Category Archives: Places

Brush fire

On the dry (west) side of the island brush fires can be a problem. Just a few days ago, this fire started near the Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway, east of Puako. The fire jumped the highway and traffic was stopped for a couple of hours. In the photo, the highway can be seen to the left of the heaviest smoke.

Shortly after this fire occurred, a second brush fire sprang up alongside Māmalahoa Highway, a few miles inland. This too caused the road to be closed for a while. Since these two roads are a major part of the belt highway, which circles the island, traffic chaos ensued.

While some brush fires are the result of lightning, carelessness, or accidents, these two fires were probably deliberately set. Over the past few years there has been a spate of such incidents and no one has been caught or charged with arson. Unfortunately, I suspect that record will not change for the two most recent fires.

Red-billed leiothrix

A red-billed leiothrix perched on a branch in a kipuka on the Pu’u O’o trail off Saddle Road. A kipuka is an area of land that has been surrounded by a lava flow. Kipukas often contain older trees and other plants that are a haven for native and non-native birds and other creatures.

This leiothrix had an exceptionally red bill because it was carrying a bit of ripe thimbleberry, presumably to young birds in a nest nearby.

The ocean doesn’t want me

I came across this little scene on an early morning walk around Kiholo Bay. I looked around. There was no one in the water, no one visible on land. The gear appeared to be abandoned. But all I could think of was a Tom Waits song, The Ocean Doesn’t Want Me, and in particular the line in it, ‘All they will find is my beer and my shirt.’ The shirt is there, and this is Hawaii – no one’s leaving their beer behind.

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

Signs: No parking

I was going to title this, ‘Unclear on the concept,’ but decided not to comment in that way. It’s possible the two drivers didn’t see the sign, or saw it and didn’t care. Either way, they have a reasonable chance of getting away with it. This isn’t a heavily policed area, and even if a cop goes by, there’s a fair chance they’d simply ignore the transgression. The most likely case for something happening is if one of the people who lives in the vicinity complains.

The sign is at the top of a busy trail down to the Captain Cook Monument. A redesign of the road junction nearby created new parking opportunities and this has resulted in a surge in people using the trail. With more use, word gets out and soon the trail will be overused, the shoreline around the monument littered with trash, and the waters and coral in the bay damaged and degraded.

Not that this is the fault of these two drivers, but since they’re clearly breaking the law, let’s blame them for everything anyway.

Honolulu day trip

This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘Day Trip.’ (See more responses here.)

Any trip on the Big Island could qualify as a day trip, as everything can be reached and returned from in a day. But a common day trip in Hawaii is a visit to one of the other islands. This might be for work, for medical reasons, for some other kind of appointment, or simply for pleasure.

These photos are from my last trip to Honolulu. An early flight from Kona Airport and a late afternoon return gave me plenty of time to conduct my business and have a wander around downtown.

The top photo shows the entrance to the Hawaii State Capitol building. In the middle is Kawaiaha’o Church, constructed between 1836 and 1842, and considered the main Protestant church in Hawaii. Below is one of Honolulu’s large office buildings, somewhat screened by a generous amount of palms and other trees.