As we drove out of the park and down the eastern slope of Kilauea we drove out of the gray drizzle into blue sky white cloud partly sunny HIlo and Puna side of the island. Puna has grown so much in the 20 years since I was first here. There are more houses, more traffic and new roads not to mention new lava flows. We stopped first in Pahoa at Island Naturals to by some food and I broke fast at 10:45 and ate while watching all the Punatics come and go feeling glad I never bought that lot in Seaview back in 1999.. I do not get a good feeling in Pahoa. Dirtbags is what comes to mind, all the boys in ratty t-shirts and surfer shorts with bleached hair tips and the girls in dreds holding feral children everyone looking wasted or hung over or both. Why do I loathe what I once had been (still am?) what 20 years ago I would have embraced as my tribe. Now I just want to leave this town. too many Punatics, not enough Hawai’ians. It’s a complicated feeling being haole ourselves which is why I could never live here full time, Hawai’i for Hawai’ian is what i firmly believe, We are guests on this island..
Visiting the 2018 Lava flow area
Breakfast consumed, shopping completed we get back in the car and head towards Pohiki and the 2018 lava flows. We drive down to Opihikao and down to the red road and turn east wondering if the road is open or if the flow would block our way. Just after Mackenzie State park where we have camped in years past, which I had hoped would get covered when the lava was flowing we came upon the flow, a road had been bulldozed and paved through it, just like the flow had cut through the lush greenness of the jungle blanketing it 20 feet high with rough tumbled black lava.
We pulled over in the middle of the 2nd flow and got out. On the uphill side you could see 2 smoking cones on the horizon, dead trees littered the flow, a river of black stone in a sea of green jungle.
We continued on to Isaac Hale State Park where we camped last time we were on the island. The flow covered half the park; the bathrooms a few camp spots and picnic tables remained but the playground and the site where we camped were covered.
The gravel path runs beneath a 20 foot wall of lava beyond which are buried the warm ponds, the tide pools of Kapoho and over 700 hundred homes.
looking at the Isaac Hale flow from the parking lot
The boat ramp is still there but it descends not into a bay but into a pond and where the bay and surf break were there is now is now a big sweeping black sand beach.
To the east the lava extends out into the ocean 100 yards. It is amazing. Having seen the old flows over past visits to see a new one and to be intimately familiar with what lies beneath is to be humble before the power of the Earth
The new Pohiki Black Sand Beach
We left Pohiki and drove to Kalani which is open and under new ownership and according to the girl in the cafe has a “new kind of vibe”. We went down to the ocean at the point which looks like a bulldozer cleared it and is no longer small and intimate but wide open and exposed. Doesn’t even feel like the same place which in the realm of space/time of course it isn’t.
KEHENA BEACH
The same can be said for Kehena beach which we visited next. I spent so many happy beach days there swimming with dolphins, playing in the waves, looking for shells but was hard put to feel like it was the same place. The sea has carved it up into a different configuration. Colleen remarked that it was cleaner. There were a alot more tourists and more bathing suits and the far end is open and cleared, the ocean comes up closer to the cliffs and there are a lot more trees lying naked and smooth across the sand.
The surf was imposing which is not different and after watching it for an hour and observing the 2 people I saw go in I went in myself. Getting in is easy, being in was choppy with big waves lifting me high above the beach and Jakobi who was playing in the wave wash. I didn’t stay in long and getting out was kind of scary but I did it without losing my dignity.
Jakobi and I played in the chop and surf while Colleen and Ambiana napped and read but we didn’t sat long at all.
Hilo & Rainbow Falls
We drove into Hilo to join the masses doing last minute shopping at Target and Safeway as it is Christmas Eve. We then stopped by the outdoor market on the bayfront to stock up on papaya, bananas and avocados. We then drove up to Rainbow Falls so Jakobi could climb the BIG Banyan Tree.
I was reminded of when I was at Kalani and I drove one of the volunteers to the airport at the end of their stay and his one request was to visit this tree before he left.
It was golden hour, beautiful sunset light at the falls and the banyan tree was lit up like a cathedral and the girls had a fun time climbing in it. I am not a tree climber.
As we drove out of the park and down the eastern slope of Kilauea we drove out of the gray drizzle into blue sky white cloud partly sunny HIlo and Puna side of the island. Puna has grown so much in the 20 years since I was first here. There are more houses, more traffic and new roads not to mention new lava flows. We stopped first in Pahoa at Island Naturals to by some food and I broke fast at 10:45 and ate while watching all the Punatics come and go feeling glad I never bought that lot in Seaview back in 1999.. I do not get a good feeling in Pahoa. Dirtbags is what comes to mind, all the boys in ratty t-shirts and surfer shorts with bleached hair tips and the girls in dreds holding feral children everyone looking wasted or hung over or both. Why do I loathe what I once had been (still am?) what 20 years ago I would have embraced as my tribe. Now I just want to leave this town. too many Punatics, not enough Hawai’ians. It’s a complicated feeling being haole ourselves which is why I could never live here full time, Hawai’i for Hawai’ian is what i firmly believe, We are guests on this island..
Visiting the 2018 Lava flow area
Breakfast consumed, shopping completed we get back in the car and head towards Pohiki and the 2018 lava flows. We drive down to Opihikao and down to the red road and turn east wondering if the road is open or if the flow would block our way. Just after Mackenzie State park where we have camped in years past, which I had hoped would get covered when the lava was flowing we came upon the flow, a road had been bulldozed and paved through it, just like the flow had cut through the lush greenness of the jungle blanketing it 20 feet high with rough tumbled black lava.
We pulled over in the middle of the 2nd flow and got out. On the uphill side you could see 2 smoking cones on the horizon, dead trees littered the flow, a river of black stone in a sea of green jungle.
We continued on to Isaac Hale State Park where we camped last time we were on the island. The flow covered half the park; the bathrooms a few camp spots and picnic tables remained but the playground and the site where we camped were covered.
The gravel path runs beneath a 20 foot wall of lava beyond which are buried the warm ponds, the tide pools of Kapoho and over 700 hundred homes.
The boat ramp is still there but it descends not into a bay but into a pond and where the bay and surf break were there is now is now a big sweeping black sand beach.
To the east the lava extends out into the ocean 100 yards. It is amazing. Having seen the old flows over past visits to see a new one and to be intimately familiar with what lies beneath is to be humble before the power of the Earth
We left Pohiki and drove to Kalani which is open and under new ownership and according to the girl in the cafe has a “new kind of vibe”. We went down to the ocean at the point which looks like a bulldozer cleared it and is no longer small and intimate but wide open and exposed. Doesn’t even feel like the same place which in the realm of space/time of course it isn’t.
The same can be said for Kehena beach which we visited next. I spent so many happy beach days there swimming with dolphins, playing in the waves, looking for shells but was hard put to feel like it was the same place. The sea has carved it up into a different configuration. Colleen remarked that it was cleaner. There were a alot more tourists and more bathing suits and the far end is open and cleared, the ocean comes up closer to the cliffs and there are a lot more trees lying naked and smooth across the sand.
The surf was imposing which is not different and after watching it for an hour and observing the 2 people I saw go in I went in myself. Getting in is easy, being in was choppy with big waves lifting me high above the beach and Jakobi who was playing in the wave wash. I didn’t stay in long and getting out was kind of scary but I did it without losing my dignity.
Jakobi and I played in the chop and surf while Colleen and Ambiana napped and read but we didn’t sat long at all.
Hilo & Rainbow Falls
We drove into Hilo to join the masses doing last minute shopping at Target and Safeway as it is Christmas Eve. We then stopped by the outdoor market on the bayfront to stock up on papaya, bananas and avocados. We then drove up to Rainbow Falls so Jakobi could climb the BIG Banyan Tree.
I was reminded of when I was at Kalani and I drove one of the volunteers to the airport at the end of their stay and his one request was to visit this tree before he left.
It was golden hour, beautiful sunset light at the falls and the banyan tree was lit up like a cathedral and the girls had a fun time climbing in it. I am not a tree climber.