Signs: Bamboo Restaurant

The Bamboo Restaurant in Hawi, Hawaii

This is one of the signs outside the Bamboo Restaurant in downtown Hawi. While some local restaurants had been offering take-out food, the Bamboo had remained closed during the pandemic. It’s not really geared to be a take-out restaurant and a lot of its business comes from visitors to the island. But about a month ago, the restaurant reopened with restricted hours.

The number of visitors to the island has increased to such an extent that there’s a shortage of rental cars available. When things shut down, the rental car companies shipped vehicles to the mainland for sale, rather than have them depreciate in their parking lots. But the rapidly increasing visitor numbers have caught them out and it sounds like it will be a while before they’re able to get their fleets back to their usual levels.

In the meantime, the reopening of the Bamboo is another encouraging sign that things could be getting back to normal around here.

Tugs, a barge, and a helicopter

A tug and barge enters Kawaihae Harbor in Hawaii
A tug enters Kawaihae Harbor in Hawaii

I spotted this scene a while back when I was down at Kawaihae. This is one of the inter-island barges entering the harbor. Often when this happens, a smaller local tug will go out to help with the business of getting the barge safely into port and alongside the jetty.

The helicopter was something I hadn’t seen before. At first, I thought it was just passing by, but then I saw it circling. Even though I couldn’t make it out, I suspect there was a photographer on board, taking photos or shooting video on behalf of the port or the company that ships freight between the islands.

A tug and barge enters Kawaihae Harbor in Hawaii

A great barracuda

A great barracuda off the coast of Hawaii

I’ve mentioned before that great barracudas give me the willies more than sharks do. But the truth is, that while they look menacing, I’ve yet to see one being aggressive. The black fish in this photo wasn’t far from the barracuda, but was ignored by it as it swam by.

Even though they unnerve me, there are times when I just have to laugh. A couple of weeks ago I was snorkeling, puttering along as I looked around for things of interest, and I happened to look behind me. One of the very large barracudas was following me, about a body length behind. The instant I looked back, the barracuda turned away. It could have been a great photo, but I wasn’t ready for it and then the fish was gone. It was also a good illustration of the fact anything that might attack me in the water is highly likely to take me completely by surprise.

Barracudas will follow spear fishers in the water, hoping to snatch their catch, and I think because of this, they’ll follow anyone in the water in the hope that they might be in the fish acquisition business, too.

Gray days

A helicopter emerges from the clouds off the Big Island, Hawaii
Two nene feed on a rainy day

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Gray.’ See more responses here.

The top photo is finally getting scheduled after being lined up for a previous Sunday Stills challenge with the theme of ’emerging.’ I was walking along the coast on a damp, gray day, when I heard a noise out over the water. I couldn’t see anything, but the noise got louder. Finally, this helicopter emerged out of the clouds. It looked like a military helicopter, which would have been the most likely thing flying in those conditions, and which tend to be louder than the average helicopter.

In the second photo, a pair of nene chow down on a strip of grass beside Upolu airstrip’s gray tarmac under an equally gray sky.

Stareye parrotfish

A stareye parrotfish resting on sand in Hawaii

I saw this rather splendid stareye parrotfish sitting motionless on a patch of sand with its dorsal fin raised. It’s the first time I’d seen a parrotfish do this and I don’t know the reason. At night they will find a crack in the reef to sleep, but during the day they typically cruise around and are very skittish around people.

This photo shows the ‘beak’ of the parrotfish, which is made up of individual teeth that are fused together and are incredibly strong. It uses this ‘beak’ to scrape algae off rocks and also to dig into the coral. After grinding this up and extracting the organic matter, the residue is expelled. This parrotfish poop forms most of Hawaii’s fabulous white sand beaches!