Big Island (Waikoloa Coast), February 27, 2022

The oldest part of the Big Island is the Kohala Peninsula.  It is a bump on the northern shore of the island. It makes up less than 10% of the island's land mass.  Today Sandy and I drove around that peninsula.  At the Puakō Petroglyph Archaeological Preserve we saw a number of etched petroglyphs dating back as long ago as 1200AD.  At the same site was a dramatic lava rock shoreline.

A little further up the coast is the Pu'ukoholā National Historic Site.  This was a temple built by Kamehameha before he started consolidating his power.  He "sanctified" his temple with the obligatory human sacrifices.  The site is considered the birthplace of the Kingdom of Hawai'i.  While all that is left now are the stone platforms, when they were operational many wooden structures were atop and around these temples.

We stopped for lunch in the colorful little Hawai'ian town of Kapa'au.  

The tip of the peninsula.

 Across the middle of the peninsula are the famous cattle lands of the Big Island.  It is here that the Parker Ranch, still, through the Parker Ranch Foundation operates as the largest privately held ranch in the country (that includes Texas).  The Parker Ranch is a working ranch and right now not open to the public, but we did see other cattle ranches in the area.

Finally, back at the resort, Sandy and I enjoyed a couple of Mai Tais as celebration of our 51st wedding anniversary. 

Volcano, Big Island (Hawai'i Island), February 26, 2022

 Today we checked out of our AirBnB in the rainforest and drove across the island via the saddle road.  The center of the island is dominated by desertlike lava flows and always overshadowed by the 13,803 foot snow-topped Mauna Kea.  The diverse microclimates of this island never fail to amaze.

Still on the Rainforest Side we stopped by this waterfall.  

Mauna Kea with snow fields and observatories

The road through the middle of the island.

The big island has thousands of ferel pigs and goats.  

Sunset at the Hilton Waikoloa Village.

 

Volcano, Big Island (Hawai'i Island), February 25, 2022

We will be moving to the west side of the island tomorrow for our final week in Hawai'i.  Today we just stayed around our jungle house all day.  After two weeks in the rainforest with a fair number of hikes Sandy wanted to run virtually all our clothes through the laundry.  I took my final "outdoor" shower and we spent the rest of the day inside packing, reading and relaxing.  One final dinner tonight, spam and eggs. And then off to the sunny resort on the other side.

I certainly can't hold myself out as an Hawai'i travel expert.  However, my advice to would be vacationers is if you come to the islands for a short vacation, then by all means visit the unmatched beaches that Hawai'i is famous for.  But, with more time, a visit to the rainforest of the eastern part of the Big Island would not be a waste of time.

Volcano, Big Island (Hawai'i Island), February 24, 2022

The actual name of The Big Island is "Hawai'i".  Before contact the islands were not named as a group by the Polynesian inhabitants.  Each island had its own name and that was enough.  After contact they were known as the Sandwich Islands.  So named by Captain Cook, after the then, First Lord of the Admiralty,   John Montegu who was the 4th Earl of Sandwich.  (Yes, this is the same Earl of Sandwich who is reputed to have invented the sandwich)  Later, the King Kamehameha I of the island of Hawai'i (this island), began conquering the other inhabited islands.  After each island was conquered it would become part of the Kingdom of Hawai'i, when the final two islands, Kaua'i and Ni'ihau voluntarily (but under duress) joined the Kingdom of Hawai'i the entire archipelago became known as the Hawai'ian Islands and then just Hawai'i.  Today to avoid confusion, almost everyone refers to this island, the island of Hawai'i as The Big Island.  And, it is big.  All the other Hawai'ian Islands combined could fit onto The Big Island.  Hilo is The Big Island's largest city and the state of Hawai'i's second largest city.  However, with a population of 45,000 it is hard to compare to the greater Honolulu (Honolulu + East Honolulu + Pearl City) population of almost 500,000.  Hilo's other claim to fame is that is the wettest city in the United States with an average of twenty-two days a month of rain and over ten feet of rain a year.

Today Sandy and I took off to see some of the sights near Hilo.  We had clear and sunny skies.  Just outside of town we stopped at the state's largest Macadamia Nut plantation with more than a million trees.  The visitor center was closed due to COVID, however the plantation was open for us to wander around.

Some of the million plus trees.

Macadamia Nuts on the tree.

Thousands of Norfolk Pines planted as windbreaks to protect the Macadamia Trees

Further to the west, up towards Mauna Loa (the mountain/volcano) we came to the waterfalls called the "Boiling Pots".  Actually the Hawai'ian name for these falls are Peepee.  That's right, peepee.  Better written as Pe'epe'e and pronounced Peh-eh-peh-eh.  Now, that's out of the way.  From the lookout we could see the  falls as it tumbled over a tall cliff, and then "boiled" down the hill in a series of rapids and pools (the pots).  There was a hiking trail to get to the bottom, but today we did not have the time.  Too bad, it would have been a good hike.

Nothing left to say about this.

The Kaumana Caves are two Lava Tubes that start off at the same point but head off in different directions.  Both these tubes are known to travel all the way down to the ocean.  These caves are not as tame as the lighted Thurston Cave that we visited earlier up at the National Park.  Seeing them pretty much left alone was pretty impressive.  I went in both of them about 25 yards using my cell phone flashlight to light the tube up.  One of the caves had very warm rocks that when the moisture in the cave condensed on them steam was released.

Note the steam coming off the rocks.

Hilo is the home of the University of Hawai'i, Hilo.  Not as big as the University of Hawai'i, Honolulu.  No football team, nowhere near the same student population.  But in one area it not only passes up its big sister on O'ahu but it shames just about every other university in the world.  That area is astronomy, and that is because of the telescopes atop Mauna Kea.  There are 13 telescopes near the summit of Mauna Kea.  Nine of them are for optical and infrared astronomy, three are for sub-millimeter wavelength astronomy and one is for radio astronomy.  Eleven different countries operate these telescopes.     While the telescopes themselves were beyond our being able to visit them, we did run across the administrative buildings for operating them on campus.

The pre-contact Hawai'ians were a stone-age culture.  Stones were an important part in their spiritual understanding of their environment.  Legends tell us of the Naha stone, now placed in front of the State Library, having been brought to Hilo from the Wailua Valley in Kaua'i by canoe by the Chief Makali'inuikuakawaiea and is said to be important in several chiefly and warrior affirmations.  One of which was that to prove his worthiness as a warrior King Kamehameha I lifted the stone on its edge and flipped it over thus cementing his status as a warrior king.  It is estimated at weighing over 5,000 pounds.