We packed up our stuff this morning, and are killing time wandering Kona and surrounding area.
Bevin considers the sea… Hei Hei is ready to go, he’s been far too close to the sea. Still ❤️ BanyanJust can’t get enough.
We went on a tour of the summer house of the Hawaiian royalty that was built when they started trying to emulate the outside world…
The summer palace. Credit: EmilyThe king was said to be over 7 feet tall, and spears were 3 times the height of the user. The long one is his spear.His exercise ball. 180 lbs.
Stopped at a small national park that has a short trail out to “the King’s road”, a straight road the first king built across the island. In case you can’t tell, that road goes straight through this lava field, all the way to the horizon. It’s really quite a thing to see, it’s amazing to imagine how much work it must’ve been to construct. Something I’d like to read more about.
I certainly wouldn’t build a road across it… The RoadUp close and personal with the lava rock field Cool lava rock
Gonna get some dinner, head to the airport, and engage in single combat with Alaska airlines. Should be fun.
Yesterday, our last full day on the island, we drove around the north side to see the sights, go to a waterfall hike, and visit the other big town of Hilo.t
The hike was fantastic. Very jungly. I’m not going to post the full set of pictures because there are just too many, I’ll upload them later in a better way.
Josh ❤️ BanyanUnknown plant. Maybe Ginger? Some of the plants are just HUGEAkaka Falls. Not quite all 442 feet of it is visible. There’s a fish that goes up it. (suction cups are used) Very tenacious mosses around here. Some truly impressive ferns, and Pothos that make my inner houseplant gardner cry. The only sound better than crashing waves on rock is jungle waterfall. As long as it includes the smell. This is the place Disney Imagineers go to say “holy shit, if only we could do that”
After the hike we went into Hilo, walked around, checked out the farmer’s market, and completely undid Matt with lunch.
The drive down the mountain takes you across some beautiful valleys where the road is right up in the canopy. Really interesting biome on the way back up the volcano. Sort of a scrub-brush rainforest? More blasted lava wasteland in the saddle between the mountains. About 7000 feet up. A sign I saw in Hilo that I really liked.
Got home and scrounge up some food and watched the sunset. We went down into the queen’s bath, I’ll have pictures of that later when I get them from Matt, I didn’t dare take my phone near water in case I had to dive in to save Bevin.
Hand-held at the luau. Phone pointed straight up on the table at the luau Nighttime waves, and a passing boat, from our porchClouds and stars over our porchMostly void, partially stars.
Yesterday we wandered around Kona, and then went to a Luau! So much delicious pork.
Kona is nice. It’s a fairly small place, but lots of fun little shops, and some great views. There was a high surf advisory, so it was really fun to watch some actual big waves come crashing in.
Going to put the images behind the Continue Reading link, so click on through for pork!
Continuing on pastmthe Desolation Trail and the older Caldera, we hike on another mile to the current eruption viewing zone. Fortunately the “eruption viewing” wasn’t actually the outhouses, but lay beyond.
Unfortunately it’s cloudy. Also the volcano is fairly quite currently, which may or may not be fortunate, depending on how you feel.
Once again, click Continue Reading to see the pictures!
The volcano is about 2 hours away. The trip takes you through a number of different biomes. It’s really interesting to see how different the various parts of the island are.
I’m going to put the rest of the post behind a click here because it’s very image heavy. So go ahead and click Continue Reading below to see all the pretty pictures…
Today we added Dragonfruit to the papaya and mango. Bevin, of course, puts it on toasted croissant. Bevin also delivered her fruit in drink form, with some kind of root-based syrup.
We also took a trip to the farmer’s market this morning to get more fruits, and ended up with a number of jams, jellies, and drinking things.
Papaya. So much papaya. Bevin is making her very own papaya jam, which is not shown here as it boils happily.
The beautiful color of the water portends something… Boat day!
Yesterday was our catamaran day! The “no wiki” (no hurry), is a 50′ long, 30′ catamaran, with an 80′ mast. Captain Kirk (yes!) and his assistant Rob took us out for nice cruise to look at the island, and do some snorkeling in a couple different spots.
The shoreline of the big island is amazing. Rocky lava caves up close, and a view of just how big this mountain really is. There were a couple of cool spots they took us to specifically.
One was called “the grotto”. The surf was high enough that we couldn’t get in as far as the other little tour boat, so the pictures don’t really show it but there’s an entrance to a lava tube in there. The tube approenhly goes back about a mile. The roof used to cover most of the grotto as well apparently.
The lava tube is in the dark shadow right above the rope. Pretty impossible to see in the photo though.
We also saw a formation called “the red hill” which is an old Caldera that has a collapsed lava tube which makes a face which was thought to be that of the war god.
Look for the eyes, nose, and hair blowing to the left. The less spooky side of the Caldera
We did some snorkeling near here which was pretty amazing. Big lava rocks about 10 feet under the surface, covered with coral. Not necessarily the brightly colored coral you think of from TV, but LOTS of it, and fish swimming around everywhere. Rob, our lifeguard and guide, dove down and through and underwater lava arch which was about 30 feet down.
Bevin tired out from snorkeling. The clouds just sit on the island like a hat, not nearly as threatening as they look.We can see our house! It’s that one.
Here’s a couple of pictures from around the beat
There was really only one downside to this whole adventure: I’m not supposed to be this color.
That’s what comes of like 10 minutes of sun exposure between getting out of the water and re-applying sunscreen… Even with my hat. Reflection is dangerous, and the sun is a death laser.
We didn’t take Hei Hei on the boat, it seemed cruel. Matt’s poor abused legs really don’t need this sort of attention though…
Really fun day. I’m a bit sad we don’t have pictures of underwater to share, but I’m happy to be a person who enjoys doing the thing without having a camera strapped to my face constantly. 😎
Yesterday was shopping day, and being lazy sitting at the house watching the waves. We went to the farmer’s market and got some truly astounding fruits. Papaya, mango, and pineapple that have exceeded all expectations.
We also went to Costco. Which met expectations exactly.
Bevin would like you to know of the ham sandwich she made, which had hawaiian BBQ chips on it, as well as mango butter. Sunset from the porchThe waves crash quite nicely just feet away. “goodnight moon” said Hei Hei. Poor thing.
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