Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Today, as I drove to get my mail ( inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park) there was a sign posted about the poor air quality. This is pretty interesting because the volcano is really not spewing up at the top here, and there has been little earthquake activity. They tell us the air is poor but do not explain why.
For anyone wishing to monitor this the USGS has a great website http://volcano.wr.usgs.gov/hvostatus.php
They post daily what the volcano is doing. Right now some lava is advancing towards the old Royal Gardens Subdivision, a place wiped out in the 80's. ( what were they thinking building there in the first place?)
Since we have daily visitors coming to stay we like to monitor the flow. Unfortunately you cannot hike out and see red lava right now like you could last year. The flow field is far away and more hazardous since its going through trees and brush which cause methane explosions. Last year it just flowed over existing lava, and into the ocean.
Still, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has lots to offer even without red lava. The hiking trails are fantastic and varied. The crater is steaming and very much alive.

Chocolate Tastings and Pairings

The Chocolate Experience with Chocolatier Melanie Boudar
Sweet Paradise Chocolatier is happy to announce the first series of Chocolate workshops. These workshops are a fun way to learn more about fine chocolate and meet fellow chocoholics!

Intro to Fine Chocolate Tues Dec 18th 7:00- 9:00 Pm
From Mayan and Aztec uses of cacao seeds for currency to our present passion for infinite flavors of gourmet confections, chocolate has played an important role in many world cultures over the centuries. Instructor Melanie Boudar will take you on a chocolate journey through the ages, exploring its intriguing origins, history and uses, including the current chocolate health craze. Learn how chocolate is produced and enjoyed.
We will do an extensive tasting of some of the worlds finest single origin chocolates, where you will learn to distinguish and appreciate their subtle flavors and textures. Join me for an evening of Chocolate immersion. Tuition: $40. Limited to 12 participants.

A New Years Chocolate Eve- Dec 31st 7:00-10:00PM

Try a little something different this New Years Eve. In addition to our intro to fine chocolate and tasting of chocolate from some of the finest chocolate producers from Italy, Venezuela, Madagascar, France and Hawaii, we will learn how to pair chocolates and chocolate desserts with wine, spirits and champagne.A fun evening of chocolate and spirited conversation is on the menu. Tuition: $60.00 Limited to 12 participants.

Introduction to Chocolate Making- Saturday Feb 9th, 2008 10:00am to 3:00PM

Further your knowledge of chocolate in this lecture/demonstration and hands on class where we learn about the unusual chemistry of chocolate. Participants will prepare a classic ganache and prepare hand-dipped and hand decorated truffles just in time for Valentines Day. Proper serving and storing techniques will be discussed. Everyone will take home a decadent Valentines box of their gourmet creations.
A light deli style lunch will be served. Tuition $ 125 Limited to 12 participants.

Chocolate Eco Adventure in Belize Mid May 2008
Join Chocolatier Melanie Boudar for a fun and adventure filled week in Belize, a Central American country that grows cacao for Green & Blacks Organics. Participants will tour a working chocolate farm, chocolate co-op, and learn hands on how chocolate is processed from Bean to Bar. In addition, we will learn to prepare authentic Mole . Lodging is in the comfortable and unique Eco resort, Cotton Tree Lodge, accessible by a 45 min boat ride up a river in southern Belize. Included are day trips to ancient Mayan ruins, and an ocean snorkelling trip to a nature preserve. Please email for rates and further info.

email to hawaiichocolate@gmail.com to register or call Melanie 557-5358. Classes will be taught at her home in Volcano.
Melanie is the 2007 winner of the Kona Chocolate Festival Judges Choice Award, and a graduate of Ecole Chocolat in Canada and the Culinary Institute of America Artisan Confections program. She is a founding member of the Fine Chocolate Industry Association www.finechocolateindustry.org

Green Building in Hawaii

In honor of Al Gore's Nobel peace prize for attention to global warming I am going to talk a little about Green Building in Hawaii. The fact is-there's not enough of it!! Hawaii has an opportunity to be a leader in alternate technologies- solar, photovoltaics, water treatment etc but is not putting its best foot forward. I live in Volcano, a rainforest community and gateway to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. As in all areas there are pressures for growth. The current community underserves the 1.5 million visitors to the park and is very proactive in protecting the rainforest. There needs to be balance in the two arena. Growth is inevitable. People need sustainable lifestyles. Hawaii needs to develop more mixed use concepts that allow people to live and work in their community without having to waste fuel on lengthy commutes. Green building techniques help preserve the rainforest by conciously removing only what needs to be taken and not polluting the environment.
At the Craters Edge www.VisitTheVolcano.com was built as a great example of integrating a house with its environment. It was built by MahanaHomes www.vervedesignbuild.com who is now creating luxury kit homes based on their pod designs that can be adapted for the site.
GO GREEN!!!

Volcano Spa

Visitors to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park now can spend an afternoon at the spa after a long day's hike. Hale Ho'ola Spa located in Mauna Loa Estates offers a menu of spa treatments that rival any resort hotel. It is conventiently located near some of Volcano's nicer B&B's and vacation rentals such as At the Craters Edge, Volcano Mist Cottage and the Volcano Rainforest Retreat.
LomiLomi, Hot Stone and special massages for pregant women are available as well as host of rejuvenation packages featuring massage, steam baths, facials, foot massage and exfoliating body scrubs. Products used are all natural and feature ginger, sugar cane, Tumeric,pikake, lilikoi and other indigenous herbs and plants. Visit www halehoola.net to learn more and drool over their menu of services. Another reason to stay several days in Volcano, enjoying the rainforest, hikes, great restaurants and art galleries.!

At the Craters Edge

At the Craters Edge, www.visitthevolcano.com is a new luxury vacation rental/B&B in Volcano. The home is all cedar , big timbers and glass set into the fern forest. It is scheduled to open in Sept and has beautifully appointed rooms and bathrooms with jacuzzi tubs and vessel sinks. The grounds have wild orchids, anthuriums and fountains. Check it out and book the holidays soon!

Kona Chocolate Festival

Last Saturday was the annual Kona Chocolate festival. This years event was a huge success with a giant turnout, a great salsa band , free flowing champagne and more chocolate than you can imagine. Melanie boudar, Chocolatier of Sweet Paradise Chocolatier Ltd took home the coveted Judges Choice Award for her World Flavor Bon Bon collection. visit Sweet Paradise at www.sweetparadisechocolate.com

At the Craters Edge

Visitors to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park now have a choice in luxury lodging available. Located just outside the Park in a quiet , forested subdivision in Volcano , the newly built vacation home, At the Craters Edge will delight travelers with its contemporary style, impressive timbers and integration of indoor and outdoor spaces.The house is a collaboration between Melanie Boudar of Volcano, Hawaii and Peter Fluker of Verve Design Build of Whistler, British Columbia Canada.called Mahana Homes.

The home, currently under construction and due to open as a vacation rental in April 2007 welcomes you with elegant tropical hardwood doors carved with a subtle banana leaf motif, and lava stone bowls with colorful art glass floats and sculptual plantings . Huge window walls throughout the house open to wrap around cedar decks providing an elevated birds eye view into a magical rainforest world of giant tree ferns and native Ohia Lehua trees with their brilliant red blossoms.

The interior features stylish Valor Bolero radiant fireplaces finished with lava rock and tile surrounds, exotic Brazilian teak and cork flooring, a gourmet kitchen with Wolf range, stainless steel and granite counters , elegant baths with whirlpool tubs plus seperate travertine and glass tile showers.The master bedroom has a huge built in window seat, perfect for lounging around next to the fire or reading. The dining area with its natural Mango slab dining table and Ingo Mauer Zettel lighting is a complimentary blend of high tech and organic materials, creating a cozy, inviting space to entertain friends.
For more info on At the Craters Edge contact Melanie at (808) 557-5358

Sweet Paradise Chocolatier Hawaii

Wild strawberry guava, lilikoi, lychee, mango, starfruit...these are just some of the exotic tropical fruit tuffle flavors being offered by chocolatier Melanie Boudar. But her favorite is a choclate called Crouching Tiger made with Asian pears, ginger and sake, then striped and dusted in gold. The new chocolate website should be up in the next month. look for www.chocolateonmaui.com to tempt you.

Hawaii Chocolate

I have been busy that last 6 months being classically trained as a chocolatier. Attended the Culinary Institute in New York and Ecole Chocolat in Vancouver Canada. Now guests to the Bamboo Orchid Cottage B&B are being treated with fresh artisan chocolates using fine French & Belgian chocolate and tropical centers. The new chocolate company is called Sweet Paradise Chocolatier and will be opening a flagship store in Maui this summer. Watch for the new website to go live in February www.chocolateonmaui.com

Blessed Bees

Seems like we've been blessed.... a new colony of bees has set up shop in the cardboard box which is holding a tent canopy to go over the new hot tub. One clear morning, thousands of bees arrived and swarmed around the box. It was a thlck cloud of bees. For the next two weks I watched commuter traffic going in and out of the box.
A call to Captain Cook Honey Company was now in order as we needed to open the box and retrieve the tent. Pat arrived at dark with his protective gear and smoker can. Using a red light he was able to cut open the box and remove the hive. He said there was about 3 gallons of honey in that box. I'm relieved to know that the bees are on their way to a new home where their efforts can be better appreciated.

Thai Thai

Volcano is the gateway village to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, but trust me if you blink, you'll miss it. We have 2 general stores, 2 gas stations (connected to the general stores) a hardware store, laundromat, post office and 5 places to eat. Considering we have almost 2 million visitors annually this is an underdeveloped village. Not that I am for mass development. I really love the fact that we have no fast food concessions here, but we are sorely in need of more food. Good food. My personal Volcano favorite is Thai Thai. This is the best Thai food I have eaten in Hawaii, and I've probably tried them all. The Tom Ka soup is particulary outstanding. It comes out in a clay pot with a flame underneath and is loaded with freshly picked herbs and ginger, a perfect accompaniment to the coconut broth loaded with your meat or tofu choice, mushrooms, cabbage etc. The waiters at Thai Thai are also outstanding. Friendly, efficient and well dressed, it really makes dining a pleasure here. If you like spicy food, I'll still warn you-this is authentic so you might want to order the heat down a notch from what you are used to. Reservations are recommended....this place is busy!

Wood Valley

Last week I was invited to a party in Wood Valley. Wood Valley is a delightful valley tucked in behind the old plantation town of Pahala, approx 20 miles south of Volcano. Pahala is home to Tex's famous malasadas ( portuguese doughnuts) . This sleepy town has some excellent old plantation homes from the islands Sugar Days . You must drive into Pahala on the main road, then take a right at the stop sign at the intersection where Tex's is. This road will take you into Wood Valley, after you pass a long stretch of Macadamia nut orchards. Pretty 10 and 20 acre+ farms dot the valley which is a mix of pasture land and jungle like landscape of tall trees and fragrant white ginger. Wood Valley is also home to a colorful Tibetan Buddhist Temple, where the Dali Lama came to visit and speak a few years ago. The public is invited to tour the grounds and step inside the temple. There are cushions you can take and sit on while you drink in the peaceful quiet of the surroundings. Monetarty donations are appreciated to keep the temple open to the public.

Fruit Stand in Waiahinou on the Road to Kona

Today I stopped at a little fruit stand off Hwy 11 in the town of Waiahinou. It is an orchard with fruit and mac nut trees surrounded by picturesque lava rock walls, and some crude signs that say "espresso" and "organic fruit" . Under an ohia post and metal roofed pavillion owners Barney and Elizabeth have a selection of seasonal and organic fruits, packaged, dehydrated macadamia nuts, an assortment of honeys and Ka'u coffee. Todays selection were 2 kinds of grapefruits, organic white and ruby reds, avocados, limes, and bananas.
Now Kona has the name associated with Hawaii coffee, but personally I find the coffee's grown in the Ka'u region of the Big Island to be more flavorful. Many people don't realize that coffee grows in all districts of the island, not just Kona.
Barney complained that too many new people are moving into the area and would like to see fruit stands like his taken down so they don't detract from their land values. It would seem that new people coming here want to destroy the very character that charmed them in the first place. (only they don't realize it until its gone) I say hats off to all the little entrepreneurs like Barney that are out there trying to make a living and keeping Hawaii a colorful place to visit.
By the way this Southern route of Hwy 11 is fantastic to drive in winter as the poinsettias ( yes they do grow somewhere besides pots covered in colored foil at Wal-Mart) are in full bloom and the vivid red spilling over the black lava walls is truly worthy of your digital camera.

Ohelo Berry Harvest 

Best Of Hawaii Island

Welcome to the "Best of Hawaii Island" , our blog featuring all the cool places we know of on this island...places off the beaten path or well worth the trip, the things we think are a rip-off and things that guests to our Bed & Breakfast have discovered during their stay here. Our guests give us a unique perspective of our island, things we often miss or are jaded about. You see actually living in Paradise is not all the easy street you think it is....we do work for a living...but its not bad either!

We are in Volcano, just outside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and living on a volcano can be pretty interesting at times. Friday we had a 5.1 Earthquake that hit about midnight. It shook the house pretty good, and several guests were disappointed that they slept thru it!