Kona News

She is the largest and most expensive American flagged cruise ship to ever sail. The Pride of Hawaii will be home ported in Honolulu and make weekly cruises around the islands.

Today was her first visit to Kona since arriving in Hawaii. The 965 ft. ship has a capacity of 2400 passengers and a crew of just over a 1000. That buggers big!

Now there will be 3 cruise ships touring the islands on a weekly basis. They are: The Pride of Aloha, The Pride of America, and now The Pride of Hawaii.

Funny how things change, just a few years back there was one old clunker of a cruise ship from like the early 50's making a weekly pass through Kona, after they went belly up Norwegian Cruise Line came in with a beautiful modern cruise ship and a plan to turn Hawaii into a world class cruise destination like Alaska and from the looks of it I'd say they're on the way to doing just that.

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June 4, 2006 8:48 pm -

My friend Paul Bleck stopped by this morning and asked if I wanted to join him for a little ride up north to inspect a house at Puakea Bay Ranch. Paul is an architect and sometimes inspects homes under construction. It was a beautiful Hawaiian day and too good to be just sitting on the lanai so I said sure!

Puakea Bay Ranch is located about 50 miles north of Kona in the Kohala area. Look for a separate article I'm writing about the area its self. Paul has been working with the owners of this house about three years, starting from the design concept and he goes out once a week or so to see how things are going with the actual construction of the home.

This house is situated on a grassy meadow with a view of Maui and the ocean. It's spectacular. It has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The guest house is 3 bedrooms and 2 baths The cost to build a home of this size and quality is in the millions.

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So after Paul did his job taking pictures of the work in progress and making some notes, we headed back towards Kona. Paul asked if I wouldn't mind stopping at one more house, I said sure. I always like seeing new houses. The next stop was The Bluffs at Mauna Kea Resort. Each house in this beachfront subdivision is practically a work of art, this particular house we were checking on is also in the multi million dollar range. Plus the cost of the property.

Here's a picture of my friend Paul looking things over. Notice the pool on his left, it has viewing windows so people working out in the exercise room down below can watch people swimming and vice versa. Also note that all the walls are poured concrete. The floors are stone and the roof is copper. There is practically no wood used with the exception of under the eves.

So after we left there we continued on back towards Kona and stopped off at the golf course restaurant at the Mauna Lani Resort and had a delicious lunch.

Still heading towards home, Paul says why don't we stop at Kona Village Resort and take a swim. I'm like can this day get any better! Yeh why not. I've been trying to get into this resort to take some photos for a while and this was the perfect opportunity.

I got lots of good photos and info about the place. I'm going to be adding a new section to the resorts page all about Kona Village here in the near future.

Well after a swim and a Jacuzzi we finally headed back to Kona. I got home about 5 PM and tried to convince Eila that I and Paul put in a hard days work. LOL. Well, I'm off to update the resorts page about Kona Village Resort. A Hui Hou! Joe

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June 4, 2006 9:40 pm -

Puakea Bay Ranch

Puakea Bay Ranch is a beautiful place off the beaten path. Behind the guard gate are beautiful green rolling hills overlooking Maui and the deep blue Pacific ocean. (Read Article)

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June 6, 2006 10:40 pm -

Kona Village Page is Up!

As I mentioned the other day I've been working on the story about Kona Village Resort and got it up this evening or the other evening according to when you read this. New page for Kona Village Resort

This courtyard picture is just the tip of the ice berg of the beauty of Kona Village Resort.

Getting in to Kona Village is no easy task if you're not a guest as I said the other day. But the wait was worth it! There are a couple things I left out of the article that I want to mention here. One is Kona Village is 82 acres in size. Second, there are 125 Hales or bungalows as some would call them. No big ugly concrete buildings there.

The Hales are along the beach, around the beautiful pond and in rows behind those at the beach with tons of trees and vegetation growing around them to the point all you see is the entrance. Very cool.

Another thing I should have mentioned was they also have a glass bottom boat. This is great for folks that want to see fish without having to get wet.

One last thing, the Friday night luau is supposed to be excellent.

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June 7, 2006 5:56 pm -

You ain't gonna believe this!

Back in December of last year a man sailing off the coast of Costa Rica runs into some kind of seriously foul weather and develops engine trouble at the same time.

So he calls the Coast Guard and they said a freighter was in his vicinity and it would come get him and he would have to abandon ship. Bummer. So he gets rescued and waves bye bye to the expensive sail boat for the last time and goes home to California with his life.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago... A sail boat washes ashore 25 miles south of Kailua Kona off of Millolii. Guess whose sail boat it is? Yup that's right. It's his.

The Coast Guard here ran a check on the hull number and discovered the report about the guy having to abandon ship back in December off the coast of Costa Rica. UNBELIEVABLE! Last I heard the guy was on his way to pickup his sailboat. Cool.

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June 10, 2006 3:02 am -

Your input would be appreciated

Yesterday I put up the polling box on this page and it said if you voted you would see the results of what others voted. Problem is it didn't work the way I thought it was going to.

If you could please vote again I would be very grateful. The poll form won't post the results. Instead the little box will email me your vote and I will tally them myself. (Wish I was a better programmer.)

Next week I will post the results.
Mahalo for your time.

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June 11, 2006 10:53 pm -

King Kamehameha Day Parade

Monday is the official holiday. But last Saturday and Sunday there were plenty of festivities.

The annual parade started about 9:15 AM Saturday morning. Last year there was no parade because of a lack of sponsorship.

So this year I beat a path down to Alii Dr to watch the parade. You never know if there will be one next year. There was a pretty good turn out to watch the parade. Princesses from the different islands were on horseback and rode in the parade as pictured here.

Also going on was a big canoe race at the Kailua pier. All the canoes being raced were made of Koa wood which is very rare and the canoes are regarded as being sacred and used only for special events.

Kai Opua canoe club had a tent on the pier selling food and soft drinks. There were hundreds of racers and spectators looking on from the pier.

All in all, it was a pretty fun filled holiday weekend.

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June 22, 2006 8:37 pm -

Joe and Eila got married!

It's been a while since my last post due to the fact Eila and I finally got around to tying the knot! American slang for we got married, in case you're unfamiliar with that term.

Then a week later my son got hitched to a nice girl named Stephanie. I'm worn out from all the excitement I tell ya! If you click the about me page you can see a current photo of the misses and me.

We were very blessed to have the Elliott family help make our big day so wonderful! It was a HUGE effort on their part to make our reception the success that it turned out to be.

Cathy E. handled the catering with the help of her daughter Rachel. About 80 people attended and the food was excellent.

Cathy works at the Fairmont Orchid and asked one of the chefs there to carve some melons and cantaloupe into fish for us. He did an excellent job as seen here in the photo.

Cathy did such an awesome job that 3 or 4 people asked her for her business card. Only one problem, she's not in the catering business. But she knows the business inside and out from working at the Fairmont Orchid and the Waikoloa Hilton food and beverage departments.

In the honorable mention department: Britt and Krista, they did hours of flowers and lights. Jason and Heather did potate salad and photography.

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June 25, 2006 12:14 pm -

Dolphin Days

This week out at the Hilton Waikoloa was the annual Dolphin Days event. It's a 4 day event that starts on Thursday evening with dinner and benefit silent auction followed through the weekend with golf and tennis tournaments, The Great Waikoloa Food, Wine & Music Festival and a 40 minute dolphin program.

Yesterday Eila (Eye-la) and I drove out to watch the dolphin program and have dinner afterwards. Problem was I miss read the day and time in the newspaper. The dolphin program was on FRIDAY NOT SATURDAY. I was bummed out that we missed the dolphin event. I was hoping to get some really good pictures to show here. If you click here and scroll to the bottom it tells about the dolphins at the Hilton Waikoloa.

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June 25, 2006 1:55 pm -

Big Island Steak House

Only eat here if you have a strong stomach. (Read Article)

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June 25, 2006 3:22 pm -

Forum Poll Results:YES

I'll add a forum at a later date. I still have some other pages to ad to the site first.

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June 28, 2006 9:37 pm -

Cruisen Paradise 2006 - Kona Custom Cars

Cruisen Paradise 2006 is the biggest car show/cruise to ever happen on the big island. Over 100 cars are being shipped in from the mainland, plus many others from the neighbor islands. (Read Article)

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June 30, 2006 11:18 pm -

Friday evening at the Old "A"

Actually it was more like Friday night at the ball field next to the old "A". The "A" is local slang for the old airport beach park. Eila and I drove over to see some of the street rods in town for Cruisen Paradise 2006.

We got there around 5 PM and I'd say there were about 70 cars out on the ball field with folks hanging out talking story. This little get together was the warm up for the big show/block party tomorrow night on Alii Dr.

I ran into Gwain Booth and his beautiful "Woody" pictured here. Gwains a contractor and part time coffee farmer, his coffee brand is Ohanamalie.

The wood on this car is Koa which you can only get in Hawaii.
A guy in Michigan actually turned the raw Koa wood into the beautiful panels that you see here.

If you're here in town Saturday, come on down and check out the cars at the block party. You'll be glad you did.

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