Aloha! first Day in Hawaii

Aloha!  If you haven’t thought about it before, consider a trip to Hawaii.  The first day alone seems to have justified our trip already.

We arrived in Kona in the wee hours of our bodies’ morning, and have lurched through our first day despite the jet lag.  Of course it was pitch black at our time of arrival, so today started with surprises from the get go to keep us awake.

Kona is a relatively small town of about 15,000 people, but when the cruise ships arrive, as one did today, the population increases by 1/3 for about 8 hours.

Keeping the size of the population in mind, downtown is a short 1.5 km strip of stores, restaurants and malls intended to keep many thousands of transient people shopping and eating for the approximate 8 hours they are on shore.  From a distance, it looks relatively attractive.

Of all of the first impressions, the strongest one is that of LAVA. We are at the base of the largest volcano on Hawaii.  Fences and walls are made of lava.  Beaches have lava stones everywhere.  Most places are only one storey in height because it is too expensive to dig foundations into lava.

Despite the black solid lava, lots of things are lush in growth.  There are some amazingly huge trees with enormous trunk/root systems, and lots of flowers including the bougainvillea, spider lilies and frangipani shown.

From a “cultural” standpoint, one of the outstanding aspects of Hawaii restaurants is that they are often open-air.  Not only is it fun to eat outside, but one can get some excellent bird watching done at the same time.  English sparrows and Zebra doves walk nonchalantly at our feet picking up crumbs, and they often fly to the tops of tables or chairs to inspect potential pickings.

Some of the signs in town are a little startling.

One of the sights in town was a major church with lots of history, complete with two gentlemen handing out complimentary bibles.  Although we refused at the time, later we found one left on a bench—and realized we may have missed a major opportunity.

Various sources suggested that flip-flops were mandatory here.  Sadly, we found a pair that appeared to be road kill.

And finally for the wildlife fans, I saw a mongoose and a gecko today.  The mongoose was a complete surprise-- is an imported animal considered to be more of a detriment than a benefit.

The final highlight for the day was a chance to play in a small set of tide pools.  The different textures in the lava rocks are striking.  With all the black rock, one might expect black sand, but there seems lots of little shell particles as well as interesting multi-coloured rocks.  And there sure were critters.  I found a couple of kinds of small fish as well as some sea urchins that were about the size of golf-balls. 

 

Who knows what will happen tomorrow?