Green Sands Beach and the Christmas Parade
Merry Christmas from the Pahoa Parade! Despite two lava flows brushing up against one of the main streets, the show must go on. Those Noni leaves on my shoulders are going to cure something but I forget what.
LJ, our general manager at Kalani, helps prepare our float.
You have met Jaimie many times on this blog and meet her new friend Brenden, 34, originally from Dallas and most recently a chef in the molecular cooking world of Manhattan, as they wait for the festivities to begin. We are all flying together to Maui on January 8 to see Leftover Salmon, who are playing four days in a row at a coffee plantation there. Anyone want to join us? Details here: Leftover Salmon Maui
Having been to the Big Island's black and white sand beaches, it was time for a green sand beach.
Across Nebraska again to South Point. (gotta love the grass fed beef here in Hawaii).
The hike across these hills of ancient eroded volcano ash from Mauna Loa from South Point is 2.8 miles and resembles the Badlands of South Dakota, with not a bit of shade in sight. And there is the matter of the 2.8 return trip, which after an afternoon at a beach with no shade, is something to consider as well.
So along comes Tommy, who offered a ride out there for $15 each round trip. He kindly waited patiently as long as we wanted, before returning us from the beach.
Kind of a bitch of a hike down to the beach though. The layered rock you see here is the inside of a littoral cone, which was formed far from the eruptive events at Mauna Loa. As the lava pours into the ocean, it explodes into billowing clouds of steam and debris. The expanding steam rips the lava into billions of cinders which pie up in mounds or cones. Geologically speaking they are not long lived and the waves rapidly wash them away.
Green Sands Beach owes it unusual color to the mineral olivine. The basaltic lava flow from ancient eruptions that formed this cone, named Pu'u o Mahana, was loaded with gobs of the stuff. Then the ocean went to work and has dismantled half of it.
Olivine can contain semi-precious gems, but most of the gems are sand sized and we looked for about a minute, unsuccessfully, for a giant nugget.
Onward and Upward. Down Highway 11, past South Point. At milepost 76 we turn right into a "subdivision" known as HOVE.
We passed this open pit cinder, sand and gravel pit at ~4000 feet. Lucky you gentle reader, as I had my trusty Roadside Geology of Hawaii book near by and you will learn the providence of it. The red part is iron oxide cinders and above it, is volcanic black sand. Both were blown here from ancient erosion processes from nearby volcanoes over the eons.
I have sung the praises of Air B & B before, but are you guys sure this was the right turn off?
Not Kidding:
This is the actual pathway to the B & B across this giant 1906 lava flow. Thank God the owner told us that coming at night was not allowed. I mean, are you sure there is even a cabin out here?
Earlier we had passed this tiny Catholic Mission confessional booth. Maybe we should have stopped.
Finally we saw it up on the slope. This whole area is known as Hawaiian Ocean View Estates, locally HOVE. About 11,000 one acre parcels are spread out on a vast system of roads on this harsh a'a lava. An oil company built the subdivision in the 60's with the dream of creating a new community. Prospective buyers were lured by photos of palm tree backed Pohue Bay, which is distant, private and not reachable.There was also the bait of the HOVE Yacht Club, which never existed. The majority of the lots remained unbuilt and electricity is rare.
What people did pluck down $995 thirty, forty years ago have formed a tight knit community and seem happy as they can be with their location.
Streets have lovely sounding names like Paradise Parkway and Ferntree Avenue, bur after driving around, you'd expect names like Rocky Road and Lava Lane. Sometimes you build it and nobody comes.
By the way, the view from this pit toilet, during morning constitutionals, was maybe the best I have yet to encounter. I guess when I think about it, it is the only view from a pit toilet I have experienced. You can't buy such gifts.
As were driving around this vast unfinished subdivision that was kind or eerie and lifeless, we were reminded that the Big Island is often rumored to be one of the largest repositories of people from the FEDERAL WITNESS PROTECTION PROGRAM. What a perfect place to lose oneself.
I have been to really quiet places in Hawaii, but this was absolute silence. Not a peep from a bird, nothing. Kinda cool to live in that kind of silence for several days. Read, digested and discussed "The Four Agreements" by Don Miguel Ruiz, which was one of the few books there. The Four Agreements
Good God man, after all that, let's open the bar early.
Debris still blocking the road from Hurricane Iselle neak Pohoiki.
I mentioned several posts ago that several years ago my right hip was starting to bother me, especially after massive catering jobs.I surmise that carrying those million or so catering tables for decades eventually pulled my right hip out of alignment. I saw someone in Charlottesville and words like "titanium implants" were bantered about. I was gonna be goddamned if someone was going to cut into those muscles in some kind of exploratory surgery to have a look around. Someone suggested yoga and after a year or so of practice, happily, it was 95% resolved.
Things were fine until the kitchen here was moved to an outdoor building and quite a bit of extra walking and schlepping was added to a life that already included lots of daily walking anyway. I had seen acupuncture in various Asian countries that I bummed around in in my twenties and was always curious about it. Bone up on acupuncture here: Acupuncture
I knew that it promised to treat a whole host of problems and now wished I had tried it earlier for things like high blood pressure. On the mainland anyway, the acupuncture offices were inevitably in slightly shabby strip malls, wedged between dirty Chinese restaurants selling greasy General Tao's chicken and the Happy Ending Vietnamese Massage Parlor. How legit could they be?
Then I moved to a place that had its own Acupuncture clinic, whose director I counted as a colleague. If not here then where?
Micheal Ceraso Read more about Michael Here practices Traditional Oriental medicine through acupuncture, Chinese herbs, Thai massage and energy work and is the director of the Acupuncture Clinic here at Kalani. I had three treatments over six weeks with Michael. I definitely could feel Qi traveling from my hip down a line in my hip. I was also very tired after each session, so some dark energy went somewhere. He used a combination of aggressive acupuncture, Chinese heat, herbs and ointments Combined with some specific massages offered at the clinic as well and specific yoga asanas, also quite conveniently offered right here as well, I am "re-aligned" and the hip feels 100% better, if fact I don't even notice there ever was a problem.
I was taking some pictures near milepost 17 on Red Road and must have punched some kind of button on the camera that resulted in this one retro postcard look. Wish I could find out what button it was.
Have a great Christmas season, family, friends, allies and ohana!
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