Today featured 3 touristy type stops since the clouds were
threatening all day, but even tourist places can be fun. I only took 150 pictures today, so sit back,
relax, have a coffee or tea or wine or beer, and soon you will be snoozing with
the best of us.
Our first stop was the Kalopa Native Forest State Park and
Forest Reserve, featuring a 0.7 mile self-guided walk through a Hawaiian Rain
Forest. You could pick up a guide book
to help you through.
Due to overwhelming popular request (well, maybe one person)
I have featured myself in a picture, cuddling a hapuu tree fern.
The trail appeared to be well-marked with numbered markers,
highlighting some specific points of interest.
However, we started getting a little confused, because sometimes we
couldn’t see what we were supposed to see, and some markers were missing.
Ultimately, we went back to the guide: first title was “Introduction
to the 2012 update to the Nature Trail guide”.
There they said “It is believe the pamphlet…was written in the 1970’s. It has been updated through the years, but
the changes have been small”. Oh. Shortly after reading that, we came to marker
26 where the text read: “Papala Kepau: A fine specimen 6” in diameter and about 18’
tall stood here until 1989. It died and
has since disappeared without a trace.”
I couldn’t help but laugh.
We did see a couple of interesting things, such as the fruit
of a Strawberry Guava, some orchids, and several impressive Strangling Fig Trees.
The next stop was Akaka Falls. There are many beautiful waterfalls on the
east side of the island for two reasons.
The east side is the rainy side, and the land is all old volcanic
basalt, which doesn’t erode easily.
Akaka falls are free-falling, meaning the water goes down a straight
drop, in this case 442 feet, or twice the height of Niagara Falls. And just to
prevent you from thinking I’m smart, the trail sign made this comparison.
There is a little 5” fish that actually climbs up these
falls to spawn. Just when you think your
work was hard.
The third, and major stop of the day was at the Hawaii
Tropical Botanical Garden. The land was
purchased privately in 1977, and over the years was developed into an amazing
repository of over 2700 specimens of tropical plants sourced worldwide. I couldn’t stop myself from taking picture
after picture of flowers, foliage, and just plain weird plants.
And then there were orchids everywhere.
Naturally, these gardens needed weeding, but I am not sure how this employee figured out what was a weed and what was not.
The garden ended at a beach where you could see the rugged
volcanic rocks. Being shipwrecked here
would not have been a particular blessing.
After being botanically sated, we returned home to check the
weather forecast. There were flash flood
warnings for the island overnight, and notes of a blizzard warning and heavy
snowfall on top of Mauna Kea near us.
How can we be so lucky?!
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