(click on thumbnail images to enlarge)

Unique Graffiti

HAWAII, Sep 5 - I promised to tell you more about the drive from the airport to the hotel, as I first took it at night and did not see anything.  As fate would have it, I had to retrace my steps back to the airport the following day.  The roof mechanism in my convertible was not working properly, and I could not lock the trunk.  In a way, I am glad it happened.  For, the ride back to the airport gave me a chance to see just how much of the island is nothing but black and brown lava. 

Such a moonscape lent itself to a whole new and unique form of art - the "lava graffiti" (my term for it).  For miles and miles along Hwy 19, one can see various designs, names, pictures... constructed with white coral against the lava backdrop (like the left two photos).  My new blue convertible also fitted in very well with the blue backdrop of the ocean and the sky.

On my way back, I also caught another unique sight... wild goats living in the lava fields.  It's a testimony as to the resilience of these amazing animals.  In an environment so harsh that nothing except for small clumps of grass - their dinner - can survive, these goats are thriving.  As it was getting late in the afternoon, the stormy sky over Mt. Mauna Kea made them look like some prehistoric creatures in an Jurassic setting.

Lush North Kohala

Having seen all those lava fields, you can imagine my surprise at what I saw the next day, when I took a short drive up to the northwestern tip of the island, the North Kohala district (see the map where I have marked my route in orange).  The difference in landscapes was remarkable.  At times, I felt as if I were somewhere in the Alps, at other times in the Midwest, at all times in a lovely, lush green rural setting.

You can see in the leftmost shot show a herd of horses grazing in a field with a pretty ocean view in the background.  Underneath those high cumulus clouds one could see with a naked eye the outline of Haleakala volcano in Maui. 

It was the first of many ranches I have seen, each greener and more prosperous than the preceding one (middle shot). 

The local communities were also idyllic, with charming little churches dotting the skyline (second from right).  I was actually surprised at how old the area was.  The towns of Hawi and Kapaau, where these shots were taken, had a number of buildings that dated back to 1880s, such as that old general store (right).

At another ranch on the north shore, I came across this extraordinary scene... several egrets (birds) hovering around (what I think was) a water buffalo, grazing in the field, with one egret bumming a free ride.  When I returned about half an hour later, the buffalo and the birds were still together.

The north shore is almost unspeakably beautiful.  The two left shots were taken at Pololu lookout point, about 10 miles east of the northwestern-most point of the island.  The right photo is of a lush green valley through which a little creek flows into the ocean at the beach in the middle picture.

You can also see some aerial photos of this same area taken from a helicopter a few days later.

The three shots on the left were all taken at Keokea Beach park, also on the north shore.  At times, the vegetation here is so thick that it looks like a rain forest.  Being sunny and warm though, that was hard to imagine.  Still, everything seems to grow here, even the Norfolk Pines, as you can see in the rightmost shot.

But to me, the top prize for the most picturesque ranch in North Kohala goes to this spread back on the island's west coast, a few miles due west of the town of Hawi (the ranch buildings are shown in the leftmost shot).  To get there, I had to drive through some dirt roads that my convertible would have never been able to navigate other than on a sunny and dry day, like today.  Once I got there and parked the car under a tree, I spent a long time taking in the scenery on this windswept plain, where horses and cows were peacefully grazing oblivious to the beautiful scenery that they were a part of.  "What a great place to be a horse or a cow," I said to myself.

By the way, if you take a closer look at the rightmost shot, you will see what looks like a bunch of white stones underneath those palms.  They are not stones.  They are unpicked, fallen coconuts.  That's how abundant things are in this part of the island, that ranchers can't be bothered to collect and process the coconuts for juice or their tasty white flesh.

But they do take care of their geese and chickens.  If you take a closer look at the right shot taken under and through a limb of a big tree, there are a bunch of geese and chickens pecking at the real or imagined grains on the ground of this bird farm.

The Kohala Highlands

The drive from Hawi to Waimea along the Hwy 250 was one of the most scenic drives I have taken since our vacation in Western Canada last summer.

As the road climbed to about 3,600-foot elevation, I kept snapping pictures of the west Hawaii coastline along the way.  At about a 3,500-foot level, there were even gigantic cacti, another reminder of some of the flora back home in Arizona.  And at a 3,000-foot level, where the temperatures had dropped to about 50F (from 86F at sea level), there was a lovely green farm being worked on as I drove by (rightmost shot).

Much of the 20-mile road up and around the Kohala highlands was lined by huge junipers and pines, like the ones in the leftmost shot.  And then, just like that, as I descended back into the valley between the two volcanoes (drawn by hand behind the clouds), the scenery changed back to the desert.  In fact, the sky ahead was story and looking pretty dramatic when I took the two middle pictures while driving, the second one showing both volcanoes in one frame (thanks to the mirror).  Finally, back down in the valley and almost back at Hwy 19 (near my hotel), a final look back at the Kohala highlands that I had just climbed (rightmost shot).

Back at the hotel, I found a totally different cool scene.  An artist had just finished carving these two ice sculptures.

And then it was time to settle in and enjoy the beachfront view of another perfect Hawaiian sunset, and say the final good night to Maui across the ocean, at least for tonight.

To be continued... CLICK HERE to go to CHAPTER 3...

Back to Hawaii Twenty-O-Seven Index

Back to Home