NCL Pride of America Cruise | Day 5 - Kona, Hawaii | Kona Coffee | Pu'uhonua O Honaunau

We had breakfast at the Aloha Cafe then made our way down to the Hollywood Theatre on the Pride of America which was the meeting place for the shore excursions to go ashore.
Kona is a port that cruise ships have to tender, which means they anchor out in the bay and most ships use their lifeboats as tender boats to get you ashore.
On our way being tendered to shore, we saw some dolphins swimming along side us.
Once on shore we had an unfortunate change to our shore excursion, as one of the coach buses broke down, so our excursion was now leaving in the afternoon. So we changed our order we were doing things here and decided to walk around Kona and explore. Unfortunately when we visited Kona in May 2022 there was still quite a bit closed, hopefully they will be able to recover and more shops and restaurants will be open soon. They do still have the Farmer's Market here in Kona on Wednesdays and Saturdays, however it was not as large as my previous visit. It still featured some local art and produce.
After exploring around Kona, we decided to head back to our ship to drop off some chocolates that my aunt bought at the ABC Store and have a light lunch at the Cadillac Diner onboard Norwegian Cruise Line’s Pride of America, before heading back to Kona for our “Historic Kona” shore excursion.
Our first stop was the Royal Kona Museum and Coffee Mill. I did purchase a couple bags of coffee here after trying a few samples, but it was really just a shopping stop.
Our second stop was the “Painted Church” which is the St Benedict’s Catholic Church built between 1899 and 1902. As we are still on the Big Island of Hawaii, which is the newest island, there really isn't any soil just lava rock, so graves are built on top of the lava rock as obviously you can't dig into the rock.
Our final stop of this tour was at Pu'uhonua O Honaunau National Historical Park.
This place was Royal Grounds and a place of refuge in the time of “kapu”. Meaning that if you broke a law or during times of war you could elude your pursuers, come here and be absolved by a priest and seek safety in this place of refuge, if you made it. It remains a sacred place of peace, calm and refuge to Hawaiians to this day.
I would highly suggest coming here on your own with a rental car, as right next door, in the same bay as the National Historic Park there is a beach area that has amazing snorkelling. I was able to see the brightest yellow fish from the shore, so I could only imagine how it would have been snorkeling in the water.
It was then time to head back to the Pride of America and sail away from Kona, onwards to Kauai.
We had dinner at Jefferson's Bistro or Le Bistro again. I had the French Onion Soup, followed by a Cauliflower Veloute with Scallops and Truffle Oil. For my main I tried the pork chop followed by the Fraisier for dessert.
We then enjoyed some live music in Pink's Champagne Bar then went and checked out the “Glow Party” in the Mardi Gras Nightclub.
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