Tag Archives: big island

The Secret Beach

Being lucky is so cool.  I don’t know how many excellent opportunities I have missed without realizing it (that’s the benefit of not realizing it), but I have been fortunate to stumble into some good stuff.  We were driving down towards Hilo when we came to an overlook above a bay.  We pulled over and walked up to the edge to see a great view down into a lovely looking bay.  The waves were crashing in from the ocean and the place looked cool.  We were so close to moving on after a few minutes.

Just before we turned to go, we saw a couple of people down on a headland in the bay.  We weren’t in a hurry so we figured we would head down the trail and see what was there.  The area was butted up against a botanic garden which we weren’t planning on visiting so we knew we wouldn’t go far.  As we got to the bottom of the trail, we came to an entrance to the garden with a security guard sitting watch over who came through.  Then we saw a small side track alongside the fence heading to the water.  A short excursion brought us to a beach.  The waves were crashing up on the shore by our feet and everything was covered over with a dense canopy of trees.  A little climb took me out onto a spur of rock with the waves crashing either side.  A rocky cliff face was on one side and the waves were striking it violently.

There was a small blowhole in the rock near where I stood.  As the waves came in just right, the water would fire out of the hole.  Other times nothing would happen or there would be a small gurgle.  I talked to a couple of guys out there who obviously knew the place well.  They pointed out how far out you could go without getting completely drenched by the waves.  More importantly, it looked like the sort of place that you could get caught out by a wave easily.  If you went into the water, I suspect it could have ended badly.

Forget that though.  The place was gorgeous.  When the guys left, we were the only ones there.  The waves were pounding the shore, the scenery was stunning and you felt like you were the only person in the world who knew it was there.  It was hard to break away.  We stood there for ages.  Sometimes the waves would come that bit further up the beach than normal and they would wash over my feet.  No point in objecting.  Just stand there and enjoy it.  Of course, we had to leave eventually.  Those visiting the botanic garden had a promontory a short distance away but they were really not in a good position to enjoy the experience because they were on one of the nicer parts.  We met a couple coming down the trail as we left.  They looked ready to turn back and had not seen where we had gone.  We made sure to explain where they needed to go.  I hope they liked it.

What a Tree!

Rain forest conditions produce plants that are uniquely able to exploit the environment.  This tree was like something out of a fantasy movie.  I think it was one plant but, to be honest, there would be no obvious way to tell where one ended and another started if it proved to be two or more.  The branches and roots were spread everywhere.  It really did seem like something that should come alive at some point and just envelope the unwary traveler.  It was dark and creepy underneath its canopy.  I found myself fascinated with it and looking at it from every different direction.  The sad part was that it was really hard to find a shot that really conveyed the feeling you had when there.

Turtles at Rest

The reef by our hotel was home to some green turtles.  They seemed to have developed a good schedule.  Morning was feeding time.  They would go out on the reef and spend their time nibbling away at the plant life growing on the rocks and coral.  By early afternoon they would have pulled themselves up onto the beach in an area the hotel had fenced off to keep people away.  There they would sleep all afternoon and into the night.  Come by during the afternoon and you could see them.  In the evening, lights on the beach would be switched on and you could still make them out a little way above the waterline.

No pictures from me of them in action.  I saw plenty of them while snorkeling on the reef and sometimes they would come and check me out.  You are meant to avoid disturbing them but when they come after you, it is hardly your fault.  However, I did kill my GoPro while out snorkeling so the photo opportunities were lost and will have to remain as memories.  Shots of them on the beach were a lot easier though so that is what we have here.

Cinder Cones

The active volcanoes are cool to see but the landscape on the Big Island is dotted with plenty examples of where the earth has had a previous effort at disgorging its contents.  The mountains of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea look exactly like you would expect a volcano to look with a nice big flat conical structure.  However, the eruptions have not all come from the top of the mountain.  There have been regular eruptions from weak points along the surface of the mountains and these eruptions have left their mark in more ways than just the lava flows scarring the slopes below them.

When the lava breaks out, it hardens as it reaches the surface.  The deposits around the opening grow and you create a mini version of the mountain.  These are called cinder cones.  They are scattered all around the landscape and each was the site of a previous eruption.  The center is hollow where the lava flowed out and sometimes the weakest side may have collapsed to leave the cone a little more exposed.  The color of the rock can be pretty dramatic too.  They look so benign now but at their most active peak, these places would have been spewing forth huge quantities of red hot molten rock.  They would not have been a good place to be.

Goat Families Stripping the Vegetation

The Big Island has a large population of wild goats.  All of the larger animals on the island were introduced by the visiting peoples at some point and the goats obviously got well established.  You can come across them at all sorts of places as you travel the island.  I saw them a number of times but the one time I got to get shots of them was while waiting for my helicopter trip across the island.  They hang around the landing pads that Sunshine Helicopters use a lot and, according to our pilot, they are not always too enthusiastic about vacating the pads when the helicopters arrive!

While we were waiting, they were certainly not shy.  There were both adult goats and some kids in the group that showed up.  The kids were clearly more timid and they would not go anywhere until the adults had been there a while to show that it was safe to do so.  They would stay back in the bushes for a while before coming out into the open.  As soon as there was any disturbance, they would jump back to somewhere that felt safer.

It was quite interesting to see how the group behaved when they first showed up.  The whole group hung back in the bushes for a while.  Gradually, as they realized that the people that were hanging around were not a threat, they became more comfortable in getting out in the open.  Anything that disturbed the environment would get them back out of the way but they would soon become comfortable again and come back out.  Indeed, we were soon so used to them that we were a bit bored with their intrusion too and we both went about our way with little concern for the other.