Kona Coffee Living History Farm
Continuing south along the scenic two-laner, you're soon high above the ocean, fields of bushes and berries indicating that this is coffee country. For a taste of the plantation lifestyle established over the past century, pull into the Kona Coffee Living History Farm just before the village of Captain Cook (mile marker 110; 323-2006; www.konahistorical.org). You'll learn not just about locally grown coffee but also sample the luscious fruits that abound in Hawaii, such as Kona oranges, passion fruit, and guavas, among others.
Kealakekua Bay
A side road leads to Kealakekua Bay, from which you can see a monument marking the place where British explorer James Cook was stabbed to death by the natives in 1779. This happened just a year after he and his crew became the first Europeans to set foot on what he dubbed the "Sandwich Islands."
Coffee Shack
Back on the main road, stop at the mountainside Coffee Shack (after mile marker 108; 328-9555; www.coffeeshack.com), built on a coffee plantation. Besides Kona coffee, lunch, and breakfast—try the eggs Benedict—the lanai, or porch, has views of 26 miles (41 kilometers) of coastline far below.
St. Benedict's
In the same area, don't miss St. Benedict's, better known as the Painted Church (84-5140 Painted Church Rd., Captain Cook; 328-2227; www.thepaintedchurch.org/history.asp). To give his congregants the illusion of being in a European cathedral, its Belgian priest painted the interior with a simple trompe l'oeil technique in the early 1900s. Also nearby, look for the 180-acre (0.7-square kilometer) Puuhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park, preserving what's left of an ancient Hawaiian royal residence, a sacred place of refuge, and a heiau. Among the original artifacts on the site are petroglyphs and a 16th-century wall.
Lava Fields and Forests
For the next 40 miles (64 kilometers), the road traverses, alternately, old lava fields and Eden-like forests with flowering multicolored bougainvillea and hibiscus along the side of the road. Also look for tropical trees like the wide-spreading monkeypod and ohia trees with feathery red blossoms.
