So this is it, our last night in Hawaii.
Our last day in Lower Puna offered Hawaiian Parrotfish courtesy of good ol’ Uncle Suni. He went spear fishing and grabbed us two 7lb beauties. Parrotfish are so named for their teeth; their numerous teeth are arranged in a tightly packed mosaic on the outside of the jaw bones, forming a parrot-like beak which is used to rasp algae from coral. Because they only eat the reef they usually can’t be caught by poles. Since Suni loves to spear fish, this meant we were in for a real treat. Malik watched on as Suni cut off a few fillets for us to pan fry wit just a little butter and salt. The end result was the most tastiest fish you can imagine. Of course on top of really enjoying the fish, Malik also enjoyed recovering the the jaws of our dinner and really hopes I’m going to let him bring them home.
Tonight we’re back at the Outrigger Resort on Kona side. My mom asked me to get coffee while I was here, so today we took a drive and found “Kona Joe”. They offered tours of the coffee vineyards where they grew coffee beans like you would wine grapes. I don’t know how you would grow coffee elsewhere because I wasn’t paying attention to that part, but I was paying attention to the information about the coffee. Apparently it must be stated on the bag what percentage of the coffee is actually Kona coffee vs. South American imported coffee. Some places offer a cheaper mix of 10%, others 30%, but I made sure we grabbed a bag of 100% Kona coffee.
Our last adventure while on the hunt for 100% Kona coffee would be visiting the “City of Refuge” In ancient times, Hawaiians lived under strict laws. The penalty for violating a sacred kapu (taboo) was death. Breaking a kapu was believed to incur the wrath of the gods. Hawaiians often chased down an offender and swiftly put him to death unless he could reach a puuhonua, or place of refuge. There he could be absolved by a kahuna (priest) in a purification ceremony, then return home with his transgression forgiven. Defeated warriors and non-combatants could also find refuge here during times of battle. Puuhonua O Honaunau on the Big Island of Hawaii is the most famous and best preserved of Hawaii’s ancient places of refuge. We also found a nice fat turtle grabbing some rays on the beach and decided only the turtle and the totems were interesting.
When we first arrived, now six weeks ago, we were greeted at the modest little tiki airport with handmade leis that Jen provided. We took photos of course, but seeing as we’d just hopped off of a 16 hour plane ride, the photos weren’t that great. Since it would be our last day in paradise, I insisted on a family portrait and we needed leis to make the photo complete. As luck would have it, Wednesdays at our hotel were lei making lessons poolside.
With only a week left before the arduous 16 hour flight home, we reflected on the items still left on our to-do list. Mauna Kea is still calling my name, I wanted to get my hair cut, possibly a tattoo, and finally we were hoping to visit Capt Cook’s monument and visit The Place of Refuge before boarding the tiki plane and heading back home.
While at pot luck we sat laughing , actively discussing all of the “oh, and that time when we were…” and the “did you see the look on her face when….”. We’ve just a few things left and these past few days have offered time to sit by the campfire. Every so often we’re gifted a light summer shower. I’m so used to it that I don’t even bother to get up anymore and seek out shelter. Now we just sit and laugh, enjoy the moments refreshment and get right back to enjoying the campfire. In the distance we can see the hillside burn for “Pele’s march to the Pacific”. I managed to get as close as I could before the ground started to get warm and mildly uncomfortable to walk on. Jen was to freaked out my the heat to keep going, but I would have if she weren’t such a chicken. I know my limits.
Speaking of limits, recently I was re-introduced to the Passion Flower. My Dad and his wife grow these odd and almost alien looking flowers in their yard but here they are much more abundant. Here they’ve also figured out how to extract the honey from the passion flower by soaking the flowers in regular honey. This potion was suggested to me as a sleep aid with possible dream enhancements. Now I don’t dream, so the offer of dreams came as a bit of a surprise. More of a surprise would be the resulting tie dyed colors that danced through my dreams and right into the dawn. I’ve always been a light sleeper and I tend to toss and turn; creating this ugly pattern of waking up and forcing myself to go back to sleep. This pattern combined with the honey made for dancing colors galore, both asleep and awake.
I’ve met lots of really nice but really weird people. Nobody can seem to understand why I wouldn’t want to just cancel my plane ticket and stay here. I’ve found a Robert Frost poem that summed it up nicely for me though:
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.
The kids inquired as to why the hills were on fire. The house we’re staying at has a fairly open view of the lava heading towards the ocean and as is creeps it burns everything in it’s path. Naturally the children are moderately concerned by the plumes of red smoke and naturally curious about it’s origin.
Today we drove to the mouth of the volcano so I could help them understand. Standing there looking into the crater, Malik uttered the distressing question: “So, is this volcano, like, active?” I think it was then that he really understood what was happening. Next came: “So what’s to stop it from just exploding or flowing wherever it wants to instead down the hill where nobody lives?” I explained to him that nothing is to stop it from doing exactly what it wants and that it could blow at any moment. That it’s flowing where nobody lives because everyone was forced to move out of the area or risk losing everything. We toured the mountain side where previous lava flows forced residents to leave. Yet we also found current residents who decided to stick it out but build their houses off the ground so that they could be hauled off in the event of new flows.
Next we toured the seismographs that monitored all the volcanoes in hopes of detecting potential earthquakes resulting in explosions and other catastrophic happenings.
Finally, we hiked deep into the woods and explored extinct lava tubes. Lava tubes form as lava leaves a point of eruption. It carves a cave through the crust of the earth and the walls sometimes display lines where the lava flow has lessened until the lava has passed but this elongated tube cave remains. With flashlights in hand we marched deep into the depths of two different lava tubes. Thankfully I remembered to attach my flash and so we were able to snap a few photos along our journey towards the center of the earth.
We decided to take the scenic route and wound up at a dead end on the edge of a cliff. This would be a much more exciting story if it wasn’t exactly where we intended to wind up. Fears of tsunami drove most early residents out of Pololu Valley and have also allowed the area to go undeveloped. After the recent earthquake, portions of the trail have been closed. However that didn’t stop us from enjoying the view and exploring a few off limit areas just because we could.
Next on our list was Akaka Falls. Again we took the scenic route and I managed to snap a photo of a tree in a field that made the whole adventure a success. We took a wrong turn on the way to the water fall and wound up at yet another dead end. While Jen turned the car around, I jumped out into Farmer Brown’s field and snapped my curly tree ( afterall it matches my hair).
Finally we happened upon the waterfall, but it paled by comparison…well insofar as I see beauty.
I freaken love this kid. He’s the greatest.
Once upon a time, Jennifer’s Dad said we were just like Thelma & Louise. We laughed. Nearly 14 years later we’re still laughing, but now we have little people to laugh with us, at us, and to enjoy being the butt of our jokes.
Here in Hawaii white coral is used to write graffiti on the black lava rock. We pulled over to illustrate.
After further research, I’ve discovered that these fruit trees do in fact grow in Florida. However the fruit is more commonly found in Asian markets. As soon as I get home I’ll hunt down said markets and make sure I have plenty to share. Here though they sell for as much as $5.99 a pound! I can’t begin to imagine how much they cost back home. Here they grow everywhere and yet they’re still fairly expensive. We were able to get them for little to nothing; seeing as the orchard lines the drive we take to our jungle house in the eucalyptus forrest where we currently reside. We made a nice deal with the caretaker who just happens to be Jen’s psuedo-uncle. We paid him $1 for each pound we picked ourselves.
Located along the Hamakua Coast on the northeast shore of the Big Island of Hawaii, the Waipi?o Valley is the largest and most southern of the seven valleys on the windward side of the Kohala Mountains. We braved the drive down with the help of Suni and his 4×4 and his ocean kayak strapped to the roof. Malik and Suni were certain they were going to catch some fish. Either at the freshwater river that runs through the valley, at the ocean shore, or by diving into the ice cold depths just past the shoreline armed with spear guns. Malik and I enjoyed the paddle upstream in the kayak so much that we even discussed buying one of our own once we touched back home. Despite the overcast day, the valley was indescribably beautiful.
I may never get all the sand out of Leila’s hair. After sleeping on the beach for a week, it’s a wonder we don’t have alot more sand in alot more places. We loved every minute though. Each morning we’d rise with the sun, and each evening we’d drift off to the sunset. The lapping sounds of the water hitting the rocks found us wonderfully relaxed at the end of every day. The rum helped too.
Day one I awoke to a roach on my face. That was seriously uncool, but what did I really expect? Day two there were mice. Not scary rants like in big cities, but cute little country mice stopping in to see if we left any food laying around. Of course this little visit had Jen standing on whatever she could find and whooping like a school girl. Mice don’t bother me, but roaches make my skin crawl. I guess it’s a childhood thing. Either way- she took care of the roaches, and I took care of the mice. Day three we hiked 20 minutes through the searing hot desert of “pokey trees”. These trees had huge, nasty barbs that promised to draw blood if you accidentally stepped onto one. Which, of course I did. Several times. The long hike was well worth it though, once we found our way down to Kiholo Bay, we spotted a group of turtles sunning on the beach. This particular bay offers a saltwater/freshwater mix. Some ideas the water is very warm, and in others the freshwaters well out of the ground and make for ice cold patches. Before the end of the day we found our way to yet another beach to watch the sunset between the palm trees.
Day four, the lovely Gwen cam to visit and we enjoyed a few moments of girlie giggles out in the surf while the kids worked on sandcastles. By now Malik has become very comfortable with a boogie board and has even considered learning to surf. Suni offered to teach him, but I’m not sure how brave my little angel really is. We’ve been pushing him to be brave enough to let us give him a mohawk, but that hasn’t happened yet either.
Day five and we were packing up to head up into the mountains to camp in the Eucalyptus forest. Still no power, no internet, but at least this week promises indoor showers.
