Kona, Hawaiian Idyll, 1-12-2012

Kona’s January week was an unexpected gift from Montanan, Elsie, who decided she needed a vacation when I had a companion ticket on Alaska Air. We booked Keauhou Beach Resort and found ourselves in an Outrigger, 7-story turtle sanctuary area with three heiaus, a fresh-water sacred pool, a restored summer house for royalty among lush ginger plants by a brackish royal bath, and a sand snorkeling beach next door. Turtle watching happened at all hours. Full breakfast each morning carried me into the evening meal.  I took a brush-up pronunciation class (5 vowels, 7 consonants, rhythm) and we spent two hours with a native activities director. They bring kids one week/year to live in the hotel, learn the ancient farming and fishing ways in a hands-on education in such things as finding fresh water and feeding themselves without supermarkets. Weekends, there was a 3-person band in the bar with the woman’s incredible range (2nd generation of singers who once lived in Keauhou Bay) singing the old songs. A quiet place for people with interests such as ours. We slowed our thinking to the turtles’ pace as they crept up to sun themselves daily; I never actually saw them move on land.We drove north from Kona over moonscape lava fields and returned through vibrant Parker Ranch grasslands, looking at real estate in pineapple-plantation town, Hawi. The gold statue of King Kamehameha still extends greeting arms from the community center at nearby Kapa’au, and the end-of-the-road, Popolu coastline invites you to hike down to the waters. Real estate is down at least 1/3 from ten years ago, but Paradise is still expensive. Weedeater for the jungle at your doorstep is mandatory here! Kawi had Saturday Market under the banyan, so I had local fried rice which tasted good at the small beach park with waves roaring in.

The $200 we socked down to go with Hawaii Forest & Trail’s Greg to the top of Mauna Kea’s huge observatories was worth every penny  (plus 9 hours’ time).  Mauna Kea’s belly button (pu’u) is 14,000′ and, unlike some, we stayed down in respect for the most-revered sacred spot above the observatories.  They issued parkas and mittens for 14,000 feet, pointed out a rare owl, goats, Franklin birds, a mongoose, turkeys, and neighboring islands above the clouds while adding history of Parker Ranch (800,000 acres where horses/cows/sheep changed the ecology from native forest to grassland, now reduce to much fewer acres with Waimea’s shops and residences on half-dry, half-wet and lush mountainside. We ate delicious chicken terriyaki at an abandoned goat farm (had I found a house I could afford?), watched the Army’s explosive plumes toward Mauna Loa to the south. The sisters remain peaceful now, but Mauna Loa’s biding her time to make a display for Pele to reconfigure the area below her home, either south-to-Kona or north-to-Mauna Kea’s valley. I sensed it will come.

Hawaiian lore tells of Fire Goddess residing at Mauna Kea and erupting often in fights with her sister, Mauna Loa (snow goddess’ mountain that’s set to erupt sometime again). We contemplated what would happen to Kona if Mauna Loa came alive, as predicted for several centuries, as we crossed the saddle. Silversword (a relative of sunflower, looking more like yuca) is again protected on the a-a and lapahoehoe’s barren surface and is coming back. We stopped twice, once at 9000′ and to “set a personal record” at port-a-potties after 4 spine-jarring miles of non-pavement winding to 13,780′. The observatory in a Jody Foster movie about UFOs came to mind at the satellite lined up with New Mexico and other points in the world.  The US observatory opened and lined up while we watched sunset. Many countryies (13?) use Hawaii’s clear air to study stars and spend amazing amounts on even more amazing equipment to make space discoverires. After a light-headed, slow walk at Mauna Kea’s edge, we came down to 9000′ and had a star look and lesson: Venus (w- white ball), Conicus (s-shimmering with scintillating reds, greens, golds), Sirrus or Dog Star (very bright). Venus-to-Jupiter (rings of gas, 3 moons atop, one below) make up the zodiacal path and we followed Greg’s laser from Aquarius to the Crab, visible at full dark. Others rise later as the earth moves at 1000′/second, I believe he said. Orion’s belt began all the constellation stories. We saw many comets and satellites above as we ate chocolate chip cookies and sipped hot cocoa.

Next day was Sunday; we listened to a Waikoaloa Community Church minister in aloha shirt and kukui lei expound smartly on scripture and had coconut-macademia cookies and guava juice with folks in gorgeous muumuus, then looked at the opulent Hilton grounds and determined that $400,000 golf course condos were not our idea of a Hawaiian experience. A short walk to Hualalai property’s Kuki’o Beach, with natives swimming and fishing, was more to our liking.  We returned to the Summer Palace Festival with street vendors singing and selling for blocks, sat on the sea wall and watched the Merry Monarch’s Band and Singers do a concert that included hula, chants, and cooling salt spray on our backs. One dancer placed her lei around my neck after the last traditional hula. Another day, Hapuna Beach’s turquoise waters, turtles, Queen’s Bath, islands, and few Maui-facing houses brought even more bliss. Friend Bob and I hiked a half-mile past Loretta Lynn’s (boarded up), pacemaker-inventor’s yellow plantation-under-a-roof, and the Bali House (reconstructed twice, from Indonesia, with roofline of a Thai temple in gorgeous woods). Owner, Paul Mitchell’s son is rumored to give it to Hawaiian Trust, a fitting gift for royalty. Paul evidently used to use the beach lean-to with a plastic chair, cook stove, cot, and idyllic sunset scene daily before illness took him. I figured the beach shack would work pretty well for me–home comforts and island breezes. It occurred to me that, when this body’s worn out and ready for rest, ashes tossed into the Pacific from South Point cliffs would fittingly mingle with lava turning to black or green sand. The greater drama remains unchanged from ten years ago when I stood at this point.

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