Lift Up Your Hearts!

(Continued from Day 5)

This morning we arose early, broke out our snorkeling gear, and headed for the resort’s lagoon.  The lagoon is manmade, but open to the sea, so if you get there before there’s a lot of splashing around you can see some interesting fish and sea turtles.

That done, we were on the road again, this time going to the Kohala area, the northwestern tip of the island.

Click on the map for more detail.  You will be able to zoom in and out, and move around.

Polulu Beach (green marker on the map) is reached by foot, via a steep trail that begins with these warning signs.

It was a nice trek, though we didn’t go much more than halfway.  The view was good enough.

Back in the car again, we made our way in a leisurely manner back towards Hawi (purple marker), stopping at various sites along the way.

The Kalahikiola Church was founded in 1855, one of the first on the island.  New England has a long reach:  it is a Congregational church.

In Kapaau we paused to see the statue of King Kamehameha the Great.  The famous version of this statue, in Honolulu, was a replacement for this one, which was lost in a shipwreck on its way from Europe.  It was later recovered, and now rests here.

We parked across the street, and walked over for a closer look, and to use the restrooms.  Porter found some nice old ladies on the porch to talk with, and one of those gentle, sweet souls gave him his Great and Terrifying Idea.  More on that later.

Feeling it would be rude to use their parking lot without stopping in, we visited the Ackerman Galleries gift shop.  It was like a magnet:  we kept returning as we thought of more and more things to buy there.  It was the first shop we tried, in this area famous for its resident artists, and it turned out to be the best by far.

(Further down the road is the original Ackerman Galleries, featuring the work of Gary Ackerman himself.  It was like a museum, but with price tags.  Entirely unaffordable price tags, so we enjoyed it as a museum.  You can see some of Ackerman’s very impressive work on his website.)

We never found the divine confections promised here, but I like the street sign.

Back in Hawi, we stopped for lunch and some Tropical Dreams ice cream at the Kohala Coffee Mill.  We had some interesting dining companions.

I’ve said before that Hawaii doesn’t make it easy for tourists.  Two important historical sites, the Mo’okini Heiau and the birthplace of Kamehameha the Great, are not far from Hawi, but you’d never guess it.  To get there one must know to turn at the sign for the tiny Upolu airport (aqua marker on the map).  At the airport, turn left onto a dirt road—and I use the term “road” loosely.  There are no signs at all.  I quote from the guidebook:

The county does a terrible job maintaining the unpaved portion.  If it’s dry, you may make it the 1½ miles to the heiau….  Otherwise, it’s 4WD on at least part of the unpaved section and the last part might even scare 4-wheelers.  Puddles last a long time here, and some of them are large enough to have nearly spawned their own ecosystem.  Even during bad weather we’ve seen rental cars back here, giving legitimacy to the question:  What’s the difference between a rental car and a 4WD?  A rental car can go anywhere…

Apparently Porter took that last line—though none of the rest of the paragraph—to heart. Either that or his success at South Point went to his head.  Or perhaps he thought, “How bad can a road recommended by a little old lady be?”

Bravely he made the left turn and plunged down the dirt road.  Weaving, swerving, dodging to avoid deep holes and large, jagged rocks, we bounced and jerked and tilted our way to … where?  We were driving by faith—in the guidebook?  the little old lady?—and not by sight; remember, there were no signs to indicate we were on the right road.  Only—there was no other road, so we pressed on.  Did I say we tilted?  Several times I thought we were at risk of flipping the car, though Porter denies this.  He’s probably right, but I recognized the feeling from several exciting sailing trips, and kept throwing my weight as far as I could to the side of safety.

Porter later wondered why I didn’t use my camera during the drive.  When I replied that I don’t take good photographs with my eyes closed, he was astounded.  I guess that when he gleefully crowed, “Isn’t this fun?” he must have taken my stunned silence for assent.  I thought I did pretty well to bite my lip and let him have his wild ride.

At last, the longed-for reassurance that we were on the right road—at the wide spot that passes for a parking lot, with room for a car or two (red marker).  Clearlly, they knew better than to expect a crowd.  We made the rest of the journey on foot.

Mo’okini Heiau was a place of human sacrifice; tens of thousands of Hawaiians lost their lives at this holehole stone.  It is a desolate place, full of history and nearly untouched by the tourist industry.

Porter asked me, “Are you glad we came?” to which I replied, “Not yet.  After we’re safely out of here I will be glad that we made the trip.”  He was quite confident in his ability to get us safely back to the main road; I, however, was eyeing the approaching storm and thinking how impossible it would be to navigate the rocks and ruts with the road covered by water.

But Porter was right; we beat the storm and I did then say I was glad we had come.

Our next, much more accessible, stop was the old Hawaiian village ruins at Lapakahi State Historical Park (yellow marker).  We had just enough time for a quick tour before it closed.

I love the contrast between the black and white stones.

We capped our penultimate day in Hawaii with a swim in the fancy pool complex back at the resort.