Big Island of Hawaii

September 28, 2017

After departing Vancouver and 4 days at sea....Land

We sailed into the harbour and anchored - tenders were required to go ashore.

Kailua Kona, Hawaii

Kona attractions include Hawaiian Royalty, Christian missionaries and Captain James Cook -we joined the Kona Highlights tour.

The first stop was the Royal Kona coffee outlet where we tasted a number of coffees that have been grown & locally roasted for almost half a century and the Hawaiians claim it to be one of the world’s best tasting coffees.

Our next stop was St Benedict’s painted church.

The church was the first of Hawaii’s historic painted churches and was built in 1899-1902 at a place called Captain Cook in Kona, by Sacred Hearts Father John Veighe. He painted colourful murals of biblical stories on its walls and ceilings and also incorporated other themes to life on a tropical island.

Our final destination was Pu’uhonua O Honanau national Historic Park.

This attractive historic park includes Hawaiian artefacts and beautiful surroundings unique to Kona.

Those who broke the Kapu, the ancient Hawaiian’s sacred laws, were sentenced to die, but those who could evade their pursuers and reach Pu’uhonua were spared certain death and granted refuge.

Breadfruit tree

That night we set sail easterly towards Kona. About midnight we passed Mount Kilauea volcano. It is slowly making the island bigger as the molten larva is moving down the hillside to finally reach the ocean.

On reaching the ocean large clouds of steam are generated and fell as rain in the prevailing wind.

The captain 'spun' the ship around about 1nautical mile off shore so that all could see the sight.

The moon adopted a misty glow in the clouds of steam

Friday September 29

Hilo, Hawaii

After an exciting night we docked at Hilo at 8am. We had travelled 159 nautical miles from Kona and were now on the Western side of the big island.

In early times, Hilo was a busy farming & fishing area and then evolved into a commercial centre for the for the sugar industry in 1800’s.

Today Hilo downtown is located around its crescent-shaped bay and is the seat of local government. Apart from mu
seums and cultural attractions, it has much natural beauty and this is what we saw with our tour, “Secrets of Puna”.

After a short while we arrived at a spot where in 2014 The road was cut off by molten lava and the surrounding farms were engulfed with lava to a depth of 2-3 meters thick.

Next we went to Lava Tree State Park. This area was formed was from an eruption in in the 17^th or 18^th century and revegetation has developed to a much greater extent.

There were deep crevices in many places due to air pockets that were now exposed since the top layer initially covering them had eroded away.

The lava trees were all about, formed by hot lava surrounding the tree and the wood then burns away, leaving a hollow shell.

Next a nice snorkel and swim in a volcanically heated natural lava rock lagoon that is tempered by ocean waves.

We then drove to the shoreline where the lava flow from the 1969-1974 eruption had reached the sea.

The waves had eroded the volcanic rock cliff and vegetation had re-emerged.

Inland many houses & farms were lost but thankfully no loss of life.

Coconut

Breadfruit

Next we stopped at another painted church,

Father Damien Deveuster also ran a leper colony but eventually succumbed to the disease himself and died after working there for 10 years

This cheeky gecko was a hit at our lunch table.

We then headed out towards Kileuea volcano and walked across the natural lava flow that entomb the village of Kalapana and then walked along the black velvet sands of Kaimu Beach. This lava flow was from 2014.