December 01, 2004

Huika'i 'Olelo ( Many Stories)

How Green is my Valley. Waipio Valley, North Kohala Hawaii

I dont understand how THIS happened but this post was saved several times and it compleatly disapered... I dont get it. I complained to Blogger last night. I looked at Status and they said they were "finished"...fininshed me off for sure...

So I will reconstruct. This only happens to me on a big post with 2 dozen links in it,but I digress...

Our visit with Monica was very nice and I was so glad for her company. Hawaii was herself though and we had not the greatest weather for our journey. So we were somewhat limited in what we could do.

The Day after Thanksgiving, I knew that all of the normal people that would be shopping at our store would be shopping at wal Mart that day, so I stayed closed and Monica and I drove to Volcano Village to the Annual Art Fair they have there. Last Year we got some great gifts for the holidays but this year we wernt as fired up to buy stuff. I did get a lovely hand thrown Rice bowl which will be a lovely reminder of my day here on this beautiful island.

We then traveled south stopping in Pahala Town.This is a Quiet little town in the Kau district that was once the center of Sugar and Mac nut farming on the south east side of Big Island.

We drove through then continued on to my favorite beach Punaluu Beach Park. this beautiful Black sand beach is always a touch breezy which makes the wave action wonderful. The beach is famous as a sea turtle breeding area and even on that windy cool day a "Honu" (sea Turtle) had hauled herself out of the sea for a bit of a sunbath and a rest.

We also stopped at Whittington Beach Park. This is a little used park that is the site of the rail road sidings and the peir that was used in the 1800's to load sugar into ships to haul it away. The broken down pier is being removed, but its rubble is perfect habitat for sea life and the reefs teem with it.

From there on is the wind swept slopes of the South Rift of Mauna Loa. This is predicted to be a likely site of a major erruption in the future and is also not surprisingly the next great land boom area in the island with land going at record prices and houses springing up like mushrooms. This sweeping hills that roll right into the seas remind me of English Downs or Ireland. There is a lot of dairy here and one sees the black and white cows everywhere.

The town of Naalehu was our final stop. We had torrential rain seemingly everytime we wanted to get out of the car, but it was nice when we got here. WE took a break and had a treat at the Punalu'u Bakery... the southern most bakery in the US. We enjoyed the little botanical gardens there and the shopping opportunity and then drove home.

The next day rewarded us with sunny skies for the most part and we set off for the Hamakua cost and our ultimate destination,Waipi'o Valley This was a sightseeing trip we missed when Monica visited last year as we got rained out.The drive up was lovely and we were able to get out and walk down that very steep road to get some great views of this beautiful garden of eden. I see it and can hear in my minds ear the chanting and see the long vanished people that lived here long before the contact times. Here is Another link for Waipio Valley and its history.

On the infamous day that I slipped down a soft soggy hillside, back in August, I was exploring, and found another little used State park, 5 miles up from Highway 11, through some of the prettiest farm country I have seen here on the island. So I really wanted to show Monica this gem, the Kalopa Native Forest and State Park. It is a bit of a climb, but its a paved two lane road, up the sholder of Mauna Kea. I drove slowly up, and my guages showed nothing out of the ordinary but as we pulled into the parking lot, Steam began to rise out from under the hood of my poor neglected car....Im thinking "oh great, I have blown a hose out here in the middle of nowhere..."... there was an emergengcy phone as Monicas cel phone was out of range.

As God would have it... A van from Arnotts Lodge in Keaukaha was passing through. this group can be seen in yesterdays photo of Waipio valley in the foreground. They were kind enough to give us a lift back to Hilo where Woody was sitting on the store and we quickly closed up and Woody got us some possibly needed parts and we dashed back up there. The car had cooled down somewhat and we were able to put more water in it and get it off the mountain. Everyone that we have spoken to said that was a good thing as we have had a rash of car thefts and strippings lately and who knows what might have happened.

The car rattled and shook, and sounds like a fax machine dying... so we think its the water pump and I will replace that once I get back from LA.

We needed to stick close to home as I didnt trust my car, and still dont even though I have been driving it some. We went to the Makuu farmers market and then back into Pahoa town for lunch which is always fun... We rested after that and Monica got ready to go back home to LA the next day..

Busy busy busy, but there is always something to see here. I will never grow tired of it. It is a amazing place full of wonders, this Island of mine floating out on my Wide Blue Seas