Okay, enough of Pink Floyd
Day 4 - Tuesday. After the long day on Monday, we decided to take it easy. We drove into Kona town, parked the car, and walked around to see what we could see. The first thing we could see was the sea.. This is from the pier in Kona. When the Cruise ship came in on Wednesday, they had to use shuttle boats because the channel isn't deep enough for a ship.
We found out that Kapu means "the Law." In actuality, Kapu doesn't mean don't enter, or no trespassing, etc. It means that you can enter if that is where you need to be. But if you aren't supposed to go in, you really shouldn't enter. In this case, it was in front of the Hale where the sacred drums for the Lu'au is held. Which means that if I am the guy in charge of the sacred drums, it is okay for me to go in, but I better know the correct way of pounding the drums.
Tuesday's sunset was good, but not spectacular.
We went snorkeling to a couple of spots. We actually saw a gree sea turtle next to the pier as we were getting in the zodiac boat. On the way out to the first spot, we saw a whale tail. The other zodiacs came in, since this is very late in the whale watching season. Most mamas and babys have gone to Alaska for the Summer. Not these guys. We saw two adults and a calf.
After that excitement, Mare showed us some sea caves. These formations and excavations by the ocean currents are spectacular.
Some included either vertical or horizontal blowholes as well.
This blowhole blew the top right out of the cliff.
The second spot we snorkeled was the bay into which Captain Cook sailed. He sailed in twice, and out once. The area within the posts around the monument is still English territory. By the way, the snorkeling in that bay was world class. It was Awesome, in the true sense of the word. I felt like I was swimming in a aquarium. I will have to go back to that site. Unfortunately, it is accessable either by boat, or a two mile hike in (which means a two mile hike out.)
Day 6 - Thursday.
We started off driving north. Our guide on Wednesday told us about a white sand beach north of the Airport. We found it without any problems. The coastline along there is beautiful, but different than most islands.
Any white sand beaches on this island are :Storm Beaches." The island has enough coral to begin the white sand, but has not had the time to build up the reservoir yet. So this beach has some sand as a result of storms bringing the sand up from the bottom or from other islands, and depositing it on the shore.
I did see some coastline here I would love to paint.
We saw some small tide pools, but not a lot of sea life in the pools at this point.
Again, the lava formations are amazing. We see the layers of the lava flows as the build up on top of each other.
Hawaii has two kinds of Lava. One kind is the smooth flows where we see ripples, crevices and layers. It comes out of the vent at about 2100 degrees F. That kind of lava is fairly easy to walk on, or even climb up or down on. The Hawaiian word for this kind of lava is ah'ah. This kind has already cooled to 700 F, so it kind of explodes as it hits the atmosphere, water, or whatever. It is never easy to walk on. It is sharp, jagged, and as Kennedy would say, "it is dangerous."
We drove down south a ways as well. We stopped here at an old Hawaiian structure. I don't know what it was for, but Kayleen took a picture of the plaque so we will be able to find out.
We continued further south. We were suddenly out of the desert and into a temperate zone.
This is an interesting tree that grows a whole bunch of bell flowers. Some of the trees are huge. This one was fairly small, still covered in bells.
Okay, tonight we had a amazing sunset. I think I will title this Photograph "The tree of Life."
And so another day in Paradise.comes to an end. We seem to be closing quickly on the closing ceremonies of the trip. I do have to say that we are relaxed. This has definitely worked as a "de-stressor.
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