A longer day

Well, the previous two days have been pretty short photos wise, so had to make up for it today!

A late morning departure to Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, where there are "guaranteed sea turtles" according to the gents at the camera shop. They weren't wrong! When we made the 1-mile trek (walk/hike, depending on your definition!) to the beach, there was one sunning itself on the beach, and at least a dozen cruising the reef looking for food.

It is a federal offence in America to come within 20 feet of a sea turtle. Naturally, we were the only ones observing this with any sort of measure, as without fail every other tourist got right up in the face of the sea turtle on the beach. I'm sure I heard it go "meh". They must be so used to it at this point:

Sea turtles at Honokohau

Then it was a long drive down to Pololu Valley Lookout. The lookout itself was quite uninteresting, but I entertained a short hike down to the nearby beach. "Yeah, but on the way back you've got to get UP the hill you go down at the start" says Mum. That's a pass.

The scenery at the bottom is other-worldly, you know you are in the Kohala Coast, but you could be on an alien planet. The waves pounding on the beach throw sand/salt up into the air, meaning the surrounding forest has sunlight majestically shining through onto the floor:

Sunlight/forest stuff at Pololu Valley

There were also hundreds and hundreds of cairns set up on big rocks near the ocean. I guess that must be a thing here:

Cairns in Pololu Valley

The journey back to Kona took us past yet another sunset opportunity, at Anaeho'omalu Beach. It's a hop, skip and jump from Waikoloa Village, which is less village and more row-after-row condo of the Marriotts and Hiltons of the world. Way out in the middle of nowhere, it's self-sufficient with restaurants, cafes and supermarkets but there's not much else to see. There was also a good view of Mauna Kea in the evening light:

Sunset in Waikoloa

Another reasonable drive later, we were both very much ready to eat something, having not eaten much during the day. Tomorrow is a long travel day, with two island hops landing us in Kauai, the Garden Isle. See you there!

Felicity says:

More to the point, the lookout is at the TOP of the cliffs in the photos, the beach is at the BOTTOM of the cliffs in the photos. So whilst it might be defined as a "short hike to the bottom", none of the guidebooks ever mention the return trip. Yep, I sat in the car and read a book. 

It's always cool to see turtles, they are just so clumsy out of the water and so graceful in the water. It was a very hot hike to the beach in the middle of the day, but worth it for the scenery and the turtles.

Back in business!

Bless Lighthaus Camera, just over 24 hours and an overnight express from Maui later, my new (used) 7D camera is here! Now I can stop panicking and start being a tourist again!

Fast-forwarding to mid-afternoon in Kona, walking through the main part of town (AVOIDING the seawall. All that stuff about lightning is codswallop, IMHO), stopping to take a couple of photos of the nearby church:

Church photos!

To join Mum and her cocktail and iced coffee at Daylight Mind. This place wasn't doing much business, so it was nice to sit back and take a few photos while we were there. The obligatory "drinks on the railing" photo:

Drinks on the railing

And a great view of the surfers in action on the waterfront:

Surfing in Kona

Then it was off further along said waterfront, looking for some decent sunset snaps. I managed to find a couple of decent trees and streetscapes to work with:

Another beautiful sunset in Kona

Before heading back to the condo. Dealing with the camera has been a bit of a headache, and tomorrow will not be the most peaceful of days - we will be heading to a lookout on the far side of the island, but we will be stopping to see some turtles, which should be nice.

Felicity says:

New camera. Whew. Pool time. Woohoo! Cocktails! YAY! That's to prepare me for the 3 hour round trip drive tomorrow. It has been nice to have a bit of down time to prepare me for what will be a fairly frantic visit to Kauai.

Oh noes! It's broke!

That would be the camera then.

After less than 2 years of great service, I was minding my own business on the Kona seafront when BOOM! Instant tsunami/mega tidal wave over the seawall. Seawater + camera = bad news. So naturally it doesn't work.

Most of the rest of the day was spent sorting that out, given that one CAN'T be without a camera on holidays.

I did manage a few decent shots before the wall of water though:

Pre-tidal wave snaps

The camera people have managed to source me a secondhand identical camera (no mean feat on an island with as few permanent residents as Hawai'i) for a reasonable price, so with any luck I will be back in action for tomorrow afternoon. Stay tuned.

Felicity says:

We've had a few crises this trip, but this took the cake. I don't know what we would have done if there hadn't been a suitable replacement camera. Thankfully all the other gear that got wet has recovered (including Matthew). He must have accidentally turned the GoPro on just after the wave hit, there's a few hilarious (well, NOW it's hilarious, not then) seconds of dripping wet Matthew. At least I got my secondhand bookstore visit in first (the one in Kona is better than most I've found in Oz for fiction books). 

More relaxing

Than normal, anyways. Today we trundled into Kona town, to stock up on supplies. The markets here are pretty good, the wares are great and you can get fruits and veggies for (mostly!) much cheaper than at supermarkets.

I've seen the photos before, but this time I've actually seen the real-life green geckos here. I approve:

Geckos and more in Kona

And in the afternoon, after heading back to the condo, we headed back out again, bound for the Place of Refuge, also known as Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. But yeah, that's a massive mouthful. So Place of Refuge will do just fine.

The nickname 'Place of Refuge' is given by its original purpose - it was a colony formed of those accused of breaking the sacred kapu, Hawaiian laws, punishable by death. Those that escaped their punishment and reached the Place of Refuge were forever safe from retribution for the crimes.

Lots of traditional housing, games and canoes here:

Place of Refuge

After much squawking about the sun being at the wrong angle for sunset, we made for the condo again, stopping briefly in the outskirts of the town of Captain Cook to admire a rainbow. The rain is occasionally good for something!

Rainbow in Captain Cook

That saw us through the end of another day. More wandering around Kona tomorrow.

Felicity says:

Nice to be back in familiar territory - Kona is like a second home to me now, it's much less stressful when you know where everything is. There is much less rain here than Hilo as the clouds don't often get over the mountains. It's hotter this year than usual though, I am noticing it is a little unpleasant to be out walking around. Daylight Mind Coffee (in Matthew's photo) is a new place since last I visited, will be giving them a try another day as their deck is right on the ocean.

A day of rest

Aka, we sat in the apartment all day. After almost a week of frantic sightseeing, today was a designated free day to do nothing.

I couldn't resist heading out on to the rocks at sunset though. Yes, sunset photos! Sue me, it's Hawaii:

Sunset in Kona

There will be some Hawaiian cultural destinations in the next day or two. Stay tuned!

Felicity says:

Lying by the pool. Woohoo! AT LAST!!

We made it to the dry side!

We are now in Kailua-Kona for the next week, or best part thereof. Here on the 'dry' side of the island, the leeward side on the other side of the mountain range, and therefore immune to rain. Mostly! It seems like in Hawaii though, most of the rain just hangs about up in the mountains in the middle, and the coast is mostly sunny!

The day started off with a short visit to the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. That turned into a long visit... nearly 3 hours later we trekked off! There was a whole bunch of stuff to see though. Plants. And waterfalls. And ocean views. And... well you get the general idea:

Plant-free photos from the gardens

Of course there is a range of plants, from those that (apparently) we have at our garden at home, to wacky plants that looked more like Transformers:

Plants from the gardens

And what's a botanical garden without a parrot cage?

Complete with parrot cage!

After dragging ourselves back up the long hill and into the car, we gratefully turned the AC dial up and headed towards Waipio Valley Lookout. A rather well-known spot, judging from the distance the car had to be parked from the lookout. A short walk from the car park takes you to the lookout, where you can hike down to the beach and nearby waterfall:

Waipio Valley Lookout

Declining the hike because (a) not enough time and (b) can't be arsed, we headed past a couple of towns on our way towards Kona. First up was Honoka'a, the closest town to the lookout:

Honoka'a old town

To Waimea, a spread-out, nice town in the mountains, where we had a Starbucks stop for refreshment and wifi - the busiest Starbucks we've seen so far and the staff were almost a blur they were working so fast - very impressive!

Waimea

Fast-forward nearly an hour, to Kona where the sun was just starting to set. Cue a few lightning-fast photos out of the car window of the sunset:

Sunset from the car window

Not that the 25mph speed limit was any barrier to taking photos. The speed limits here are just weird in some places.

So next few days will combine some time to chill out, ready for Kauai, with some must-see attractions that will take up the rest of the time. See ya!

Felicity says:

A long driving day but it was great to see the beautiful scenery. The only other time I have done this drive it poured with rain so I had to give the gardens and the lookout a miss. I've really noticed the heat this trip, usually when I visit at this time of year it is quite pleasant. But the Nissan has a "Max Aircon" button - you just hit it when the car starts - awesome.