The Polulu Valley Lookout, Honokane Nui Hike, Cattle Country and Opuntia

Breakfast this morning was at Grandma’s Kitchen, featuring Portuguese food.  Portuguese immigration was encouraged for a period to bring workers to the sugarcane plantations, and there are many reminders of Portuguese culture and foods.  Asians have also had a large impact on the islands, with Chinese, Japanese, Philippine and Thai influences obvious.  (I have never seen so many Thai restaurants!)  Grocery stores feature a fascinating array of Asian foods, and of course the local one had its own feral chickens.

After breakfast, we headed out to the Polulu Valley lookout, a popular tourist spot for a little north coast scenery.  From the lookout, which was crowded with cars and tourists, you could descend about 400 feet on a steep trail to a beautiful rocky coastline, known for its water-rounded lava stones.  Apparently, stones were transported uphill by a human chain gang to use for temples, houses and other structures.  What surprised me the most was all the different colours of lava.

The beach sand was black, meaning it was pulverized lava, and there were huge sand dunes in the valley, mostly covered with vegetation.

A majority of tourists stayed at the beach, but for those who wished for more body punishment, you could climb up about 700 feet on the other side of the valley up to a another lookout.  All of this trail was through rainforest which meant you could barely see 10 feet around you.

The second lookout was well worth it.  A single bench of somewhat unique architecture was the only indication that this was the place.

The view was spectacular, even on a cloudy day.

As we returned, we stopped briefly at the beach where I made my first effort at building a Hawaiian Inukshuk.  Not bad for a tourist, I thought.

Driving back from the lookout, we took a road that ran along near the top of the old Kohala mountain ridge.  Here, the scenery changed from rainforest to grasslands.  We were now in cattle country.

Unlike the prairies, Hawaiian cattle have their own flock of egrets accompanying them.  There are some huge ranches here, with acres and acres of grassland.  The scenery is unusual, because you can see little hills now and then that were obviously old cinder cones.

Hawaiian roads are made of crushed lava, and when the construction runs into a hill of lava, they just cut through it and keep going.

Just when I think I have accustomed myself to Hawaiian scenery, I get a surprise.  I noticed something interrupting the grass vista and looked closer.  Yes!  A honking big Opuntia cactus!  And they are all over the place.  Just what I expected in Hawaii!