Category Archives: Parks

Pohoiki beach

The Big Island’s newest black sand beach, at Pohoiki, was formed during last year’s eruption of Kilauea Volcano. Soon after its formation, offerings appeared at the beach and coconuts were planted.

For coconut planting, all that’s required is to plunk an unhusked coconut on the beach and wait. The coconut will sprout, as in these photos, but it can still be moved after it has sprouted as its roots are mostly fairly shallow. It’s tolerant of salinity, but likes regular rainfall, both of which are features of this location.

In several years, this somewhat stark black sand beach will become another scenic palm-lined tropical beach. That’s assuming the volcano doesn’t send another flow in this direction, in which case it might look more like the background of the bottom two photos.

Firehose of lava

This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Dramatic.’ See more responses here.

I’ve opted for a dip into the archives for this challenge. Two years ago, lava from Kilauea Volcano’s Pu’u O’o vent reached the ocean, tumbling down a cliff into the water. One day, the cliff collapsed, leaving the lava shooting out of a hole high up in the new cliff. This was called the firehose of lava because that’s what it looked like.

I first learned about it when I saw a video of the lava firehose on one of the news channels. What impressed me was that it was really hard to to see that it was a video. The flow was so strong and so consistent that it looked like a photograph. It was only by looking closely at the edges of the firehose that I could make out spatters of moving lava.

I headed down to the volcano, to take at look at this phenomenon, the day after I saw the video and was duly impressed by the dramatic scene. It was well worth the trip and well worth my quick visit. The following day another cliff collapse moved the firehose back and out of sight from the observation areas.

These are two photos from that visit. More photos can be seen in previous posts here, here, here, and here.

Black-crowned night heron

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Birthdays.’ See more offerings here. I don’t really have anything birthday-related so I’ve plumped for a photo taken on my birthday this year.

This is an adult black-crowned night heron at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, just north of Kailua Kona. I watched it for a while, as it moved around the edges of the Aimakapa Fishpond. In the top photo, the heron is coming in to land, and in the bottom photo, it’s taking off again.

The photo to the right shows the bird perched on a float. This was a good shot for my birthday since, with its large beak and somewhat puzzled expression, the heron looks a lot like me!

For more information about Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, go to https://www.nps.gov/kaho/index.htm or bigislandhikes.com/kaloko-honokohau-park/.

Sailboat off the coast

This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Secrets.’ See more responses here.

Here are a couple of secretive glimpses of a sailboat heading north along the Kona coast. I used to sail for a good many years until I sold my last boat, a twelve-foot San Fransisco Bay Pelican. In that boat, I used to putter around the bay for the fun of it, but I also took it on longer journeys. Before that, I used to have a bigger sailboat and also crewed on the boats of others.

While I like bay sailing, what I really enjoyed was sailing somewhere, not just the activity, but the passage making – navigation, nights spent in the open ocean under the stars.

The boat in these photos could do that, though I’m not sure I could anymore – too used to my creature comforts these days.