The Kohala Garden at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel

View toward Hapuna Beach from the Kohala Garden

What some people might call snooping around, I call exploring. Seeking out new life forms like green lizards or mongooses, not exactly on purpose, and exploring strange new worlds that might exist at the other end of the path at Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in Hawaii. There is not much around this resort to walk to or discover unless you’re a person who plays golf, which I am not, although I did notice a small sign with an arrow pointing to the Kohala Garden at the far end of this Big Island resort complex.

If you’re facing the ocean, it’s to the left. You can pass right by it if you aren’t careful and maybe never even notice all of the vegetables and fruit growing in the Kohala Garden. Because if you stay on the path, it will take you to a wooden bridge over a gulch. To the left is a deep valley filled with tree ferns so soft you will swear they must feel like velvet. To the right is the other end of the gulch with the Coast Grille above it. At the end of the wooden bridge is a sign. I peered over the edge to read the letters, something about hotel guests only.

The hill behind is most likely above the public beach, and without endangering myself or possibly breaking a hip (I am very cognizant in my old age about breaking a hip), I could not figure out how to climb over the gate. It was locked by a padlock, and enough to make me say outloud to nobody in particular: some things are better left alone. I sounded so sensible. So like my mother. Kill me now.

A truly spectacular sight is the tomato garden in the Kohala Garden. Look at how they used the horizontal and vertical pieces of bamboo to contain the tomato plants. We should do this at home in Sacramento. So simple. Brilliant. Instead of buying those expensive red cages that we forget to maneuver the tomatoes within and they grow outside of it anyway and dump fruit in the dirt.

Below are photographs I shot of the fruit and vegetables in the Kohala Garden, by Elizabeth Weintraub, using an iPhone, of all things.

Tomatoes are supported by horizontal and vertical bamboo in the Kohala Garden

Ripening papaya fruit in the Kohala Garden behind the Coast Grille

Okra grows in the Kohala Garden behind the Coast Grille at Hapuna Beach

Japanese eggplant grow under Papaya trees in the Kohala Garden

Hot peppers in the Kohala Garden behind the Coast Grille at Hapuna Beach