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1st Nov 2005
Snorkel Bob's, mac nuts and a Place of Refuge
Monday 1st November, 2005
This morning wasn’t a particularly sharp start for us - Joe is a ‘trop diver’ so he was off on his inshore coastal rounds at about 6.15, but we took our time to organise and plan the next few days.
Drive locally today, go to Volcanoes tomorrow and the next and back here on Friday was the eventual plan.
Betsy is with us for today and is going to show us some of the sights to the south. The day dawned quite promisingly, but soon began to cloud … apparently a usual feature; clear in the morning and then progressively cloudy as the day wears on.
We went down in to Kailua Kona to begin with, in order to hire some fins and a mask from Snorkel Bobs and then drove south, catching a look at various sights on the way and stopping off at a museum of Kona Historical Society which had a few really nice publications and some prints from their photographic archive on display. Bought a couple of booklets with pictures which looked as if they might have some re-take potential.
We also stopped at the Macadamia nut factory and Anne was able to buy a stock of nuts to send home – another heavy parcel to post!
To the south of Kealakekua Bay we visited Puuhonua ‘o’ Honaunau National Historic Park, known as ‘The Place of Refuge’ an ancient native site on the coast which is a place of sanctuary for defeated warriors and others condemned by their tribes / villages to death. If they could make it to the refuge, their freedom and a second chance could be granted by the priest and they could return to their communities from there. The site has a number of structures within … which include fish ponds, also carvings and ceremonial canoes.
We swam in the bay at Puuhonua, off a ledge beside the road. The water was not particularly warm and Betsy in particular was shivering by the time we got out. The viz was a little bit restricted in places as there are upwellings of fresh mixing in with the saltwater which causes a bit of an effect.
Lots of fish; yellow tangs, puffers, a moray eel, rainbow parrots, wrasse and star of the show an octopus. Which squirted its way along in a leisurely way and then settled over a rock or on some coral and immediately pulsed its body colours to match, We followed it for a few minutes. The colour change was something I’d seen on films before but it really is a remarkable effect in real life; the colours change in waves and pulses, almost like someone is twisting a kaleidoscope to a smooth beat.
We went on to Captain Cook and there we got into the rain and our view across Kealakekua Bay to the white monument erected at the site where Cook landed was dull grey and rainy. Cook came to the islands a couple of times; the first time he was treated like a God … the second, he was killed. He arrived in a season of war and was killed trying to stop fighting between the islanders and his troops. His body was dismembered and various parts distributed throughout the islands to the various kings and chiefs – which is apparently quite a honour. Anyway, they managed to get most of him back together eventually.
Our last call of the day was to drop in to the small coffee farm where Betsy’s step-sister, Bonn lives. Bonn is an accomplished underwater photographer in her own right but has mainly skippered boats and provided support to other photographers and film makers over the years.
It was here that Betsy built a cabin some years ago in which to live. It’s about the size and shape of a chattel, but with screen walls and without a water supply; there she lived for five years. More recently, power has been added and such creature comforts as a water heater and a free standing fridge installed on the ground outside. Water is collected off the roof, pumped through a shower head and cooking undertaken on a gas burner on the deck. Standing on the deck looking at it in the rain, it’s a damp existence I would have got bored with fairly quickly ....
We had a rummage through the fruit trees in the garden; picked and ate mandarins, collected lime, orange and grapefruit, picked fallen avocado off the ground, tried my first ripe guava and my first ripe coffee bean. The rain persisted and we went inside for a welcome cup of tea (drunk out of mugs made by Jason Krypan from Georgeville) and chatted to Bonn about her Faeroese film project based –not the easiest of commutes from Hawaii to Torshavn!
It was dark by the time we left ... and still raining, but we managed to escape the rain as we drove north. We were back in just after seven, beating Joe by about three-quarters of an hour.
A long day for all of us!
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