Big Island Adventures – Day 1 – Up North on the Kohala Coast, Waimea, & Eating All the Things

This Memorial Day Weekend, Matt and I took a trip over to one of the neighbor islands (my first neighbor island trip ever!) With 3 days, a full tank of rental car gas, and a Google Doc planned itinerary we started out our first day up north on the island.

Oh! But first here are some pictures from Matt’s birthday dinner at Roy’s. He was a good sport and let me take the pictures of him in the birthday hat they provided (thanks Roy’s!)

Round 1 of Matt’s birthday dinner! Roy’s Beachwalk Canoe: Szechuan Baby Back Ribs, Shrimp Sticks, Crispy Mini Crab Cakes, Chicken Spring Rolls & Spicy Tuna Roll.

Our entrees for the night: Beach Walk Trio: Hibachi Salmon, Macadamia Nut Crusted Monchong, Misoyaki Butterfish & Rice Crusted Hapuu’puu with Tomato Raviolis.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Also had a sushi-ritto from Up Roll Cafe in Kaka’ako for lunch on the day of our flight.

Salmon roll from Up Roll Cafe

Okay! Now for Big Island adventures. 🙂

The first place we visited was Hapuna Beach – white sand, lots of space (and convenient parking!), but because it was the first stop of the day it was a bit too cold to enjoy the water. Afterwards we visited Pu’ukohala Heiau (Temple of the Hill of the Whale) where King Kamehameha I built one of these last major Ancient Hawaiian Temples.

We even saw that there were a few newer offerings left at the site.

Since we hadn’t eaten anything since dinner on Oahu, we appropriately decided that our first real meal on Big Island should be the best burgers up north in Waimea.

Kahua Ranch wagyu beef burger with avocado and an egg, goop parmesan fries, and part of Matt’s chipotle goat cheese veal burger.

We also stopped by Waimea Coffee Company to load on caffeine before we hit the road again. I had a really yummy iced dirty chai, and Matt had the special of the day – a hand crafted spicy espresso beverage spiced up with cayenne pepper! We also shared a macaroon cause they were basically calling our name through the glass case.

The drive up the Kohala coast was beautiful – very different than driving on Oahu (we were pretty much the only ones on the road for most of the drive). We stopped by the original King Kamehameha statue (the one that was lost at sea) and drove all the way to the end of the highway at Pololu lookout.

After exploring Hawi for a bit, we rushed back to try Da Poke Shack before they closed – the #1 place on Yelp!

Wet Hawaiian poke, sesame baby octopus, & teriyaki calamari over furikake rice.

And because Matt knows I love eating al fresco, we booked dinner at Cafe Keei to watch the sunset and enjoy a really tasty dinner (although, my appetite was cut short from all the burgers and poke in one day).