It’s not unusual to see unattended fishing poles on the Big Island. The fisherman is probably not far away, perhaps taking a quiet moment to enjoy the sunset.
Category Archives: Places
Kiawes – a thorn in the foot
When twigs break off a kiawe, the thorns dry to hard, sharp spikes.
Kiawe thorns growing on the tree.
A stand of kiawe trees bordering a trail.
Hiking on the west side of the Big Island can be a hot and arid experience. The landscape is often barren lava or scrubby growth. If it’s scrubby growth, chances are that kiawe trees (Prosopis pallida) are prominent and if they are, it’s wise to tread carefully. That’s because kiawe trees produce long, tough thorns.
Hiking in slippahs (flip flops) is asking for trouble. A kiawe thorn will go through them like a knife through wet tissue. I’ve felt the jab of these thorns through my Tevas, which have robust soles of decent thickness. The first time I wore my new trail shoes, toward the end of the hike, crossing a kiawe-bordered beach, I felt a familiar prick in my foot. A thorn had buried itself in the ¾-inch thick sole and penetrated far enough to make itself felt. One of my routine tasks with my trail shoes, and the Tevas, is to examine the soles and extract any thorns with a pair of pliers. When a hike is over, it doesn’t mean the danger is past. Drive over one of these thorns and it can and does cause punctures.
But if all this makes it seem as if kiawes are reviled, that’s not the case. It’s widely used in smoking meats. The smell of burning kiawe is commonplace.
Kiawe isn’t a native tree; it originated in Peru. In fact, all Hawaii’s kiawes can trace their roots, as it were, back to a single seed planted by a priest in Honolulu in 1828.
Kohala coast view
The late afternoon sky from old Saddle Road looking down toward the South Kohala coast.
Hapu‘u fern
Hapu‘u ferns are endemic to Hawaii and can grow to 25 feet high, depending on the type. I like how the fronds uncurl, gradually revealing more details. The golden brown hair is called pulu. I found these in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, which is one of the places where the fern grows best.
For more information about hapu‘u ferns, go to instanthawaii.com/cgi-bin/hawaii?Plants.hapuu.
Aiopio beach
A view of the beach at the Aiopio Fishtrap in Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park. There’s a large turtle in the center of the photo at the water’s edge, not the best spot in the world to get some undisturbed rest.
Maui from the water
Maui stands out above puffy clouds and long, low swell.
Signs: Rainbows next 3 miles
I saw this sign when I was hiking out to see the current lava flow from Pu’u O’o to the ocean. Sure, the sign was a little vague, but I figured it must refer to the rainbow which it appeared to point to.
By golly, the sign was right. There were rainbows for the next 3 miles.
Wild turkeys
One of the joys of driving the old Saddle Road from Waimea towards Hilo, is that one will almost certainly see groups of wild turkeys. These birds were introduced to Hawaii almost 200 years ago and are going strong still.
From what I’ve seen, the question of ‘Why did the turkey cross the road?’ is best answered by, ‘To get back to where it came from.’
From a driving perspective, encountering these birds gives me a chance to yell, “Get out of the road, you turkeys,” which must be the mildest form of road rage.
Graham's Island 