Succulents and More™

Here’s a tongue twister for you: Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau. Hawaiian is a seemingly difficult language to pronounce, but it really isn’t. The key is to break words into individual syllables. So Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau is pronounced “poo-oo- HO -new-ah o HAW -now-now.” Easy, isn’t it? Not! Hōnaunau is a small town south of Kailua-Kona, the main city on the western side of the island of Hawaii. A puʻuhonua was a place of refuge to which people who broke one of the ancient laws could flee to evade death. Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau, then, means place of refuge of Hōnaunau. Keone'ele Cove, the traditional landing place for royal canoes and off-limits to commoners Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park preserves one of Hawaii’s most sacred historic places. This site was once home to the chiefs of Kona, one of the six independent chiefdoms of ancient Hawaii all of whom answered to their supreme ruler, or king. Built in the 1500s, a massive wall over 1,000 ft. long, 17 ft. thick and up to 1...

After spending six days on the outrageously green eastern side of the Big Island, the arid landscape of the northwest corner of Hawaii was a surprise—but at the same time a welcome sight. When I saw the wide open expanses, with little to block your view, I realized just how confining the tropical rainforest had been. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the jungle scenery tremendously, but it’s clear that I’m more of a desert person at heart. Just take a look at how wonderfully sparse this landscape is: The mountain you see looming in the background in the panorama above is the island of Maui. It’s 26 miles away. Most of the trees dotting the arid plains on the west side of Hawaii are kiawe ( Prosopis pallida ), a mesquite native to Columbia, Ecuador and Peru. It can survive where few other plants can. When deprived of water, it only grows to the size of a shrub or small tree. Where precipitation is plentiful, it can grow to 85 ft. in height.

On Monday it was time to leave our first vacation rental in Pahoa and move to our second home away from home on the Kohala Coast on the northwestern tip of the Big Island. To get there, we drove up the Hāmākua Coast , crossing over to Waimea , and finally dropping down to the ocean at Kawaihae. But let’s start at the beginning. Our first stop was the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden , which I had visited on Saturday. It’s such a special place that I wanted my family to see it, too. Unfortunately, the humidity was off the charts, putting a bit of a damper on the experience. I took another 100 photos, the best of which will go into my dedicated post (look for it in August). Here are a few more teasers.   Marble ginger ( Alpinia sanderae )  

All good things come to an end, and while we’re not leaving the island yet, we’re moving around the top to our new house in Kohala. I look forward to exploring another part of the island—much drier and less jungly—but I’ll miss our first house and the lovely street it’s on. I doubt I’ll ever get another chance to stay in a house perched right above the ocean, with completely uninhibited 180° views of the Pacific. Renting such a house in California would be prohibitively expensive. To say goodbye, here are some photos I took yesterday:

Ho hum, you probably think, another farmers market post. True enough, but the Maku’u Farmers Market is the nicest we’ve been to this far. We liked it even better than the Hilo Farmers Market although for an overall experience the night market at Uncle Robert’s is hard to beat (it doesn’t have a lot of produce vendors though, mostly jewelry, clothes and crafts).  Held every Sunday from 8am to 2pm on the Hawaiian Homelands Farm Lot off Highway 130, just a few miles northwest of Pahoa, this 5-acre market is home to over 150 vendors selling everything from fruits and vegetables to arts and crafts, cut flowers and potted plants, and even motor oil! There is also a large food court where you can indulge in whatever strikes your culinary fancy, whether it’s Hawaiian, Filipino, Thai, Indian, Mediterranean, or even just hot dogs or a burger. One of the things I wanted to do on this trip is to see how the locals live, and it appears that markets like this one are a popular way to buy pr...

On our way to Uncle Robert’s Night Market , and then again on our way to the far side of the Red Road , we drove by a small clapboard church framed by palm trees. It looked so quaint, I had to stop and take a look. It turned out that this is the Star of the Sea Painted Church I had read about in Hawaii The Big Island Revealed . The church was built in 1927 in the village of Kalapana, which was destroyed in 1990 by a lava flow from Kilauea. The church was moved just in time, first to a spot outside the village and then to its current location along Highway 130. The murals on the wall and ceiling depict characters from the Catholic Book of Catechism and are considered significant pieces of folk art. They were painted by Belgian Catholic priest Father Evarist Matthias Gielen, apparently at night by the light of an oil lamp.

This morning I left the family behind at the house and made a solo trip to Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden just north of Hilo. I had barely pulled out of the driveway when I saw this arresting sight ahead of me: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more brilliant rainbow. You might think the photo above has been tweaked in Photoshop, but the colors were every bit as vibrant. Could there be a better omen for a day of exploration and photography? The drive to Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden took 40 minutes. My GPS didn’t recognize the street address, 27-717 Old Mamalahoa Highway in Papaikou, so I simply followed the “Scenic Detour” sign to Onomea Bay.The garden is impossible to miss.

The Red Road along the southeastern shore of Hawaii is one of those fabled American byways. Called “one of the most scenic roads in the state of Hawaii” ( 1 ), it is so far off the beaten path that relatively few tourists venture here. When I read that it “takes you through some of the most spectacular scenery reminiscent of the old Hawaii of yesteryear” ( 1 ), I knew that I had to check it out. Fortunately enough, the Red Road begins less than a mile from our vacation house in Pahoa so we didn’t have far to go. The Red Road owes its name to the red cinder pavement that originally covered it. Most of the road is asphalt now but people still use the nickname of days gone by. I found one small spot that still looked like it must have in the past. We actually started our drive at the far end of the Red Road near Uncle Robert’s and worked our way back towards Kapoho . The Red Road is winding and narrow (in places no more than 8 ft. wide) and offers a variety of scenery, including lava ...

Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park is home to two active volcanoes: Mauna Loa and Kīlauea. At 323,431 acres it’s large park. Only a very small part of is accessible by car, but as you can see in this post, the places you can drive to are pretty fantastic. The question of the day was whether we would see any volcanic activity. Read on to find out. The day started out drizzly and misty at the Kīlauea Visitor Center located at 3,500 ft. High winds were driving the rain into our faces, and photography was almost impossible. Still, I took a few photos of the lush, rainforest-like vegetation in this area.

Entirely by accident, Wednesday turned out to be the day of the farmers market. After thoroughly enjoying the Hilo farmers market in the late morning, we went to the night market at Uncle Robert’s in Kalapana Village, about 20 minutes from our house in Pahoa. It had been highly recommended, and in turned out to be an early highlight of our trip. A legend in these parts, Uncle Robert Keli’iho‘omalu is the patriarch of a large family who live on a four-acre compound literally at the end of the road: You simply follow the Kapoho-Kalapana Road, locally referred to as the Red Road for the original red cinder pavement (now asphalt) until you can go no further. From the hundreds of cars parked along the road, you’ll know when you get close. As Uncle Robert says, “Where the road ends, the aloha begins.” Uncle Robert’s credo