Hawaii: Day 12 (13 June 2009)

4:30 a.m. wake up call and a 5:30 a.m. departure time!? What could be so important as to get us out of bed that dang early on our vacation?? Well, the Temple of our Lord, a 7:30 a.m. session and a two hour drive of Course! Yes it was early and the drive was long but as you can see the sun rise over the temple was so beautiful and it was great to be in the temple in such a glorious place. We even got to see a few of the members from Amy's ward.

As with every temple I have been to the grounds were beautifully kept and here at the Kona temple as you can see it did not disappoint.

The variety of flowers and vegetation is just as you would expect a tropical paradise to be; glorious and beautiful.

After our trip to the temple we stopped at the first place on our list for the west side of the island; a smallish bay called Kealakekua. It was here that Captain Cook the famous explorer first landed on the Big Island and it was also here that he met his demise in a fight with the natives over one small dingy. Anyway, we were supposed to rent a couple of kayaks and cross the bay to the monument on the other side. We read that some of the best snorkeling on island was near the monument.

On a "normal" day it is said this is a calm and tranquil bay but as you can see this was not a "normal" day. I guess there was a storm somewhere making for some pretty big and anti-tranquil waves!

As this would put a bit of a damper on the whole underlying goal of the trip... live through it... we decided it would be best to go on to our next stop; Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park. Translated, the "Place of Refuge at Honaunau" is the most complete restoration of an ancient Hawaiian religious sanctuary. In early Hawaiian religion the laws and punishments were very strict. For most laws-breakers the punishment was the same... death by clubbing (and not the kind you go dancing at).

There were a few "refuges" like this one in difficult-to-get-to places throughout the islands where someone that has broken a law could flee to in order to be forgiven if he could get there before he was killed by his pursuers. It was a beautiful secluded oasis of palm trees and fresh water surrounded be the raging sea on one side and a vast barren volcanic-rock-strewn landscape on the other.

Near the refuge were the royal grounds where the kings would sometimes visit.

This large pitted rock is believed to be one on which King Kamehameha would play a game of stragey. It was said that he was very good at the game and as you can see so was I! Laura got her trash kicked.

We had two more stops on our list for the day; the colored (no racism intended) beaches. First was the Green Sand Beach. This was one of the reasons I opted to upgrade to the 4x4. We read that it was about 2 miles from the paved road and with the strong winds that always blow into your face it feels more like 4. After some real rough roads Mom and Dad "opted" to wait behind as I dragged Laura on with me. We made it to the top of the cove without even rolling the rental once!

The sand was really green... not just kinda green in the right light or something, it was GREEN!

The sea was raging here as well but that didn't stop some people from getting wet and catching some waves.

As for Laura and I we just got our feet wet and took some pictures. We didn't want to leave the parents alone for too long... who knows what kind of trouble they might get themselves into.

As we made our way back to the vehicle we saw a couple and thier teenage son finally make it to the beach (we passed them walking to the beach on our way in). They looked pretty pooped so we gave them a ride back to the road. They were grateful for the ride and that Mom and Dad "decided" to stay behind so that there was room for them in the car.

The next color was black. As with the green it was very black and just as fine-grained as any other sandy beach.

We later learned that the different colors of sand come from underwater volcanoes erupting and as the magma hits the water it shatters in to the small sand sized particles. The different colors depend on the minerals in the magma. As the eruption dies out the source of the colored sand stops and the ocean slowly washes away the colored sand and it is replaced by normal sand so you never really know how long one of these incredible beaches will be around.

We ended the long day with an all-you-can-eat buffet at Pizza Hut! That sure sounds really good right about now too!