All packed and ready to go to Hawaii! We're checking luggage this time - bringing hiking poles and snorkeling equipment. Tom picked us up and took us to the airport. Thanks, Tom!
We flew Hawaiian airlines through Honolulu - it was cheaper than the direct flight on short notice. They fly 767's to the mainland.
This 717 ( formerly called MD-80 ) is used for interisland flights. The fleet is pretty new.
Kona Airport - a small airport with no jetways, but a pretty big rental car center.
Our first stop after quickly checking into our hotel was a dolphin program on the hotel grounds.
Our room for two nights - overlooking the luau grounds, it turned out.
Linda went for a massage, and I found the sunset on our first day of vacation.
A late dinner at Kamuela Provision Company - the resort's steak house. Big Island has a lot of cattle ranching going on in the highlands, and was where Hawaii's first cattle herds were started.
The entire western side of the island, where pretty much all the resorts are located, is dry volcanic rock with a few grasses and trees from Africa.
Going further south to the Kona coast ( where the coffee comes from ) it's wetter and greener, but still very rocky.
We had signed up for a snorkeling tour to Captain Cook Monument. This is Captain Chuck who works for Sea Quest.
We caught a pod of spinner dolphins playing in the bay in front of the Captain Cook Monument.
This is a temple in the place of refuge. We also snorkeled in front of here. It is a national historic site.
There is a lot of healthy coral here. It's all hard coral, but comes in a lot of forms and colors.
We saw, briefly, this green sea turtle.
Schools of yellow tang feeding on algae.
This is a crown of thorns startfish. It eats coral.
One of many different types of sea urchin we saw.
Parrotfish chew at the coral reef, creating sand.
One of several eels ( 3 feet long or so ) we saw.
Puffer Fish!
Two cleaner fish had set up a popular cleaning station.
The snorkel tour company we took used a 12 person inflatable with a crew of two.
We stopped by this cave on the way back. Apparently a priest used to live down here and light fires in the two top lava tubes at night, making them look like glowing eyes.
Our hotel room overlooked the lawn where they held their luaus and also the food and wine event we were going to attend that afternoon.
This is the view from the entrance to the tower our room was in. There's a boat dock and monorail station in front.
Part of the Japanese restaurant at the resort.
These boats went up and down the canal to transport guests around the 65 acre property. Very slowly.
There were two major pool complexes, one on each end of the resort.
This was the view from our brunch on Sunday.
The resort also had three Nene - Hawaiian goose, which is endemic and endangered. It's specially adapted to live on the lava fields.
The monorail system also moved guest around... when it wasn't broken down.
Always ready to try new fruits. This is a guanabanana or soursop we picked up at the South Kona Fruit Stand on our way to Volcano.
This is the Kiluea Lodge in Volcano, where we spent two days wishing the road to see the lava was open. Actually, we found other things to do too...
Our fireplace. The wood they give you is kind of damp - it takes a lot of effort to get a fire going. The first part of the effort is dismantling the pile of paper and wood they have set up for you and rebuilding it so it will actually light.
We stopped by a black sand beach after checking into the hotel - about 30 miles back the way we had come.
We saw this lone turtle pulled out of the water catching the last rays of the sun.
This part of the slopes of Kiluea is forested by a huge native fern. The Volcano Arts Center has a nice little nature walk available.
This fiddlehead is about the size of my hand.
Yes, those are huge tree ferns.
We had made an appointment to see Eva Lee's tea studio. She's championing a very young tea growing industry in Hawaii. They are trying out shade growing of many varieties of tea, and we got to taste a couple.
Eva's husband is a talented potter whose work is all over the property.
No human sacrifice.
This is behind the Volcano Lodge in the national park, overlooking Kiluea crater.
And this is overlooking a smaller crater next door called Kiluea Iki.
We hiked down into Kiluea Iki and across the bottom of the crater. The lava there is like huge chunks of broken asphalt.
It's a long walk, but on the day we went it was not too hot.
Native hawaiian trees have found ways to live in cracks on the barren rock.
Steam issues from vents all over the crater floor.
Redder rocks are either older or where a larger concentration of iron has surfaced.
This climbing fern was evident all over the crater rim.
Driving back around kiluea crater rim, we followed a rainbow.
Water percolating down to hot rocks causes steam to spew out of the cliffside here.
It's also very windy up there.
The rainbow led us to an overlook.
Someone had built a pile of rocks right in front of this sign.
Just as we were about to leave, a flock of 3 Nene landed.
We drove around the crater and stopped again over Kiluea Iki to wait for the sunset.
After sunset, we walked down into the Thurston Lava Tube.
Tree roots grow down into the tube to a surprisingly great depth. The tube is dripping with water.
In the improved part of the cave, ferns have found a habitat near the lights. In the unimproved part, it's just pitch dark.
There were many cats on the island. This cat at Kiluea lodge liked to climb into peoples trunks.
The reason we were unable to see the lava flow was twofold. First off, they had closed the road due to numerous earthquakes. Second, the lava flow had actually technically stopped by the time we got to the park. There was supposedly a little draining i
We headed up from Volcano to Hilo, stopping by the Hilo Coffee Roasting Company. To the left is dried coffee, next the coiffee after it's had the parchment ( covering ) removed. Then coffee after a decaffienation process, and finally the finished roaste
They did mostly just Hawaiian coffee, but also imported beans from other parts of the world to round out their product line. The company was also experimenting with growing tea and cacao.
Their main coffee roaster and a smaller one to the right for doing custom roasts for hobbyists and small growers.
We visited the source of many ( but far from all ) macadamia nuts. It turns out this is a tourist bus destination, and their self guided tour isn't very good.
You do get to see their factory. They recycle the husks to heat their dryers.
You get to look through grease stained windows at idle machinery.
They also have a short video presentation in several languages.
The Big Island Candy Company is famous for making lots of expensive shortbreads. It's again popular with the tour bus crowd, and many of the customers are Japanese.
You do get to see their factory operation through glass windows. They dip everything you could think of in chocolate, including rice crackers and dry squid.
The rock on the left is supposedly the one Kamehameha moved in order to prove his fitness to ascend to the throne. These are poorly explained and poorly labeled and sitting in front of the Hilo public library.
We visited many falls above Hilo. This is one of them.
There is no In-N-Out in Hawaii. I have no idea why this is here.
It is in front of another set of falls, however.
We stayed the night at the Palms Cliff House Inn, which is really more of a bed and breakfast. They were a little worried about their guests actually using the facilities - lots of signs everywhere warning of dire consequences for doing various seemingly
They did, however, have an excellent view.
The grounds were very well kept, and planted with a variety of interesting species, including mango, pineapple and this breadfruit tree.
We visited another waterfall, rainbow falls, and began to notice that the tour buses we had first seen at the macadamia nut factory were visible in great numbers here.
Rainbow Falls is supposed to be nice with the morning sun, but since this is Hilo, where they get 300 inches of rain a year or so, good luck finding that sun.
This lady was selling coconut water and displaying a cacao pod for some reason. There were plenty of tourists to keep her occupied.
We visited the Hilo farmers market, which covers about 3 blocks with plants, arts and crafts, and of course fresh fruits and vegetables.
Hilo has a large number of old Banyan trees all around town.
Finally, we made it to the botanical gardens.
Hoffmania. A plant with a beautiful velvety leaf.
A couple of gingers ( kampferia ).
One of many heliconias. If this garden has a forte, it's the gingers and heliconias.
Torch ginger.
Scindapsus pictus growing up a tree trunk.
A dwarf upright heliconia.
A giant pendant heliconia.
Tacca integrifolia.
As seems required in the region, the botanical garden has its own set of waterfalls.
More heliconia.
This is a cacao pod - from which chocolate is made. But more about that later.
More torch gingers.
This is called Tahitian ginger.
Another heliconia. When these dry out they hang down and look like rattlesnake rattles.
A pagoda flower - we first saw these in Tahiti.
More Taccas. They get pretty big here.
The garden is right next to the shoreline, and the paths through the garden give nice views of the ocean. Waves are rougher on this side of the island than on the Kohala coast.
The garden also had a good variety of calatheas.
An aquatic aroid, whch one I am not too sure. The pond was under renovation.
After the garden, we stopped for smoothies. Unfortunately, this place is in too many guide books, and small busloads of tourists made them very very slow.
We also stopped by Akaka falls. This is some moss-laden bamboo on the path.
Akaka falls is impressive, but a little crowded. We got stuck behind slow moving people more than once on the path, and parking was difficult to find.
On the way down from Akaka falls, we stopped for ice cream.
The Big Island Revealed tourbook is seemingly in use by half the island, and the things they really recommend can be overrun. It's not as bad as the tour buses, but it's a factor to consider.
We made it over to Kona Village for their Luau. This is the Imu where they were cooking the roast pig ( and roast turkey, it turns out ).
Their master of ceremonies explaned the process and history very well.
The burlap sacks were lifted...
And then these poor guys had to remove the hot rocks from inside the pigs. With their bare hands.
They also showed us how to make Poi. It's basically steamed, mashed taro root with a little water. The mashing can take ages.
After the Luau we checked into our final hotel - the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel.
They give you leis and fruit juice on checkin. Even if it's 10pm.
Next morning we were off to see Vanilla being grown, and to have a nice brunch with vanilla themed foods.
There was a sort of talk about vanilla growing and processing, but they don't let visitors into their greenhouses to see the plants because of fears of introducing disease.
We also stopped by a honey company which is run out of an old pig farm. They make honey from the introduced mesquite that grows in forests on the dry side of the island.
Afterwards, we stopped by another macadamia nut factory. The Hamakua Mac Nut Factory visitors center is only about 6 months old, but it's so far looking a lot nicer than the Mauna Loa one, less crowded, with more samples and much friendlier staff. Altho
Green Macadamia Nuts
Nuts in Shell
A baby mac nut tree. The nuts are very hard to crack, and originally from Australia/New Zeland. University of Hawaii developed a method to mechanize the processing of these nuts long ago, and now the industry is pretty big.
We visited an old Heiau ( temple ) site built be Kamehameha. It was said that if he built this temple, he would unite the islands.
There's a nice beach below the temple that is closed to swimming and sunbathing. We saw some people fishing, though.
There were a lot of Noni trees growing along the shoreline. Noni fruit is supposed to have many beneficial properties. When we ate some on Tahiti it mostly tasted of overripe cheese.
There are petroglyphs scattered over much of the coast.
They were made anywhere from 1200 to as little as 100 years ago. Some even show European introductions such as sailing ships and an alphabet.
They say there's no particular accepted theory as to what the purpose of the petroglyphs was.
Personally, I think it's graffiti.
To see a large area of petroglyph forest, we hiked almost a mile underneath the mesquite forest.
This entire area is covered with petroglyphs of various styles.
Our hotel had music every evening in the lobby.
We made an appointment for a tour of a chocolate plantation and factory. This is the only place in the US where they grow, harvest, and completely process cacao.
They were in the middle of a harvest, which they do every two weeks or so. Those brightly colored objects are the cacao pods.
Unfortunately, we were joined by a busload of people from a cruise ship.
A green cacao pod growing from the trunk of the tree. Note the aborted brown pod in front of it. Cacao trees limit the number of rip fruit they produce by aborting many of the young pods.
The cacao flower is pollenated by a small gnat-like insect.
The leaves are left on the ground in the orchard as a mulch and as a breeding ground for the pollenating insects.
The caco farmer is originally from North Carolina, and has an accent to match.
Inside the cacao pod are seeds covered with pulp. We were able to taste some of the pulp, which is a little sour, a little fruity and a little sweet.
The seeds are fermented, dried, and then ground to make chocolate.
This chocolate factory is very small, and many of the machines are improvised. This is part of a winnower made from a treadmill.
They use a coffee roaster to roast the beans.
This is one of the few purpose-made machines they have - a small conch which grinds the chocolate into a smooth and velvety texture.
We visited the a coffee farm in South Kona as well, and were given a tour by the farmers daughter.
Coffee grows on trees like this. We grind and drink the seed inside these fruits. Ripe fruits would have been bright red.
This is mostly a coffee mill, so they get bags of green beans from smaller farmers all over the area.
The coffee is washed and then the pulp is removed.
After a short fermentation to remove the seed coat, it is dried on the floor of these plastic-roofed sheds.
The fermentation tanks.
Once the coffee is dried, the papery outer coat of the seed is removed.
The husks are then blown off, and the coffee is sorted.
Near the coffee farm ( Bay View ) was a small church with biblical scenes painted on the walls by a Belgian priest.
We visited the Place of Refuge national historical site by car. Earlier we had snorkeled in front of this site. Green sea turtles like to sun themselves on this protected beach.
In the background is a reconstructed temple building. All that is left at most of these sites are the rock foundations of the temples.
We visited Huggo's, which Linda had seen featured on TV.
We also visited the Kona Brewing Company. Some of their products are available on the west coast through places like BevMo, but the bottled beer is actually brewed up in the pacific northwest my Widmer.
We tried a few samples with lunch. They had around 11 different kinds of beer on tap.
Brian gave us a nice tour of their facilities.
Anniversary dinner had a nice sunset.
The pool of the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel is nothing compared to the one at the Hilton, but it's cleaner and less crowded.
On our last evening, we took a tour up to the peak of Mauna Kea to see the observatories up there. It was an extraordinarily clear day, and we could see the peak of the mountain from the beach.
The lava fields on Kohala coast have graffiti made by placing bleached coral against the black lava rock.
We stopped for dinner halfway up the mountain at an old sheep station.
Cinder cones dot the area near the summit.
The visitor center is below 10,000 feet.
Our guide, Annie at Hawaii Forest and Trail, was a planetary geologist about to start grad school. She had spent a lot of time at the Univeristy of Hawaii telescope up on the mountain.
The peak of the mountain is covered with telescopes - sub-millimeter, visible light and infrared.
The shadow of Mauna Kea.
Left to right - Subaru, and Keck I & II
Time to fly back out of KOA.
It's not a big airport.
We had a 3 hour layover in Honolulu.
So of course, we had to take a taxi to get Malasadas... At least that's what Linda claimed.
