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On this page I have a number of photos that don't fit anywhere else in this travel report. Some of them just to show the beauty of Hawaiian flowers like in this case. I keep forgetting what these flowers are called, but what you need to know about them is that they are part of many Hawaiian Leis (lots of blossoms strung up and used as traditional welcome, goodbye, Aloha, I love you, I hate you, get lost, friends, business partner etc. presents) |
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More beautiful flowers. In Hawaii flowers don't just bloom in the Spring, but year round. That's because the climate is pretty much constant year round as well. It might get a little cooler in the evenings in the winter etc, but other than that it's nice and warm most of the time. |
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This thing stands at Kalani Honua, which is a retreat center close to BellyAcres. On one of the first days of our festival they had a little festival there too - they celebrated an anniversary of the center. Very nicely landscaped area, a great pool, stage and eating / hanging out area, free massages etc. What can you want more...? |
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...well, easy: you might want a Hula performance. I learnt a few things about Hula on this trip. I even was at a halau hula (essentially a hula school) and participated in one of their classes. It's hard work, that's for sure and requires a lot of practice to do well. |
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This, by the way, was the jungalow in which I stayed. A nice little dry place, very close to the lava stream (see Lava page). A jungalow is essentially a roof over a raised floor with moskito net all around it. On the weather side they typically have either some glass or a wall. Essentially you sleep in the open. It's GREAT! |
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This nice orchid grew (grows?) right outside the door
of my junglow.
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These are passion flowers. Passion fruit is something everybody knows (or at least knows about). Well, these are the corresponding flowers. No flowers -- no fruits, right? |
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Talking of vegetation... this is a bread fruit. The fruit is about a large as a small melon (about 10 inches across, I estimate). We cooked a few of these in the Imu pit for the luau. |
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This pretty hanging palm stands at Kalani Honua. |
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But this one doesn't. It is at the Turtle pond where we didn't see any turtles :( |
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This is the 'tent' under which a lot of the jugging festival actually took place. It's a bit hard to see on this photo, but it's not a real tent. Instead these are three big billboards (is that the right word?) (one of them for Malboro ;) ) that are tied together. A few ropes between the trees, the posters on top and you have a huge tent. |
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And it's even waterproof (except where the things are stitched together). And yes, it DID rain. A LOT! BellyAcres is not too far from Hilo, on the wet side of the big island. From what I heard, Hilo is the US city with the largest amount of rainfall per year. You think Seattle is rainy? Pah! What are their wimpy 60 or so inches of rain compared to the 150+ inches of rain that fall on Hilo every year? The big difference is of course that this island is made of lava, which is very porous. When it rains, the water immediately drains away. You barely see a puddle even right after a downpour! |
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Talking of Hilo. These Benyon trees grow in Hilo. Unfortunately I don't have any good photos of "monkey pod trees": Imagine a tree trunk and then a huge green umbrella on top. Monkey pods. They are so large that the army used them to hide tanks under them. Just park a few battle tanks under each tree and you are invisible from an airplane. |
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Not too far from these Benyon trees is Liliuokalani Gardens, a pretty japanese garden (they were working on it while I was there, that's why you see these ugly red fences in the picture). The gardens are named after Queen Liliuokalani, who was the last Hawaiian monarch. Just in case you wondered: Queen Liliuokalani was not from the Kamehameha line. That line died out with Kamehameha V in 1872. He was followed by King William Lunalilo (not from the Kamehameha line but of royal blood -- an elected monarch!). He died soon and didn't have any heirs. He was followed by Kalakaua (the "merry monarch") who built Iolani palace on O'ahu (the only royal palace in all of the US! see my other Hawaii travel report). Kalakaua died in 1891 and was followed by his sister, Queen Liliuokalani. How exactly the monary ceased to exist in Hawaii is not a story the US have to be proud of. But that's a story for another time... |
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If you are interested in life on Hawaii in the middle of the 19th century I can recommend a very nice novel: O.A. Bushnell: Ka'a'awa - A Novel about Hawaii in the 1850s, University of Hawaii Press, 1972. It's a bit hard to find. Amazon.com shows it as out of print, but I was able to order a copy through Barnes&Nobles... To end this page on a positive note... here is a photo of a ginger flower. |