Wednesday, July 14, 2010

What to do on a rainy day in Hawaii

Although Kona is the dry side of the island, it still rains here.  That’s why it’s so green and lush and lovely.  Now that it’s spring and the drought appears to have ended, our normal wet-season weather has returned.  For the Kona side of the island, this generally means a soft rain shower in the afternoon or evening, with sun the rest of the time.  Some days we get a little shower in the morning, some days it’s clear and sunny all day long.   The rain, when it does come, is normally soft and warm and quite pleasant.  If it’s raining, try not to be bummed out.  Here are some things to do:

  • Get in the water.  Unless it’s windy or the sky is very dark, visibility should still be good.  You’ll get wet anyway, so why not?
  • Go to Volcano, it’s usually wet anyway. 
  • Go to Pu’uhonua o Honaunua.  It is normally very hot and dry at this park, and it feels good to be down there when it’s a little overcast.  It’s always gorgeous, so it doesn’t matter when you go.
  • Go coffee-tasting.  There are lots of farms in our South Kona neighborhood, so drive around and sample a few coffees.
  • Go book-browsing: there are two nice bookstores in South Kona.  The Reading Garden is just south of us and has a vast inventory of used books, and there's a small new bookstore tucked into Mango Court next to the health food store just north of us.
  • Sit in the hot tub.  There’s nothing like sitting in the hot tub on a drizzly day (especially after an ocean swim or dip in the pool). 
  • Have a massage.  It’s pretty fantastic to have a luxurious in-room massage on a cool afternoon, and then go slip into the hot tub to watch the sun set.
  • Visit botanical gardens: we have the Ethnobotanical Garden and Paleaku Peace Gardens close by which are both fantastically beautiful swathed in mist.
  • Rest on the lanai with a book: because it's never cold, sitting outside on the covered portion of the lanai while watching the rain drops splash onto the surface of the pool is wonderfully pleasant.  From our lanai you have a massive view of both sky and ocean, and it is fascinating to watch a storm system pass overhead.