Category Archives: Places

Pohoiki fires

Pohoiki bench and lava

Yesterday I posted here about revisiting Pohoiki, also known as Isaac Hale Beach Park. Today, in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘Fire,’ (more responses here) I’m posting a couple more photos from that visit. Being perverse, I’ve chosen photos with no fire in them.

The top photo shows where the flow from the 2018 Kilauea eruption came to a halt, in the park’s picnic area. It has swallowed up one of the picnic tables, as well as some surrounding trees. What I find interesting about this is that neither the table, nor the trees, caught fire. I think this is because, by this time, the supply of lava had already stopped reaching the extremities of the flow and, consequently, those areas had already cooled considerably to below the temperature needed to cause combustion.

The bottom photo has a simpler, fire-related appeal. It could easily be captioned, ‘the barbecue pit meets the mother of all barbecues.’

Pohoiki barbecue pit and lava

Pohoiki revisited

Pohoiki boatramp

Pohoiki breakwater markerIt’s been a while since I was last at Pohoiki, also known as Isaac Hale Beach Park. One reason for this is that it’s about as far away from where I live as is possible on the island. But back in July 2016, I went down there at an ungodly hour to board a boat and go see lava flowing into the ocean. I wrote about that trip here and here. At the park were restrooms, picnic tables, and a boat launch ramp protected by a small breakwater.

Last year, Pohoiki was in the news because it was where the flow from the 2018 Kilauea eruption finally ground to a halt, about 100 yards short of the boat ramp. A few days ago, I decided to revisit the park and see the changes that had taken place.

Driving into the park, the cooled lava flow could be seen, stretching down the side of the grassy picnic area (bottom photo). But what I really wanted to see was the boat ramp and the black sand beach at the bottom of the park. They did not disappoint.

The boat ramp, previously used to launch quite large boats, including the lava tour catamaran of 2016, now leads to a small lagoon (top photo). (Note the signs on the left of the photo.) This lagoon is perfect for swimming or sailing model boats, but as a boat launch ramp it has one big drawback. There’s now a long, deep, curve of black sand separating the ramp from the ocean (photo below). This beach began forming during the eruption, but I was surprised by how substantial it was. It’s rocky in places and the sand is quite coarse, but it is unquestionably a beach and it looks like it’s here to stay.

An indication of the beach’s substance can be seen in the second photo. The red triangle on a pole marked the end of the breakwater. Now it’s deep in sand. The breakwater is still there, but almost entirely buried.

The beach was formed by lava pouring into the ocean. Some of it solidified into large chunks, but a lot was quickly broken into smaller pieces and fine sand. (In the postings about my 2016 trip, one of the photos shows a black sand beach forming at the base of the flow.) A good deal of this sand was carried a short way down the coast to form this new beach.

I don’t have a good photo of the park before these changes, but the local newspaper has an aerial view here that shows the features I’ve mentioned. In that photo, the boat ramp, breakwater, and rocky shore can be seen at the bottom. Top left is the restrooms building that is also top left in the bottom photo here. The paths and picnic tables can also be seen.

I’d expect that on my next visit, all these new features that I’ve mentioned will still be there, but there is one caveat. If there’s a new eruption in this area, then everything could change. It’s one of the facts of life of living near an active volcano.

Posted in response to this week’s Friendly Friday challenge on the theme of ‘Revisited.’ See more responses here. Tomorrow, I’ll post a few more photos in response to the Sunday Stills photo challenge.

Pohoiki beach

Pohoiki picnic area

A delicate shade

underwater shade

This photo makes it look like someone has placed this delicate shade on a beach. In fact, I found it in 10 feet of water in an area that is often buffeted by large swells, making it’s perfect appearance all the more unlikely. How or why the shade got there is unknown, but for me, that adds to the mystery of the scene.

Super blood wolf moon

blood moon over hawi

blood moonThe recent lunar eclipse occurred last Sunday evening here in Hawaii. When the moon rose at 6:02 p.m. (five minutes before sunset) the eclipse was already well underway. Where I was watching, the sky was hazy so the moon wasn’t very clear. It then disappeared into a bank of clouds and I considered heading for home. But the cloud bank wasn’t huge and was drifting away from the area I was watching.

Sure enough, a little before 7 p.m., the now fully-eclipsed moon slid above the clouds into a beautiful starlit night. I took some photos where I’d set up, down by the coast, and then headed into Hawi to see what it looked like there.

Above is a view from downtown Hawi (not exactly hopping at 7:20 on Sunday night). The second photo is the moon soon after it rose above the clouds before the sky was fully dark. Below is the night sky with the moon in the bottom left and Orion at the top right.

Why the grand name for this eclipse? The moon was closer to the Earth than normal so it seemed bigger and brighter than usual, which is known as a supermoon. Because this was a total eclipse it gave the moon a red tint, which is known as a blood moon. And January’s full moon is sometimes called a wolf moon. Voila – a super blood wolf moon.

Posted in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘Night,’ (See more responses here.) and this week’s Friendly Friday challenge on the theme of ‘Coral-ish colors.’ (See more responses here.)

blood moon and orion

Ghostly tree

ghostly tree

The last time I visited the Palila Forest Discovery Trail, on the southwest slopes of Mauna Kea, I didn’t see too many birds, but did enjoy looking down on the cloud layer covering the lowlands between Mauna Kea and Hualalai.

This tree sat on the slope of Mauna Kea at the point where the top of the clouds swirled around it, giving it a very ghostly appearance.

Hawaiian Dredging Building, Honolulu

hawaiian dredging building honolulu

hawaiian dredging building honolulu windowThis week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Window.’ (See more responses here.) I thought I’d post some photos from my trip to Honolulu last year since the city is full of interesting buildings and is window rich.

This one is the Hawaiian Dredging Building. It was built in 1929 for the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, which later became The Honolulu Advertiser. That newspaper ceased publication on June 6, 2010 when it was merged with The Honolulu Star-Bulletin and became The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. For most of its history the building was known as the News Building or the Advertiser Building.

The Hawaiian Dredging Construction Co. purchased the building in 2016 and, following an extensive renovation, made it the company’s headquarters and renamed it the Hawaiian Dredging Building. The distinctive mosaic window above the entrance is a notable feature of the building.

hawaiian dredging building honolulu front

Kings’ Trail

kings trail ala loa

kings trail straightThe Kings’ Trail, is more properly known as the Ala Kahakai Trail (shoreline trail) or the Ala Loa Trail (long trail). The trail was created in the 1800s and stretched 175 miles from Upolu, at the northern tip of the island, down the west coast and up the south coast, to Kalapana in the southeast corner.

It passed through 220 ahupuaʽa, which were land divisions stretching from the ocean to the mountains. This meant that each ahupuaʽa contained the necessary resources to sustain its inhabitants.

These days, some sections of the trail are open for hiking, but others cross private land. The goal is to reopen as much of the trail as possible to public use. These photos are of parts of the trail passing down the Kohala coast. In many places the trail is ramrod straight to make passage easier, though the surface is often uneven.

Posted in response to this week’s Friendly Friday challenge on the theme of ‘Pathways.’ See more responses here.

kings trail