Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Gardens

The Amy Greenwell Botanical Gardens is south of our condo near Captain Cook, and is a unique ethnobotanical garden which contains only plants that were indigenous or endemic to the Hawaiian Islands prior to the arrival of Captain Cook.  Many of these plants are endangered (some indigenous plants unique to Hawaii have already gone extinct due to development activities).  These gardens preserve and help re-establish the native flora in the islands.  While the blossoms are not as exotic as the tropical garden we visited earlier in the trip, they are just as lovely:

Not only was there lovely flora, be we also encountered a few fauna, including this one about the size of a silver dollar:

Flowers around the Condo

This golden chain tree is right by our stairwell, and welcomes back each time we return from a trip.  It is a lovely tree.  Of course, all of the hibiscus are blooming in all of their varied colors:

Non-hibiscus flowers are everywhere as well:

Amid the flowers, are beautiful birds, like the saffron finch and the little zebra dove (8 inches):

Dinner and Goodbye to Lary, Holly, and Shane

Friday night, April 4, Holly, Lary, Shane, Helen, and I dined at the Royal Kona, in Don the Beachcomber's dining area.  The food was wonderful, and the waitpersons were terrific, and very friendly and informative.  Our table was immediately next to the tile wall between us and the sea--I have never dined so close to the pounding ocean before--what a treat!  A special bonus treat was having a bird fishing off a rock just below our table--he was looking for needlefish, and we saw him catch some, gulping them down.  I think he was a black crowned night heron, as he looked much like this internet picture below.  He would really stretch tall and peer over the rock edge when he was "hunting" or would hunch more when waiting for the right wave to come in.  he didn't like to get splashed or wet, so he would step back from the edge now and then to avoid the surf.

This was the last night in Hawaii for Holly, Lary and Shane.  The next morning, departure day, Helen and I walked across to their condo to say good bye.  The surf was really crashing as we sat out on their surfside lanai:

We hugged (cried), and left them to  their final departure packing, then watched them get ready to leave from our own balcony:

Way too short a visit, but a great vacation--they zip-lined, explored, and shopped, plus tipped us off to some great dining places!  Don the Beachcomber's is a definite repeat, and the Poke Shack is a must try.

Manta Rays

Thursday night, April 3, we took a glass bottomed boat excursion on the Spirit of Kona.  We were five people amid a total of about 15, so the boat was not crowded, and we easily had a good seat around the glass view ports.  We traveled south to a point just off the Sheraton Hotel where plankton upwell, and there the lights hovered over the sea bottom as we waited--first, however, two bottle nosed dolphin came streaking under our boat a couple of times.   Then, after about ten minutes, here came the first manta.  It did belly rolls under our view ports, providing up close views of its giant maw through which it streamed water to filter out the plankton.  

Manta rays along the Kona coast are one of the eagle rays belonging to the genus Manta. Theie wingspan reaches 18 ft, abd the ones swimming under our boat were larger than ten feet across. They have triangular pectoral fins and a huge forward-facing mouth. They are not stinging rays.

These pelagic species tend to be resident to the area and hug the oastal areas. They are filter feeders and eat large quantities of zooplankton, which they swallow with their open mouths as they swim. Gestation lasts over a year, producing live pups.

The following picture was one of mine, and you can see the large mouth with the intricate "filter" setup within:

Holly used her phone to video one session (ultimately two mantas were doing loops beneath us):

This was a very special experience, and the creatures are beautiful.

Historical Sites & Mongoose

Wednesday morning (before the visit to the Hilton) and Thursday morning were trips to watch wildlife and explore the history of the Islands at US Historical Parks.  The first park was located south of the Kona airport, and we plan to return early in a morning when it is cooler to take the hike down to the ancient fish ponds, but it has wonderful trails across a lava flow.  The following two pictures originated there:

 

It was very hot, so we could not explore this site as well as we wished, but we will return as it is very interesting, and the trails lead down to the ocean.

The next historical place we went to was the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau City of refuge on the southern Kona coast.  We went early Thursday, and were the first visitors to this lovely, tranquil place.  If you were unfortunate enough to commit an act that was kapu, earning a death sentence (usually instantaneous), then you could save yourself by fleeing to this place and taking refuge for a few hours or few days, then you would not be killed.  The giant stone wall was built around 1550, and remnants of these giant stone walls remain (no mortar was used, but they are tall, thick, and solid).  Native canoe making is exhibited, as are many examples of long-ago life of Hawaiians.

A few pictures (in addition to the one at the top):

We also saw plenty of wildlife, starting with a school of yellow fish in the bay adjacent to the site:

Shore birds were prevalent (but no honu--turtles--were basking on the little beach):

Also, we saw the same little yellow birds as at our condo, but these birds allowed us to take some closeups:

The interior ponds also held fish, and a few were close enough to photograph:

Before we started out on this historical journey, we pulled into the shopping center above our condo to a place that mongooses are known to frequent.  Here we say several, including a mother mongoose who first brought our one offspring, then went back and brought out another.  I could only capture a picture of two of them, but the family numbered three:

These little weasel like creatures looked plump and healthy.

Visit to the Hilton

On Wednesday, we headed north past Kona to visit the resort area where the Hilton is located.  We walked around this huge resort (canals, swimming lagoons, waterfalls, tram, and more), then had lunch within the complex.  It seemed more like Disneyland than Hawaii, and wouldn't be my choice for a place to experience these lovely islands, especially the history and culture, but there were plenty of guests all about, and the tram spoke English and Japanese.

Here are a few pictures:

parrots

 Tram

One of the fish in their pools:

Sunsets and Goats

Monday night we gathered on Holly & Lary's lanai for drinks, snacks, and to watch the sunset. Shane went across to the patio by the tennis courts with his macbook and went online with his friends.

Although we did not see whales this time (Check out Lary's FB video of whales frolicking at sunset), we did see a spectacular sunset, both at the start of the sinking through the marine layer (below), and the end as it emerged from the marine layer and sank while canoes zipped past (above).

The next day, Tuesday, we headed south along the belt road, stopping again at the black sand turtle beach, where it was raining.  Helen wore her plastic poncho, and looked like a pink bubble:

Apparently, turtles have never seen pink bubbles, because the one on the beach turned his head and followed Helen with his eyes wherever she moved:

We continued on through the driving rain toward Hilo, stopping just west of Hilo in the Puna region to visit friends.  Rich & Lisa have a lovely round house, and gave us a fabulous Hawaiian (poke salad and Mochi dessert) lunch as we sat in their dining room overlooking the water a few feet away.

Afterwards, we had an update on the recent Chilean earthquake and possible Tsunami from Liz, followed by a flash flood warning on my phone--all of this prompted us to take the new saddle highway (Daniel K. Inouye Highway) across the top between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. Although both volcanoes were shrouded by clouds, it was still a lovely drive,

On the way home, a suicidal wild goat darted in front of me, but fortunately she was fast and I braked quickly.  This isn't her, but she looked like this:

We made it back, pretty much exhausted, to our condo and followed the news of the possible tsunami--but it did not materialize, thank goodness.