NONIE AND BRETT’S BELATED HONEYMOON- Episode 5

 EVEN A LUAU CAN BE TACKY IN PARADISE

We broke our record today.  We were actually on the road by 10:30 AM today and are headed south to check out a place called Kula Kai caverns. The caverns are located about thirty miles from Kailua Kona.  Tonight is luau night and it starts at 5:00 PM so I did not want to travel to far from home.

We arrived to where I thought we should be but the road had a locked gate with lots of Private Property signs posted everywhere.  We drove down to a small market, gas station, restaurant complex and in true Amazing Race style asked for directions. A nice couple in the local flower/gift shop found the phone number for us and I called.  It seems that we were at the right place, but you need to have reservations to visit the site.  AW CRAP!

Upon reading our guidebook a little closer, it did say that reservations were required.  The nice folks in the flower/gift shop recommended that we go down another 20 miles and visit Punalu’u Beach.  The beach is famous for its black sand and turtles that hang out in the bay.

 Being constrained by time, I wasn’t sure I wanted to drive any further but what the hell, let’s esplore.

I was again pretty sure that the turtles were a tourist hoax.  No problem finding the beach.  Nonie and I are becoming very savvy with the ways of Hawaiian directional signage. The parking lot contained a few cars and two large tour buses.  Damn tourists have probably chased off any chance of seeing a turtle.  As it turned out one bus was full of what looked to be teenage high school students on an informative class outing.  They were all having lunch when we arrived. 

 

 

 As we walked over to the beach, a white rental car drove up with 4 young Japanese girls. The parked in front of the sign for the beach and one jumped out and took a picture of the sign, then two more jumped out and posed in front of the sign with the beach in the background and took a few more pictures.  They then all jumped back in the car and roared off.  We had just witnessed a “Drive by Tourist”.  To be fair, Nonie and I have been guilty of the odd offense. 

The beach was black as advertised.  Black sand is formed by the gradual wearing down of the lava into small particles.  The particles are still quite large compared to the white sand beaches. We wandered down to the beach where we found lots of signs saying do not bother or touch the turtles (Japanese translation as well) but I had little hope that we would see any turtles. The beach was too busy and any turtle in his right mind would be gone. Wrong again.  After just a short stroll, we came across a large one just lazing in a protected tide pool.  The waves would roll in and gently toss him around. He / she was a big one and we were standing only 5 feet away. 

Before long we were surrounded by other tourists, so we continued our stroll up the beach. We found a little tourist shop and bought a postcard of a turtle, just in case mine did not turn out.

 We returned to the Jeep and headed back towards Kailua Kona. I did not want to get caught up in any traffic jams and be late for our Luau.  I had planned to stop and enjoy a hike through the Manuka Natural Area Reserve.  We arrived in the parking lot at 1:30 PM.  The trail was about 2 miles but sad to say we would only have about ½ an hour to esplore.  The trail was definitely rough.  The area is over a very old lava field and over hundreds of years flora and fauna have made a come back and created a very jungle like place but the lava underneath is very rough.  It just dawns on me as I write this, that all of Hawaii is on lava as it is a volcanic island. We walked up the path for about 20 minutes reached the ½ mile point and returned.  The reserve is supposed to be home to wild pigs, and I was disappointed as we did not see any wild pigs.  We did however stumble across a large bird of some type. I have taken a picture and some day when time allows, I will try and identify it.

 A short bathroom break and we are back on the road to Kailua Kona.  On our way out, we had spotted a bakery which advertised fresh banana bread, baked daily and both of us agreed that we should stop on our return trip and get some, which we did. Back on the road and it happened. The traffic jam that I had feared materialized shortly after we left the bakery.  Thankfully it was over quickly and we were not delayed for to long.  It is now about 3:30 PM and the outbound lane from Kailua Kona is jammed bumper to bumper.  

It is 5:00 PM and we are standing in a line-up outside the luau grounds of the Royal Kona Resort. The grounds are located right on the water and look very nice.  

Photo:Royal Kona Hotel

After a short wait in line we traded our voucher for some tickets. Inside, we were greeted by a young good looking kid who placed shell leis around our necks.  Next the obligatory picture and on to the open bar. 300 guests and they had one guy mixing drinks. You could move on to a self serve punch bowl that supposedly had Mai Tai ready to drink. Nonie and I opted for the Mai Tai bowl.  One sip and it quickly became apparent that there was little or no rum.  With a small tip we could get someone to wave a rum bottle over our plastic cup.  Even this was too little. 

We then move into the luau ground and present our tickets to the waiter / luau guy and he takes us to our table. It seem that the company who sold us our tickets are in with this luau as we were taken to primo seats in the first row of tables directly in front of the show stage. No tip required.

 At the table we sat across a lovely couple from Nashville, Tennessee, whose names I have already forgotten.  They are on a two week trip to three Hawaiian Islands.  They started in Oahu, flew here to the big island, and then flying on to Maui where their trip will end.  We made small talk for about an hour while sipping on weak Mai Tai.  Nonie drank three and did not feel a thing.  I drank four with extra rum and was more sober than Nonie. The nice Nashville couple had spent the previous day on a 12 hour bus tour around the entire island. You can actually get a guided “Drive by Tourist” outing here in paradise. They did in 12 hours what is going to take us 2 weeks.

The traditional way to cook for a luau is to first dig a big hole, light a huge fire in the hole and heat several rocks.  When the fire has died down and the rocks are nice and hot, you bring on the pig. The pig is gutted and placed in a wire basket. I don’t think the wire basket is traditional but I wasn’t about to argue with the two big Hawaiians cooks.  The hot rocks are then removed from the fire and placed inside the pig.  The coals of the fire are then covered in sand.  

The sand is covered with Ti fronds and the pig in a basket is laid on to the palm fronds.  More Ti fronds are used to cover the pig.  

The fronds are then covered with a number of traditional white table clothes (Traditional?) and then the whole thing is covered with more sand and allowed to sit and cook for at least 6 hours.  I remember doing similar cooking at a number of scout camps. 

The luau officially starts when they uncover the pig and place it on the serving table.  I thought it started when you got your first Mai Tai. 

 

From there the buffet was opened.  Our table was one of the first to go up to enjoy a traditional Hawaiian feast. The buffet offered such traditional items as poi, mahi-mahi, pulikai and of course teriyaki chicken, teriyaki beef, bean salad, tossed salad, steamed rice, white buns and coconut cake for dessert. . It was all very tasty not with standing very traditional. 

Our emcee for the nights festivities introduce himself and Nonie coined a new term. She called him a Luau Lizard. The guy is a direct descendant of Don Ho. The show was very colourful with lots of great coconut brassieres and hips gyrating to the groovy sounds of the Kula Mai trio.  

The show culminated in a fire dance, which involved flaming batons with a lot of spinning and juggling with a bit of fire eating.  Very colourful.  The show was over by 8:30.  I took lots of pictures and hopefully at least one with a coconut bra will turn out.  Despite all, we did truly enjoy the evening as it lived up to all our expectations.  It pays not to have high expectations. 

 

After a short walk we headed home for banana bread and bed.

 

PARADISE HAS TOO MANY TURTLES

 Woke up today at 7:00 AM Kona time, 10:00 AM BC time.  I think I am getting a handle on this time change thing.  On the lanai by 7:05 and at 7:15, I had a cup of Kona coffee in my hand.  Happiness is a good cup of coffee and a lanai. Today I had fully intended to get off early but no luck. We didn’t leave the condo till 11:00.  

We are headed to Pu’uhonua O Nonaunau National Historical Park.  It is also known as the City of Refuge. It is a beautiful site located on a finger of lava jutting out into the ocean on another beautiful bay.  The site is surrounded by a huge rock wall measuring 10’ high and 17’ wide which dates back over 500 years.  There are older ruins on the site but there is no written history on what was here before. 

Photo: National Park Service 

The resort for kings was located on the land side of a great wall.  It also served as a temple and a burial ground for the kahuna (royalty) of the island.  The Place of Refuge is located on the ocean side of the wall.  If you broke kapu and were being hunted by warriors, you could make for this site and if you made it safely, the local kahuna would have to grant you refuge on pain of death. After a cleansing ceremony, you could return to your home. 

The place is very scenic with its own protected little bay where the king would arrive for ceremonies, blessings or to bury a family member.  It is one of the best maintained indigenous native sites in all of Hawaii.  

The bay was filled with sea turtles.  We even found one who had come up on shore and was basking in the sun.  Very cool!  King Kemahameha 1 visited this site on many occasions.  The last burial was carried out in the early part of the 19 century.  We had a wonderful chat with a young Hawaiian who was reconstructing a wooden handle for an adze stone. The adze was actually from the museum collection.

Up at the visitor information centre we enjoyed a conversation with one of the park rangers who was packing a really big gun.  When he found out we were from BC he mentioned a cruise holiday from Vancouver to Skagway.  We got started on the similarities of the Tilingit and Haida people with the people of Hawaii and Polynesia.

  

We all agreed that there were many similarities and there had to be some connection in the past.  The Hawaiians have held a number of Polynesian conventions inviting representatives from all over Polynesia.  During the last two conventions, they invited native representatives from the west coast of BC and Alaska to attend as they feel that there is a bond between the two cultures.  Nonie and I have traveled up the coast and can really agree that there are a lot of similarities.  Totem poles, dug out canoes, artwork, carvings and potlatch.  But we have also seen similarities in Asia. The Tlingit and Inuit look more Asian while the Haida look more Polynesian. 

The Hawaiians wanted to build an outrigger big enough to sail the Pacific.  There were no trees big enough on the island so Alaska sent over a large Sitka Spruce for the dug out to be carved from.  The most southern tip of the big island is the centre for a large number of currents and the ranger explained that many things washed ashore here including trees from as far away as the west coast of North America and it was thought that this was where the large trees came from for the large outrigger canoes.  He called them a gift from the sea gods. Best conversation I have had with someone carrying a gun.

We hit the highway for our next stop, the green beach.  Since we had seen a black beach yesterday, it seemed only fair we visit a green beach today.  Getting to the beach involved a 12 mile trip down a narrow road to the southern most point in the United States.  Along the way we passed a wind farm.  There were at least 30 huge generating windmills. They looked quite impressive from a distance, but close up, I realized that they were abandoned and not used anymore. What a waste.

 

Near the end of the road we came to a fork, we took the right fork and arrived at a little parking lot that was already close to being filled and was mostly filled with locals.  There was a lot of fishing going on.  The parking lot was located at the base of a cliff.  The locals were casting their fishing lines of the cliff and into the sea.  Some were tying plastic green garbage bags blown up with air to their fishing lines.  The bags floated on the surface and pulled the fishing line quite far out into the bay.  Didn’t see anyone land a fish but there were dozens of people trying.  

We loaded the backpack with lunch and headed out on a three mile hike along the ocean to the green beach.  The area was flat grass land with nary a tree in site. Luckily it was partly cloudy so we were not parboiled.  It was still hot any muggy though.  Along the way we found several huge logs washed up on the shore. Definitely dug out material! Could not tell what type of tree, but they were definitely not from any Hawaiian island.

The coast line is very dry and sparse. The wind is always blowing. As we hiked we kept seeing piles of full, green garbage bags, every couple of hundred feet. Today is Earth Day and volunteers were out cleaning up all this flotsam and jetsam.  We were told that they would probably have over 1,000 bags of garbage when they were done for the day.  Note: I read in the paper that they collected over 8,000 bags over the whole island.

The green beach is located in a bay that was formed by a huge cinder cone.  A cinder cone is formed when the hot lava is vented and erupts from a hole or crack. The lava can shoot hundreds if not thousands of feet into the air.  It falls back to the ground and forms a hill of cooling lava.  This cinder cone is thousands of years old and on the ocean side of the cone; the walls have eroded into the sea thus forming the bay. 

This particular cinder cone had lava that contained a huge amount of green olivine which in bigger sizes is a semi-precious stone.  The sides of the cone are slowly eroding into the ocean and have turned the beach into a dull green colour. It is very stunning. 

We had to climb down a very narrow and rocky trail to get to the beach.  We found a comfortable spot to enjoy the view and have lunch. Lunch done, a little exploring, we found our way back along the trail to the top of the cider cone and headed back to our car. It was after four but we ran into a number of other tourists just heading out to the beach. One couple was wearing sandals and carried no water. Hope they got back before dark. Silly tourists! 

Some of the trail passed through lava fields and the footing could be very tricky in the dark.  I had stopped along the trail as we left the beach to set up our camera on a tripod, to get a picture of Nonie and I with the beach in the background. I took of my sunglasses and set them down to work the camera.  I laid them down on a rock. They are still sitting there.  We will drive back out on Monday to see if I can find them.

 

Back to Kailua Kona, with a stop at Safeway for dinner and lunch stuff for tomorrow.  We picked up frozen pizza for dinner. YUCK.  We are spoiled by Nonie’s homemade crust and fresh ingredients.