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.

Sea Dragons

The jet ski place wasn't open today, despite their sign, so Holly and the gang decided to snorkel at the pier area, which was really clear water and very nice.  Whales again were spotted in the Bay--they seem to be numerous this trip.

Helen and I decided to head north to the sea horse tour (http://www.seahorsehawaii.org/) which was a bit pricey at $38/person, but well worth it for the informative tour and the opportunity to hold a seahorse.

The endangered sea horses are being reared at this facility, the only one of its kind in the world working on rearing 20 different varieties of sea horses.   After disinfecting our shoe soles and scrubbing our arms up to the elbow, we entered the nursery area (all the visited areas were displays of the common sea horse) where we could not photograph or touch, but could see baby sea horses housed in huge blue poly tanks, and ranging from a few hours to a few weeks old.  The next area was the adult sea horses, where we fed them some shrimp--again no touching/photos.

After tasting some seaweed, we passed to an area where we could feed some adult sea horses, and watch them move around--photos were permitted here:

We then moved on to the touching tanks, where each of us could hold a sea horse.   Helen didn't want to, but I held one for a long time, with its tail wrapped around my finger.  I took a picture of a nearby tourist holding one:

They are the only place in the world raising and reproducing dragon sea horses, which are very endangered (pictured at the blog top), and only live off Australia.  Several other rare and endangered sea horses are part of the operation. None of the endangered sea horse breeding areas were open to the public.

Monday Morning Tennis

Holly, Lary, and Shane decided on a morning tennis game, and headed to the courts, above.  First Holly and Shane played, then Holly and Lary teamed up against Shane, then Holly played Lary--I wasn't watching ALL the time, so some other combos may have occurred.  Here is the tennis form:

Shane:

 Holly:

Lary:

Probably the rest of the day will involve going off to jet skis (Helen and I will go out to the ski launch barge and relax and watch), followed by a tour of the sea horse farm.

Kailua-Kona Surf & Racquet Club

We had a lovely first night in our condo--nice breezes coming through the open sliders from our lanai, a gecko visited us that evening while we sipped homemade "sunset" Hawaiian drinks, and visited with Holly and Shane who walked over from their condo.

In the morning, Helen and I went for a walk around the complex, stopping at Lary & Holly's condo, which is right on the water.  Suddenly Holly and Lary saw whales jumping and leaping right of their condo, and we watched the whales (humpbacks shown in the collage above) for about ten minutes.

The water is so clear at the shoreline, that we could see large yellow tropical fish swimming in front of their deck.

The nearby cove is supposed to be a great place to snorkel, and also explore tidepools--the view from their condo toward the cove is lovely:

Helen, Holly, and I walked down to the cove--the tide was out, and several reef pools were exposed. Using care, we explored them, finding wonderful sea life up close, like a sea cucumber (there were several), spiny urchin (several, plus the common urchins), and an unknown snail:

Later, Helen and I were sitting on our third floor lanai, when we noticed a gecko running up and down a nearby palm tree--he went up higher than us, then turned and began to go down occasionally stopping to do little pushups and extend his throat bubble.  About two thirds of the way down the tree, he suddenly jumped six feet over to land on a huge leaf of a nearby tropical plant, then we watched him crawl over the leaves, and jump from plant to plant, before he finally found a plumeria tree with black bark, and over he jumped, and up he went:

There must be plenty of geckos around, because on our way down to the car a bit later, we saw a tiny gecko about an inch long on the handrail.

We met Holly, Lary, and Shane for lunch in Kailua-Kona, then walked along the shops getting a few odds-and-ends from the ABC store.  This afternoon is quite warm, and we are taking it easy.

Turtles on Black Sand Beach

We woke to see a Princess line cruise ship arrive at Hilo Harbor, passing in front of our hotel on its way to docking for the day.  We think Liz' cousins Jo & Marlowe are on-board.  We can't stay to greet them, because today we leaving Hilo and head over the the Kona side, where Holly, Lary, and Shane are flying in.  It is raining, and the rain will likely last through Sunday.  We want to stop and check out the black sand beach at Punaluu, and see if the honu (sea turtles) are out sunning themselves on the warm black sands--may be a long shot as it is raining and there is no sun...
It was raining when we first arrived at Punaluu, then it stopped and there indeed were two turtles on the beac\h, resting.  We kept our distance, and they stayed in an area that was flagged as a turtle resting area excluding people.

Later we arrived at our condo--although the complex is ocean front, I am a little disappointed that our condo unit is not right on

the bluffs (Holly's, luckily, is), as we have the tennis courts and an interior road, plus a line of condos between us and the sea.  I must have misunderstood the write-up.  Oh well, it is a very nice condo, and we have a pretty good ocean view.  In front of us is a grassy treed area with lots of birds, so that's nice:

Volcano National Park

On Thursday, we headed south of Hilo to Volcano National Park, arriving at the park about 9:20.  A school bus was already in the parking lot, which was fairly full of vehicles.  Inside, we viewed the film, then walked around the visitor center looking at the exhibits.  One was of Pele's Hair, a silicaceous thatch of filaments as fine as human hair.  I had never seen anything like it at any of the volcanic places I have visited.

We studied a map, trying to plot our best route for the day, when  ranger came over to help and suggested we first visit the Thurston lava tube, before the crowds and tour buses, as he said by late morning it would get very crowded.  Afterward, he suggested we go to the museum by the Kilauea Crater, then Crater Rim Road to the sea.

We followed his suggestions, and soon easily parked at the Thurston Lava tube, descending stairs and a steep paved path to the mouth of the Tube, and then into the relatively flat path of the tube itself.  Helen felt a bit claustrophobic.  We had the tube to ourselves, with no other people inside.  It is lit, so we did not need flashlights.

We came to a collapse in the tube, and the stairway out, then back a different route to the parking lot.  By the time we reached the parking lot,it had filled, and there was a steady stream of tourists heading toward the tube mouth.

We headed back up the mountain to Kilauwea Crater, which had  large plume of steam emitting from the large crater, and several small vents steaming across the flat lava flow leading to the ccrater.

Near the museum was a blooming shrub-tree that had flowers somewhat like a bottle brush, bursting out of a tight, white furled blossom looking like popcorn.  It grows into a tall tree, but I do not know its name.  All through the park was evidence of primary succession, or those plants that first move in after  a major disturbance like the barren lava flows  from the rift zones--surprisingly, some of the first plants moving in are ferns:

We stopped at the Volcano House on the way back, and both Helen and I agreed that we wanted to stay there if we visited again.  It is beautiful and has a great view of the crater.

We took the crater rim trail down to the sea, again passing the Thurston Lava Tube--there were four tour buses and nio parking available.  We followed the road down for 30 plus miles, coming to where the flow from 1983 to present eruption caused a massive lava flow down the mountain, across the road obliterating it and a subdivision, then cascaded into the sea. Much of the lava is glossy, polished looking ropy pahoehoe,some of it fractured and looking like turtle backs to me.

The shiny lava is smooth, almost silky smooth.  The cliff where the lava poured into the sea is impressive.

We returned to Hilo, dining out at the Seaside Restaurant in the east of Hilo along the bay.  The restaurant is an old family-owned place with an exquisite menu, sitting adjacent to an aquafarm pond owned by the same family, also with a big concrete koi pond.  A large egret rookery is located around the main pond, and as we dined on macadamia nut encrusted mahimahi, we say hundreds of the egrets return to the rookery for the night.

We returned to the hotel, parking in the underground area, and Helen tried to roll-up her window with the power button,  After several futile attempts, I finally said  "Helen, are you sure it is open?" and she said yes, and to prove it knocked on the closed window....We only need Lizzie to make the three Stooges complete.