April 23
Waikoloa Resort, wow, clearly for the richer than me crowd. LOL. Then on to check out Anaeho'omalu Beach. Struck out-no honu. Off to Puako Archeological area accessed through this hoity-toity resort area.
One of the things I'm fascinated by are petroglyphs and pictographs where ever I go. At the Puako archeological area, just as we started the hike and after a couple of photos, my 35mm DSLR camera died. I had no idea what happened and there are no camera repair shops on the island. So I had to use my phone camera and limp along with my DSLR- which didn't work well as seen by the completely overexposed lava photos from Kilauea Crater. This was incredibly frustrating. We continued the hike through a Kiawe forest to the end to look at the array of petroglyphs in the rock on the ground. It's one of the largest in the state. There's a fence to keep people out of the area and a bench to rest and ponder what the people were tying to convey with these depictions.
Have I said the Common mynahs are everywhere on the island? Well, nearly everywhere. This non-native species is thriving. I must admit their antics are interesting to watch. All those mynahs and no photos! LOL
While at the Hawaiian Wildlife Center a couple of days ago we found out about a free birding trip up Mauna Loa. We signed up and showed up for an evening adventure with Bret Nainoa Mossman who works with the Hawai'i Island Natural Area Reserve Program. Fortunately, plans change so I didn't have to worry about walking at the high altitude. We drove and drove a narrow paved road and eventually cut-off on a lava road back to a kipuka (an area of land surrounded by younger lava flows- generally vegetated) to look for endemic bird species. We heard an Oma and an Apapane but I never got much of a look. We learned that the lichen on the
chunks of lava in the kipuka grow only where the Oma poops- an important symbiotic relationship. In addition, he showed us areas of lava that were dug out long ago to raise and encourage Hawaiian petrels to nest. The thought is that the Hawaiians did this to catch and eat the fat babies. They did not take so many that the species numbers crashed, that came later through loss of habitat and imported non-native goats, sheep, pigs, etc. There are only a handful of petrels that nest higher in elevation which was our main hope- to hear them at sunset. No luck but a Hawaiian Hoary bat flew by- I missed it! And the stars and the sunset over Mauna Kea are undescribable. We stopped on the way back down when a large shiny spider was spotted crossing the road. Unfortunately, I didn't write the name down. This day we went from sea level to around 10,000 feet elevation and from 89 degrees to 55!
April 24
Bright and early and off to Hilo and onto Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The first thing I noticed was the lush greenery, many streams, ravines, and bridges. This is the windward side of the island. Invasive African tulip trees are everywhere- lighting up the dense green with their red flowers. On the way to Hilo we took the four-mile Onomea Bay Scenic Drive- part of the original road. It's extremely narrow and rough and felt like we were driving through a lush jungle over ancient one-lane bridges. The Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Garden is along this road but we didn't have time for it this trip.
I noticed on this side of the island, houses have chimneys because it actually gets cool enough here for them- not on the Kona (leeward) side of the island. Metal roofs are common wherever sugar cane plantations were located to keep the houses from catching fire when the cane was burned. Old houses, at least on the Kona side, generally don't have heat or A/C and are sometimes built on stilts to allow for airflow. Many screened windows allows for air flow to help with the humidity.
We stopped at the much-too-small Hawaii Volcanoes Visitor Center where I heard birds singing, saw the red flash, grabbed the binoculars and discovered my first two Apapanes! So beautiful and no one else was paying any attention. Their loss. The bigger better visitor center-Jaggar Museum- was closed a few years ago due to a damaging earthquake.
We wandered along the Devastation Trail and into an Ohia forest come alive with the singing of Apapanes- red and black flashes all over the place. At the end of the trail there was a pair of non-native Kailij pheasants strutting their stuff. I decided to walk over to a small overlook of the Kilauea Iki Crater. As I finished taking a couple of photos I turned around and my friend held a finger to her lips shushing me- there was an I'o hunkered down in a tree super close. As I got my camera ready it flew out over the crater but close to the edge, so close to me I could see into its eyes. It was an unbelievably magical moment.
At Kilauea Caldera I saw my first actual fiery red lava in the bottom. Unfortunately my camera took horrible overexposed photos which I've attempted to "fix" a bit. It was way below us but mesmerizing. Pele's magic. We didn't have time this visit to check out the lava spewing. Hopefully it will still be erupting the next visit.
April 25
Some serious rain today followed by a gorgeous full rainbow. Back to Hilo for a day in the city. On our way we could finally see the tops of Mauna Loa and Hualali and the entirety of Mauna Kea. Hilo's population is around 45,000 (Kona has about 23,000). It's a good 2 hour drive from my friends to Hilo so doing it two days in a row was a lot. It was worth it!
On our way through Waimea I experienced my first and only traffic jam in the two weeks I was there. I noticed on the way back to Hilo I there is a lot of bridge work going on. Not sure what, though. This time we stopped at Akaka Falls State Park. I had to wait out the pouring rain before I could finally get some decent photos of the 442-foot falls. The o'opu alamo'o (a small goby fish) actually makes its way up those falls to spawn in the stream above them! That's impressive for a little fish. Fascinating fact: The 1934 movie Four Frightened People was partially filmed here.
On to take care of business then to the Hilo Farmers Market full of an array of so many brightly colored fruits and vegetables. I bought a bag of fresh tangerines. Across the street we went to a small craft area then to Kula shave ice. OMG, I think I died and went to heaven! I had vanilla coconut ice cream covered in mango and lime shave ice. It was decadent, delicious, and delectable! and huge.
We walked to a small local bookstore I found on google and bought a variety of books. Then heading back we made a quick stop at the Mauna Kea Visitor Center. The elevation got to me so I bought a couple of things and back down we went to lower elevations where headaches are less and breathing is easier.
(NOTE: I texted a photographer friend to ask for help with my camera issue and he sent me lots of information he found. I tried one of the solutions and it worked! I put my camera and lenses into a plastic garbage bag. To make sure it continued working, it lived in that bag the rest of the trip, a day or two in the bag and voila, it worked!))
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