We started today with the breakfast buffet in the resort. It was a great way to start the day - sitting on the balcony overlooking the pool, beach and sparkling blue green water. It was hot and humid again today. We are staying on the hot and dry side if the island. This side gets about 6 inches of rain per year. The other side of the island is the wet side and gets about 100 inches of rain per year. The volcanoes in the middle suck most of the rain out if the clouds before they get to this side. That explains why the grass along the road is yellow and dry looking. This island has 8 of the world’s micro climates.
Today we used the GypsyGuide which is an app you download and then play in the car. It is like having a travel guide in the car with you. There is gps tracking so the ‘guide’ knows where we are. He gives interesting facts and stories about the locations and makes suggestions about where to stop along the way.
We did the top corner of the island today. GypsyGuide gave us lots of information about the history of the island and King Kamehameha, the first monarch of Hawaii. His mother thought he was going to be special because when she was pregnant with him, her craving was to eat the eyeballs of a rival chief. Bizarre!
We visited a national park where we saw the ruins of a heiau or temple built by King Kamehameha. He was instructed to do so by a prophet in order to defeat other rulers and take control of all the islands. The heiau was built using stones found in valleys and passed along human chain of thousands of men measuring up to 20 miles long.
We went to a lookout overlooking the sheer cliffs to the ocean and the valley behind it. The valley was formed by relentless rain over hundreds of years and the cliffs formed thousands of years ago when a massive piece of the volcano fell off in a landslide. There was a tiny piece of beach at the bottom with the black sand made of basalt and lava flowing into the sea.
Our tour then took us up into the mountains and cowboy country. We climbed up to 3564 feet above sea level. The higher we got, the more dense the cloud cover. At times visibility was only a couple of metres. At the top, there was a lookout that the guide said showed green pastures and the higher peaks around us. I pulled over and took a photo of the thick cloud cover anyway. As we came down the other side, the cloud lifted and we could see the rolling green hills and cattle. Just about all the cattle on the island are grass fed for their whole life which makes the neat taste better. But, it takes longer so the beef industry on the island is quite small.
We also visited the original statue of King Kamehameha. The statue is bronze and was cast in Italy. The boat carrying it to Hawaii sank off the Falkland Islands and it was thought the statue was lost. Another was commissioned but then the original was recovered 32 years later and placed here near his birthplace.
We stopped at another lookout on the north east side that also overlooked the Waipi’o Valley. It was a beautiful spot but steep with dense vegetation. It is hard to believe it was home to Hawaiian royalty and densely populated. The people farmed taro. Now there are still 50-100 people who choose to live in the valley just like the people so long ago. These people still farm taro.
We passed through lots of small, historic towns today. We stopped in most of them because they usually had galleries and gift stores. These are the places to get unique handmade pieces rather than the massed produced trinkets available everywhere else.
On the way home we stopped at Tex’s drive inn. This is the home of a Portuguese donut called a malasada. They are served warm with fillings such as chocolate, mango and coconut. They were delicious!!
We got back to our resort in time to walk down to the beach to watch the sunset. Unfortunately the cloud cover once again got in the way. We’ll try again tomorrow!