outdoor seating is right on the ocean.
3. It’s at our hotel so no driving 45 minutes.
4. It reminded us of Forgetting Sarah Marshall.
When we arrived we were seated outside right along the ocean. It was dark so the water was hard to see, but we could hear and smell it which had the same effect.
After we ordered our wine we were introduced to Marshmellow the restaurant cat. She’s very old and looks like she seems some stuff, but cute all the same. She decided she was going to hang out with us for the rest of our night.
The night started with a nice bread service that had everything bagel seasoning on it.
For our appetizer, we shared the fried calamari. Like most fried calamari it was overcooked but the flavors were good. It came with Thai vegetable slaw, Sriracha aioli, and fried basil.
For dinner, I had the Ginger infused Monchong served with cilantro, carrot, green onion, kabayaki, and sushi rice. Tom had Deconstructed Mahi Lau Lau with grilled mahi, Molokai sweet potato gnocchi, taro leaf puree, bok choy, lomi tomato. Every bite was excellent. We really enjoyed our food.
Back at the room we got comfy and drifted off to sleep with our full stomachs.
The Cocho Life 