clear skies

Clear skies in Kona.
I wish I had brought my camera with on the bike ride to Cellana today. Thursday is the first time I remember (or maybe noticed?) being able to see Mauna Loa from the road by Cellana.  You can't see it in town, because the slopes of Hualalai are too close.  Out by Cellana, the visibility was never high enough to have a good look.  Well it's been so clear here that I have had some peeks at it lately.  It is cool to see lurking behind Hualalai.  It is much less steep that Hualalai, but five some thousand feet taller.  Today, after the big storm yesterday, there was snow on a lot of it!  I always think it is cool to see the line where the snow abruptly ends in the mountains. Maybe I can get a picture for you tomorrow.

Rain in Kona!

Ok, it's been a couple of days.
I have:
-fretted over and finally submitted my best job application yet
-received my truck
-gone ocean canoeing
-witnessed a tropical rain shower in kona
-begun to wade through the process of registering the truck in Hawaii

The highlight is a toss up between canoing and receiving the truck.  This is the most excited I've ever been about having a car.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder?  Our legs are pretty worked after biking (almost) everywhere the last two weeks.  Thanks to our friends who have given us rides.  The hills here take more out of you than expected.  They don't look like much, compared to the mountain behind us.  But they are enough to tire a cyclist out. 

It is raining like crazy right now.  I would say that visibility from my window is about a quarter mile.  It is even raining hard enough to drown out the shrieks and cackles of what are starting out as very noisy neighbors.  It's nuts here, though.  They said flash flood warnings and 2-3 inches of rain-- I bet one has come down in the last 15 minutes.  This is all very weird for the side of the island that is normally so dry that there isn't even a stream on it!  The weather, as I think it is prone to do in the winter, is coming from the west, and the radar right now shows it is clear in Hilo. A total role reversal.

It has been spectacularly clear for the four days leading up to this.  That is also thanks to the winter weather pattern, I hear.  The vog, or volcano smog (more of which has been seeping out of Hualalai than usual for the last two years or so) is blown away from kona by these winds from the West (this is all speculation based on my limited observations. I should find some sources on this info).

click here for a bigger version of this cool photo looking east at Hualalai and the vog over kona from Mauna Kea observatory.  This guy also has a pretty blog about working at the observatory with lots of awesome sunset photos.



Beth and I went to Keahou Canoe Club Tuesday morning, her Sunday.  I didn't get any pictures, but there are lots of good ones here.  Also, if you are a lakes and rivers paddler, you might like this discussion of outrigger paddling technique.

The paddling felt really good.  With so many people in a canoe (we got in the idiot-proof canoe, as we were nubes, and had 10 people in the double hull) it is way more aerobic than the canoeing I'm used to in Minnesota, after which I inevitably had worked my shoulders really hard.   Also, the technique is such that I got a better back and core workout.
It was super fun to be on the water.  We paddled out for 20 minutes or so, then jumped into the super warm and clear water for a little "midlake swim"  then headed back.  We were with the retirees and other  people with nothing to do at 8 o'clock on Tuesday morning.  It will be fun to try paddling with the really strong paddlers sometime.

What can be said about the Hawaii "Safety" Check aspect to getting a vehicle registered here?  It is ridiculous.  $20 every year to have someone tell you that your lights work.  check.  At least it's not any more expensive.  And, I'm pretty happy with the folks down at Dixson Service. So it could be worse.
Here are some cool photos.

A day off!

Today is Monday for Beth: she had the last three days off, and will work for the next six.  Cellana is on a nine day week.  I took a break from blogmastering so that Beth and I could do the requisite house and furniture searching together, but we also got our first good taste of the scenic Hawaii people vacation here for.

We drove south down the highway for a cluster of Kona attractions: snorkeling and spinner dolphins in Kealakekua Bay, and down farther, the historic Hawaiian religious site and royal grounds of Pu'uhona o Honaunau.

Kealakekua Bay is a sheltered bay formed when a huge chunk of Mauna Loa fractured off of the mountain and slumped into the ocean.  It is now a shallow (40'?) bay, flanked by the huge landslide scarp (cliff), a safe place for spinner dolphins to rest, and a sheltered place with a great snorkeling reef.  It is also where the infamous Captain Cook first landed on Hawaii, putting it on European maps.  He also died here, not long after his first landing.  It's a pretty interesting story.  Here is, once again, a Wikipedia link.  Man, they sure do a good job.  A monument across the bay from the access marks the place of his death and also the best snorkeling spot.

Beth and I rented a kayak and made the 30 minute paddle across, stopping to find the local dolphins on the way.  I jumped in with my fins and snorkel, and watched them swimming around, but they weren't interested in me.  Still cool to see them underwater.  I suppose I saw 15-20 of them, the closest about 30' away.    The guy we rented the kayak from said it was like swimming in an aquarium.  True.  This is where my novice blogger status really comes through, though; I haven't trained myself to take enough pictures to make a truly lively blog. You'll have to use your imagination (or come see for yourself).

The snorkeling was great, but we (that's us on the right) had to get out after only about 40 minutes, because the water was so cold!  Most locals here wear thin wetsuits while diving to stay warm.  We don't have an underwater camera, but this was another aquarium scene: lots of lobate and finger coral, lots of jackfish, parrotfish, eels, sergeant fish, pipefish, groupers, and fish I don't know the names of.

Well I've got to head out to do some moving-related work for our New Apartment!  More about that, and Pu'uhona o Honaunau later.

bicycle commuter!

This morning, Beth and I skipped sunrise at Honul's beach to ride our bikes out to Cellana.  Once we snuck out of town, avoiding the major streets, we got up onto Queen Kahumanu Highway, and it was a quick little ride along the relatively flat road.  There is a very wide shoulder, but it is a little scary riding next to the 50 mph traffic. It was a quick 40 minute ride, door to door.  Little did we realize that our journey was eased, like so many before us, by strong SE trade winds!  I'm sure that by the time she has to ride home, the wind will have switched to her favor... grumble grumble.

I stopped by Wawaloli Beach Park on the way home.  It is situated on the same 1801 lava flow as the airport and Cellana, and has lots of rocky shoreline.  A little reminiscent of the North Shore of Lake Superior.  Only a little.  The rocks are both basalt, yes, but they are way younger and more rugged here.  Also, the waves are a lot bigger.  Pretty impressive to this flatlander.  I was impressed with the power and size of the waves and the amount of water they pushed up onto the rocks.

The big peach rock in the middle is covered by about 6 feet more water in the bottom picture than the top!  (sorry no scale).

One place, the waves would slam into the porous, fissured rock, and force air and water through the spaces.  The rocks would hiss and sputter with each wave crest.  Almost like they were alive.  It was very cool.  I was spooked the first time I heard it, until I figured out what was going on.  I even saw one little geyser that would shoot 3 feet in the air! neat.

Here is some of the pahoehoe (ropey lava) I saw.  groovy.

 Rainbow! Wavebow?

 The lil geyser.  Ok, maybe not 3 feet.

One of the funny parts about walking on the rocks was that the little rock crabs would go scurrying away like crazy, usually before I even saw them.  Often with so much vigor that they would fling themselves off the 6' cliffs and go spinning into the sea.  I suppose it is so they wouldn't end up like this:

Here is a Honul's Beach crab, so you can see what the living ones look like: well camouflaged.

sunrise at Ali'i cove!

Nice sunrise this morning.  This place is called Houl's Beach, just minutes from Cellana's condo.

Here is a picture of the condo complex from Ali'i Drive (map).

On the map, you can see Honul's beach in between the vacation rentals and the clairvoyant center. Kind of a metaphor for my life? Anyway, the condo is in the wedge of undeveloped (at photo time) land just inland of the clairvoyant center.  Ali'i is the Hawaiian word for the historic noble class, believed to have had divine origins!

Our unit is on the ground floor, facing the pool, which in this picture is behind the hedge. 

You can see Mt Hoalalai in the background of this picture.

There it is on the map the Easternmost mountain on the big island.
Hualalai is considered dormant, but is responsible for the 1801 flow that the Kona Airport is on.  It has also been a part of 3 seismic/eruptive events since then, most recently in 1929.  It is the 3rd most active Hawaiian volcano, after Kilauea and  Manu Loa.  Doesn't sound dormant to me! Here is a good Wikipedia page on Hualalai.

But all the really active lava flows, the ones famous for flowing continuously into the ocean, are on the coast south of Kilauea.  There is a lot of cool Volcanology here.  More to come to be sure.  But while this picture is here, check out Lo'ihi, in the ocean south of Kilauea.  It is currently the volcano most directly over the hot spot and will be the next volcanic Hawaiian island.    Here's a graphic illustrating the idea:  see how the hot spot is stationary and the Pacific plate moves NW, creating the island chain?  Good.

DST and daylight in Hawaii

So all my friends back on the mainland will be celebrating daylight savings time tonight by gaining one hour of sleep.  Not so here on Hawaii.  Tomorrow, I will be only 4 hours behind my Minnesota friends.  What's an hour on island time?

The real difference with daylight between here and the mainland is its length.  The sun rises about 6:30 and sets about 5:45.  There's about the same amount of daylight in Minnesota right now, but the weather here is more like Minnesota in July-- when there is about 15 hours of daylight.  It's weird to have such pleasant weather with such a short amount of daylight; so much nice weather when it is dark out.

It's pretty nice, weather-wise here. It gets cloudy everyday around 10 AM, which means the sun is not as intense.  Sometimes there is a drizzle around 4 in the afternoon-- then the sun starts going down.*  Cool mornings, with fresh air from the ocean.  Beth and I have been getting up pretty early (5:30-6), partially because we are still adjusting to the time change, partially to take advantage of the weather.  We have been walking down to the beach to watch the sunrise. There wasn't a spectacular sunrise today, because it was cloudy.  Now it is raining.  Apparently, this is one of the 12 statistical rain days in Kailua Kona.  So we'll appreciate it.  But hard for a guy who has to ride his bike around to look at apartments.

Here is a beach picture from this morning:

If you'd like to see something less blurry, you can mail your requests on the box of a Cannon PowerShot SX30 IS

*This is all different for the folks who live up the mountain-- a lot of people here live around 1000' elevation, where it is cooler and cloudier and wetter all the time.  These mountainsides are a new thing for da flatlander, too.

local fauna

So who moves to Hawaii and doesn't give their friends any idea what the place looks like.  All in good time.  For now, here are the few photos I have taken.

First, a Hawaiian Hawk, or I'o

or

Look at his little flamingo leg lift!  Apparently, that's in here in the tropics

There he is, up there in the palm tree outside of our condo.  Beth spotted him while getting ready for her first day of work.  As you may have read in the link above, these guys are very rare.  A good omen!

These photos were taken from our lanai, the Hawaiian word for patio or deck.  As we've been looking at apartments, I've come to realize how common they are around here.  In fact, a house without a good outdoor living area is pretty much lacking.  Some of the nicest places we've looked at have a bit of an extra kitchen outdoors, with bbqs, stoves or sinks in addition to the requisite shade and chairs.  We're hoping to land in a place with an outdoor shower.  A nice amenity, when da wedder is always 85 and partly sunny!

Lanai is also the name of one of the many (more than I thought; 18 is commonly accepted) Hawaiian islands, just west of Maui.