July 2, 2019

I left Kailua-Kona on Friday June 21st, Summer Solstice day, then drove 40 miles south to the village of Ocean View an area of sparsely developed subdivisions on the south slope of Mauna Loa. For those keeping track of my location on your Carmen Sandiego World Map I’m at co-ordinates 19.0888888 North and 155.751111 West. The house has electric, hot water, a full kitchen, wifi and a rain water catchment for bathing/cooking. Very much like the off the grid place I stayed at in Captain Cook early last month. A very nice place sitting on a quiet street with no close neighbors excepting the 2 cats living under the house (Frankie’s shape shifted felines) who like to rough and tumble wrestle on the front porch around 9 every evening. Very little light pollution I have a clear view of the beautiful night sky and its millions of stars, the Milky Way and trouble finding the pole star. This is the last compass point on the island map I had planned to visit. The island is big and impossible to explore from any one place. Starting in Hawi on May 17th put me at the north end where I and the late May visitors set out our days – Volcanoes Park, Kailua, Waipio Valley, the top of Mauna Kea and many places in between. I moved from there to the middle west side and Captain Cook at a hideaway with the intention of taking more time to relax. Nine days later I’m meeting with Sharon at the Kona Airport where we drive first to the east side and Hilo for a week followed by a trip back to the west shore and Kailua-Kona. After leaving Sharon at the airport on Thursday June 20th I traveled here to the south end staying until July 13th when I meet up with my next visitors.

What have I been doing these past 12 days you might wonder. Checking my map for sights to see I decide to take a drive the first Saturday to a place called South Point then driving a bit further east on Hawaii Belt Road to the village of Naalehu. These weeks I’ve made visits to State Parks – Whittington Beach and Manuka, where I mistakenly decided to hike the narrow rocky 2 mile trail on a day after it had rained. The mosquitoes swarmed me whenever I stopped which was somewhat of an annoying disappointment because the hike has many marked off places to observe the different plants and sections along the trail. I had to keep moving or else get picked up and carried away! Whittington Beach, when I researched it later, was recently the site of a murder, yikes! (think that was drug related) . I liked the park, not much of a beach here or most of the windward side parks because of the heavy surf pounding up against the shore. Every village I’ve driven through has a coffee shop and bakery. It’s Hawaii and Kona coffee is world famous. Fresh and delicious baked goods should never be passed up so yummm! Snorkeling trips to Two Step and Kahalu’u Bay on separate days. Both places are parts of early Hawaiian village life. Two Step – Honaunau Bay, is adjacent to the National Parks site “Place of Refuge” (I posted about during Sharon’s visit). Kahalu’u Bay on the other hand is close to the town of Kailua and as shown on the 1948 map below was a thriving community that has lost its historical character. The Kaha Lu’u Beach site shown on Henry E.P. Kekahuna’s archaeological inventory sketches out the locations of heiau’s (places of worship) used for good surfing, a solar calendar, a women’s worship place and a place for sacrifices. The site in 1948 still had remains of special bathing pools and enclosures that only Hawaiian royalty and the upper classes were permitted to use. Most of that is gone now in its place are parking lots, a beach, snorkeling spots, hotels and houses. Of the two I much prefer 2 Step for snorkeling. The water is deeper and the surf is not as choppy, where I found the water at Kaha Lu’u too shallow and too crowded having to share it with surfers and snorkelers. The coral is different too seems the seawall shown on Kekahuna’s map has led to sand covering the coral and to a bathtub like wash movement in the currents. I was being moved this way and that whether I wanted to linger or swim in a particular direction. Last Friday I drove to Volcanoes National Parks Visitor Center to help with the clearing out of Himalayan Ginger. The plant was brought here, it is assumed, for gardens and has now invaded many parts of the park. It was a misty morning as a group of 10 worked on a section of hiking trail that was overgrown with the plant. Using our loppers I and another person working together, as well as the others, would cut the stalks about a foot off the ground leaving the rest for Park folks who are coming in later to spray the tips. We worked until my partner was stung by a wasp, took a break then worked a little more before ending and hiking back up to the visitors center. The stuff is everywhere our small group barely made a dent. On the return trip to Ocean View I stopped at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach park. The website Atlasobscura describes the park as: Known formally as Punaluʻu Beach on Hawaii’s Big Island, the volcanic sands create one of nature’s most stunning scenes. Unlike other beaches, the black sand of Punaluʻu is made almost exclusively of basalt that has washed up from beneath the waves. As underwater lava vents extrude magma out into the ocean the super-heated rock cools so quickly that it often explodes into the tiny basalt particles that continually feed the unique beach. The area is also home to a handful of unique species of endangered wildlife such as the Hawksbill Turtle and the Hawaiian Monk Seal which are shockingly common on the jet sands. The Black Sand Beach is yet another of the island state’s one-of-a-kind natural wonders.

Yesterday I hiked from the South Point parking lot to Papakolea Green Sand Beach, a 2.9 mile trip along the coast out to a steep overlook then down to the “green” sand. This hike was a very busy one lots of families and groups in the mix. Not like we walked in a straight line, there is a shuttle service offered to those who aren’t up to the hike. The different 4 wheelers have cut a crisscrossing pattern of trails we could all choose from so one wasn’t following others and the dust stirred up by the cars and feet. At one point I felt like I was with the travelers in the Close Encounters movie all of us heading to this mecca of sand. On the beach the surf was so strong only a few young brave souls ventured out to dive through the 5′ waves. Fun to watch but not me I wasn’t going in, it’s a 3 mile walk back!

Hawai’i, the Big Island, has a rich history. There are so many places to visit where I can learn about early Hawaiian life and culture as it was and as it is today. O’ahu has the advantage of Honolulu’s Bishop Museum where the telling is on display under one roof I think of how nice it would be to have that museum here for Big Island visitors. Hawi-Kohala and Kamahamaha the Great’s birthplace, the massive Pu’ukohola Heiau he had constructed after bringing all the islands under his rule. https://www.nps.gov/puhe/index.htm

Parker Ranch and its beginnings with John Palmer Parker’s first meeting the king in 1809 then later marrying his granddaughter. Changes in the land system where the King once owned all the land in the islands then private ownership comes about under another’s rule in the 1840’s when Parker purchases his first 640 acres where today it measures over 130,000. The Island adopts market economics in the mid 1800’s selling sandalwood, sugar cane, pineapple and cattle. Today the primary economy of the island is tourism. The population with Hawaiian ancestry numbers around 35% of its total. There is a bitterness among some of that number about, as they see it and understandably so, how their kingdom was taken from Queen Liliuokalani and them by greedy haole businessmen. I would probably feel that way too. At “South Point Complex”, as the government calls it, there is a plaque erected in 1964 with the inscription that the “site possessing exceptional value in commemorating and illustrating the history of the United States”. Those inscribed words are “X”ed over with white paint and the words “Hawaiian” are written underneath. At the place in Kailua where I stayed before Ocean View the owner told me her story of her and her husband, a young married couple, moving to the islands in the ’70’s. I have met a few who also came here during that time when there were jobs easy to find, the cost of living in a group commune was cheap, you could come to the islands and literally camp out and not be bothered by anyone. Food was “free” from the ocean, abundant fruit trees and whatever you could plant and grow. Main landers, haoles, moved into the local Hawaiian’s spaces set up their camps, took a share of the bounty, when over time turning their off the grid “hippie life” into a growing business, buying land and still leaving islanders on the outside. I understand the anger, probably feeling invaded and defeated. Hawaii becomes more popular as a tourist place this pushes more against their traditions and way of life to covering over ancient sites with hotels increasing the cost of living to where today, I’m told, in some cases it takes 4 or 5 adults living together to make ends meet. Side work is common, many move to the main land for better opportunities. AirBnB, VRBO are other ways islanders on somewhat fixed incomes, including retired haoles, try to stay ahead but now the hotel/restaurant lobby has this difficult too as the rules have changed in their favor. Hawaii is the most expensive state to live in and having been here for 3 months and staying as close as I can to the budget I set for myself at the beginning, I understand why many struggle.

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Green sand beach gets its name from the green olivine crystals that make up the sand. The crystals come from the cinder cone next to the beach which was formed during an eruption 49.000 years ago.