The Big Island and the Tsunami

The day after I posted my Big Island Sites, the 8.9 earthquake occurred off the northeast coast of Japan creating a devastating tsunami. We continue to read and hear about the devastation and the estimates of people killed. Japanese officials refuse to speculate on the number, but have said it would be a miracle if it turns out to be less than 10,000.

I called both my neice and nephew's homes on the island of Hawaii to make sure they were okay. They were. Nanette's husband, John, was waiting to hear from his employer whether or not to come in to work. Both families live miles up the slopes of the island, but said the tsunami warning sirens had been going off all night. The lower elevations were evacuated and those on higher ground warned not to go to the beaches. 

City of Refuge Before

After

Later in the day, Rebecca, my nephew's wife, sent pictures.

The after pictures are of the area in Kona where we had gone shopping, had lunch and where I had enjoyed taken pictures of Hawaii's first church.


Here are some of my vacation shots and photos of the area on the 11th of March. 

Kona Pier Before

After

Kona Beachfront Before

After

We need to continue to pray for those in Japan who are suffering and for the country as a whole as it trys to cope with the loss and destruction. BonnieKingPhotography.com

Sightseeing on the Big Island

Thursday and Friday, February 17th and 18th were sightseeing days on the Big Island. Lore and I were chauffeured around the southern end of Hawaii by my niece, Nanette, in her husband's new Toyota FJ Cruiser. It was wonderful to be pampered. Since Lore was riding shotgun in the front seat, getting in and out of the back seat was fine the first day, but by the second day, the pretzel twists to get in and out took their toll on my back. Lugging my 14 pound camera pack didn't help either. The good company and the photo ops were worth the pain. It also gave me a great excuse to lay around on Saturday without feeling too guilty.

Thursday we visited the City of Refuge. Hawaiian lore has it that if a native, in trouble with royalty, could make it to this location, they would be safe and eventually forgiven. Is that a "get out of jail free card" or what! Next stop was Kealakakua Bay. Just across the bay is a monument to Captain Cook who was killed by the natives in 1779. That certainly put an end to his explorations and it was all over a stolen boat.

Next stop - St. Benedict's Roman Catholic Church in Captain Cook, Hawaii. It's also referred to as the "Painted Church". Rightfully so... the paintings adorning the walls and ceiling were illustrations used as teaching tools, since many of the congregants couldn't read or write. The church was originally built in the mid 1800's, but moved in 1899 farther up the slopes of Mauna Loa where the climate is cooler.

Friday found us at the Black Sand Beach watching whales! It seemed every time there was an interesting shot, I had the wrong lens on the camera. By the the time I ran back to the car to get the telephoto lens, the whales had moved farther out to sea, but if you look carefully - you'll see a whale's tail.

We visited the Volcanoes National Park during the day. Nan took me through the Thurston Lava Tube while Lore waited in the car. She had been on that jaunt before. The ferns in this area are huge. They only grow two inches a year, but are mammoth in size. Obviously there have been no recent lava flows here. I asked Nan if she got tired of playing tour guide, but her positive upbeat response was, "No, I get to take a vacation when we have company." Needless to say, they do have a lot of relatives and friends who stay over while their vacationing.

After the park, we journeyed past desolate lava fields and across wind swept plains to South Point. The wind turbines can be seen for miles. This is the southern most point on Hawaii and in the United States!

As it got dark, Nan took us to Kalapana Lookout where we walked about a mile to see lava flowing into the sea. Mauna Loa has been very active lately, accounting for vog (volcanic fog) in the mornings, and if you could get close enough - spectacular views of hot lava flowing into the ocean. No such luck for us, however. We saw what resembled glowing coals in the distance. My attention was in the other direction. I was fascinated by the full moon which was so bright, we could see our shadows.

The day wasn't done yet. Nan took us back to the observatory so we could view the caldera at night. The hot lava is actually three football fields deep from the lip of the volcano. What an incredible sight!

We didn't make it to bed with the chickens on Friday, but the beauty of the desolate landscape lighted by the moon and the glowing caldera were well worth the late hour.

For all my Big Island Sites, go to BonnieKingPhotography.com

Fricassee & Chickens too!

Fricassee is my niece Nanette's rooster. Twelve hens constitute his harem and "Sandy", short for Sandwich, is the mother of five new chicks. Is that a clutch? (Nope. The dictionary says a clutch is a "brood of chickens"). Well, what do I know about farming and chickens. That was a statement, not a question. My last time on a farm in Cottage Grove, Oregon, I was eight years old and I helped my great uncle milk cows. The pain and torture I must have inflicted trying to get milk out of those poor cows. I also helped churn butter on the back porch which was the location for a new addition, the bathroom! And I fell off their horse and was knocked unconscious. Some will say that explains a lot.

However, during the week my sister Lore and I spent on the Kona Coast on the Big Island of Hawaii, I became obsessed with the chickens. I followed them everywhere trying to get THE picture. It didn't help that Nan had an absolutely gorgeous photograph of Fricassee on canvas, no less, taken by a photographer friend of hers. The photo was saturated with color showing off his (the rooster, not the photographer's) plumage at its very best. Nan told me while we were there, Fricassee's feathers weren't completely in after the winter molt, so I shouldn't feel too bad, if I didn't get THE picture.   

The chickens were in charge of my wonderful stay at Nanette and John's coffee farm. Mala Mauka (Inland Garden), as Nan named it, is located about 10 miles from the ocean, up the southwest slopes of the Big Island. The community of Kainalui is 6/10ths of a mile down their "Hawaiian Autobahn" and the Kona International Airport is about 18 miles away. Nan is the official farm hand. She does it all, including picking coffee from her 650 trees. She can pick year round, but most picking is done in November.  

I'm used to going to bed about midnight. I've developed my husband's late night habits. That changed for the week in Hawaii. We went to bed with the chickens - at least it seemed like it - and we rose with the rooster. My sister had advised me to bring sleeping aids and ear plugs. I didn't heed the advice the first night, but got used to wearing wax earplugs each night thereafter. The first night Fricassee decided to roost in the tree outside my bedroom window. His alarm went off starting at 3 am. There was no snooze button. He let his presence be known from that point on. I gave up and rolled out of bed at 6 am. My sister and Nan were already up and John was getting ready for work. (He's in the heating and air conditioning business. Who needs heat in Hawaii? John and Nan don't have any).

For the duration of the trip, our mornings were spent on the second story porch watching Fricassee call his harem out of their perches in a tree just opposite the porch. Nan, the perfect hostess, made sure we had plenty of coffee to start the morning. I've never been one to drink coffee first thing in the morning for fear I'd get the jitters. I soon learned that Kona dark roast coffee actually has less caffeine than the medium roast I buy at the store!

What a simply wonderful way to start the day. We were able to catch up on information about the family, watch the sun rise on the days it wasn't overcast, see the chickens fly out of the tree, and try to decipher the ocean's horizon line. There is an ocean view, but the combination of clouds and vog (volcanic fog) challenged us to determine where the ocean stopped and the sky began. Occasionally, Luna, the resident cat joined us on the porch to view the scenery.  

Nan told us she had tried to get a lot of her farm work done before we arrived, but each morning she still had to feed and water the chickens and walk the dog, Hoku.  The farm work doesn't wait for visitors to leave, so I captured her one morning dressed in her weed whacking best, hard at work. She has to keep the jungle at bay.

I did take a lot of pictures of Nan and John's "inland garden". I even got photos of best friend and former sister-in-law, Adelle's, chickens since she just lives "up the road a piece".  And yes, the elusive Fricassee, finally strutted his stuff into my photo album called, Mala Mauka.

For more pics of Nan's farm, go to BonnieKingPhotography.com and look  for the gallery titled, Hawaii.