Cafe Europa 39In Café Europa 39, we have a full report on the SCAE’s origin trip to Hawaii, and some great pictures on the front cover. Every one tells a story . . .

You have to feel the atmosphere of Hawaii as well as tasting the great coffee—and we did. After travelling so far, we needed to experience as much as possible on the Big Island: the Pacific Ocean, the palm trees and the sun setting across the sea (unfortunately, as a tour group made up only of men, we had to imagine the romantic aspect!)

Swimming with the turtles in Pauoa Bay was a fantastic experience. As they swam right up to your snorkelling mask you could almost here them say “Ha, ha, you can’t touch me, I am protected” (but in Hawaiian, of course!)

Even while volcanic ash is changing our lives here in Europe, we remember that we made a point of looking at the spectacular Kilauea volcano, which pumps ash into the atmosphere too, and then we went on to see the images of the Ki Ki gods, protecting the outcasts of their society who managed to make their way to the Honaunau Ancient Sanctuary.

But this only was part of the trip to view the great coffee growing areas of Kona & Ka’u, with their numerous beautiful coffee plantations. We remember the green stretches of Malia Bolton’s farm and the tractor at work at Heavenly Hawaiian, the sign that indicates the steep slope of JN Coffee farms in Pahala, the lovely red cherry from Rusty’s farm and watching the selection of cherries at Hula Daddy – only the ripest cherry gives the wonderful flavour of Hawaiian coffee.

The group met for the photo on the cover with our hosts in Ka’u, and we remember that they had waited all day for us–because we were held up on the long trip to the bottom of the island–and yet they still gave us a great welcome.

So why the donkey? Well, donkeys run wild on the Mountain Thunder estate, and after a pleasant walk through the coffee trees we were confronted by two of these almost-too-friendly beasts, and they seemed to want to keep us on the lanai (a sort of raised balcony viewing platform) and it was up to our trusty guide John Langenstein to help us out and appease our over-eager four-legged friends.

To the sounds of the ukulele, we left the hotel and our experiences… but they will all be in our memories forever. And while the Hawaii State Certificate certifies the coffee quality, we all can certainly vouch for that too!

Hawaii was just the latest in the series of origin tours that the SCAE organises–you can join our next SCAE trip to origin this time to Brazil, in July 2010.

Colin Smith
Origin Tour Leader
Past President
Chair of the Communications Committee