The Painted Church at Honaunau

The Painted Church at HonaunauBible scenes on the walls of the Painted Church at Honaunau
I’m not a religious person, but I’ve always enjoyed visiting churches. I grew up in England and the stone churches had a calm ambience with cool, quiet interiors. Usually, there was some feature of note, even in the smallest church – carvings on the pew ends, a font dating from Norman times, the tomb of some ancient notable under the floor.

The Painted Church at Honaunau, on the Big Island, is different from those churches, more fitting to its setting. A wooden structure, it dates back to 1899. Father John Velghe moved much of a previous structure to its present site and had it repaired and added to. A self-taught artist, he then painted the interior including several scenes from the bible on the walls.

What I like is how colorful the interior is, with a real tropical feel. But it too has that stillness that I associate with churches and an ambience all its own.

For more information about the Painted Church at Honaunau, go to thepaintedchurch.org.

Coastal manta ray

A coastal Manta Ray in the waters off the Big Island of Hawaii.
Not the greatest photo – swell had churned up the water – but I post it for two reasons.

One is, it’s the first manta ray I’ve seen outside of a tour where they set up lights and an unruly mob of people hung onto floats while the manta’s fed off plankton attracted by the lights. The manta’s were fabulous; the rest of the experience was weird, bordering on unpleasant. To top it off, I didn’t get any photos.

The second reason is how I came to spot this manta in the first place. A group of three women was swimming about 100 feet ahead of me. They had masks and snorkels but not fins. I happened to pop my head above water and heard a scream from one of the women, followed by a huge froth of whitewater in their vicinity. They’d obviously seen something dramatic and my first response was to find out what it was, never mind that a scream and churning water might be a strong indicator of a shark attack.

As I swam forward, this great creature came into view, angling across my path. At first it wasn’t clear what it was, but then the two distinctive cephalic flaps became clear. Manta’s use these to funnel water into their mouths when feeding. Manta’s are plankton feeders and harmless. Many rays have stingers in the tail area, but manta’s don’t. John Hoover says an 8 to 12 foot wingspan is most common for manta’s in these waters and this one certainly fell in that range.

With little effort, it glided past me toward deeper water. As it did so I saw a second manta join the first, then they disappeared into the murk.

A few minutes later I talked to one of the women who’d been in the group ahead. She said she’d screamed because she was startled by the sudden, unexpected appearance of this huge creature. I sympathized. I’ve had a similar response when unexpectedly meeting sharks and eagle rays at close quarters. But at the same time, such chance encounters are magical and memorable and I am grateful for them.

In my attempts to identify what I see in the water, I use John P. Hoover’s book The Ultimate Guide to Hawaiian Reef Fishes, Sea Turtles, Dolphins, Whales, and Seals. His website is hawaiisfishes.com.

King Kamehameha’s birthplace

The birthplace of King Kamehameha the Great in North Kohala.
At Kapakai Kokoiki Heiau in North Kohala, not far from Mo’okini Heiau (which can be seen on the hill in the background), stands this sign. Kamehameha Akāhi ‘Āina Hānau loosely translates as the birthplace of Kamehameha I. He was born here around 1736. The exact date isn’t known, with some accounts placing it as late as 1758. Known as Kamehameha the Great, he was the king who fulfilled Hawaiian prophecies and united the Hawaiian islands for the first time in 1810.

He was succeeded by four others in his family who took the name Kamehameha, so the name is in the forefront of Hawaiian history. In present day life it occurs in numerous ways. There’s Kamehameha Day, a state holiday, which celebrates his birth. Kamehameha Schools is an private school system with extensive land holdings on the Big Island and elsewhere. Hotels and other businesses sport the name. A fair number of them will be located on Kamehameha Street, Road, Highway, Avenue, or Boulevard.

In short, the name Kamehameha is still an integral and important part of everyday Hawaiian life.

Cane spider

A cane spider on the Big Island of Hawaii
The official unit of measurement for cane spiders is the tuna can as in, ‘that spider is the size of a tuna can.’ In the case of this particular cane spider that statement is true – the trim it’s resting on is a 1×4.

While large, cane spiders aren’t particularly aggressive. If threatened, they prefer to run off – and they are fast. If one does bite, it can inject venom, but it isn’t considered dangerous. On the plus side, cane spiders are hunters and include cockroaches amongst their prey. While I heartily endorse this activity, it’s a bit much for me to have a mobile, hairy tuna can scurrying around the house and leaping out at inappropriate moments.

The first time I saw a cane spider was while reading in bed, which was startling to say the least. There then followed a merry chase, involving moving furniture, before I was able to trap the beast and release it outside. That’s where I prefer to see them and I was happy to see this one on the side of the house. It stayed in this spot for quite a while until one time I went to look again and it was gone. At that point, the trick is to carry on as usual and not start wondering whether it followed me inside after the last time I saw it.