The grey crowned crane hails from eastern and southern Africa. It is decidedly not something seen everyday in Hawaii, unless you visit Pana‘ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens just outside Hilo. The zoo bills itself as the only natural rainforest zoo in the United States.
While I was there, this crane was getting in some serious preening.
For more information about Pana‘ewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens, go to hilozoo.org.
Pololu beach looks like an inviting place to get in the water, especially if you get hot on the hike down. But it’s a very dangerous spot to get in the water with strong rip currents. Local knowledge helps, but even locals get into trouble now and again. One of those places that looks inviting, but only up to a point.
A worker checks out a turbine blade at Hawi Wind Farm. He looked like he was using the kind of tools one would use to patch a ding on a car, which seemed incongruous on such a large machine. But I suppose even small irregularities on the surface of the blade, especially the leading edge, could significantly affect the turbine’s efficiency.
Last year, when I went on the Kama‘āina Observatory Experience, I visited a couple of telescopes. One of them was the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, a single-dish telescope dedicated to detecting submillimetre radiation.
One of the things I liked about that telescope was the structure of the supporting framework. It reminded me of something found at Ikea, but on a giant scale. If I’d been involved in putting it together, at the end of the day, when congratulations were being bandied about, I’d have been the one saying, “Er, I’ve got a rod and three little hexagonal nuts left over. Where do they go?”
Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park sits on the coast south of Kealakekua. It features a huge masonry wall that encloses the pu’uhonua or place of refuge. As the name indicates, this was a place that offered sanctuary to those who had broken sacred laws (kapu) or been defeated in battle. If they reached this place, they would be spared, absolved by a priest, and allowed to return home.
A large portion of the remainder of the park is known as the Royal Grounds where Hawaiian royalty (ali’i) lived. Hale o Keawe sits on the edge of the pu’uhonua and is a heiau that housed the bones of 23 of those ali’i. This gave the heiau tremendous mana, or spiritual energy. The wooden statues are ki’i representing Hawaiian gods. It’s an important structure, both culturally and historically.
For more information about Pu’uhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park, visit https://www.nps.gov/puho/index.htm.
Probably the most visited lava tube on the Big Island is Thurston Lava Tube in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. However, the most easily accessible might be one just a couple of miles north of the airport at Kailua Kona.
Just off the main highway, it’s not unusual to see a line of vehicles pulled over and people scrambling over the lava. There’s a well worn path leading down to the entrance of the tube and enough headroom to make access easy. However, it’s worth noting that there are piles of rock strewn around from ceiling collapses and the whole area looks crumbly. I certainly wouldn’t want to be down there during an earthquake. Enter at your own risk!
I paid another visit to the Painted Church at Honaunau recently, and this time remembered to take a photo of the exterior. It’s easy to forget, since the interior is so colorful.
For more information about the Painted Church at Honaunau, go to thepaintedchurch.org.
Seen from the top of Mauna Kea, what is this shape we’re looking at, stretched out over the clouds, with that crisp corner at the top? It is, of course, the shadow of the volcano itself.
I like this image a lot, I think because it’s something I never thought about until I saw it. Then, I was immediately struck by how it illustrates the size of Mauna Kea and what a classic volcano it is.
Graham's Island 