Tag Archives: Kohala

King Kamehameha statue

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Old.’ See more offerings here.

This is the original statue of Kamehameha 1, the king who first united the Hawaiian Islands. The statue was commissioned in 1878, but was lost off the Falkland Islands. A new statue was made, but in the meantime, the original one was salvaged. The new statue was put up in Honolulu and the original shipped to Kapaau.

Not long after I took this photo, the trees in the background were badly damaged during a windstorm and had to be cut down, so this scene looks quite different today.

Find more information about the statue here. For more information about King Kamehameha’s history, go to nps.gov/puhe/learn/historyculture/kamehameha.htm.

Kohala Welcome Center under a full moon

On a recent foray into Hawi to get photos for last week’s Sunday Stills challenge (here), I took these photos of the Kohala Welcome Center. This is the place to get information about North Kohala for visitors en route to Kapaau and Pololu, which marks the end of the highway.

On this particular evening, the welcome center was illuminated by its Christmas display and a full moon, which also highlighted the palm trees that tower over that location.

Hawi Christmas lights

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Holiday Decor.’ See more offerings here.

This theme forced me outside after dark, something of a rarity these days. As usual, when I walked into Hawi, I thought, ‘I should do this more often.’

Here are a couple of the downtown buildings illuminated for the season. In truth, this was pretty much it for holiday trappings, but it’s still a good deal more than at my house!

Also posted, belatedly, in response to the last Friendly Friday challenge theme of 2019, ‘Christmas Preparations.’ See more responses here.

Lokahi Garden Sanctuary entrance

This is the entrance to Lokahi Garden Sanctuary. It’s on a narrow road with trees on both sides so there’s only a short time when the sun hits these plants. I’ve driven by many times when it was dark or in the shade. Other times, when the sun was right, I didn’t have my camera. But I really wanted to get a photo of the plantings with the sun on them.

On this day I had my camera, stopped the car, and took a couple of photos. I’m glad I did because shortly after this, a tall, purple banner was placed in the center of the plants. Depending on one’s point of view, this banner is either lovely or a garish eyesore. It certainly removed my desire to take any more photos.

The sanctuary itself is a great spot. For more information about Lokahi Garden Sanctuary, go to https://lokahigardensanctuary.com/.

Signs: Cardboard only

For a good many years, the Big Island has had a fairly standard recycling program. Glass, cardboard, paper, aluminum and other metals, and many types of plastic were collected for recycling.

Last week, the plastic and paper part of that program was tossed into the trash. The reason, according to officials, is that the market for those kinds of materials has gone in the tank. China stopped buying those materials last year. Since then, other countries in that business have been overwhelmed and shut up shop.

But the economics of the program weren’t the only problem. A lot of those recyclable products couldn’t actually be recycled because they had so much trash mixed in with them they were essentially garbage. People didn’t pay attention to what they could and couldn’t recycle and didn’t put the appropriate, clean materials in the proper place. ‘Recycling’ used pizza boxes with bits of three cheese pizza stuck all over them didn’t help, and I’ve seen plenty of things like that being recycled.

What will happen now is that more stuff will end up in the trash and that’s still a problem. The landfill on the east side of the island closed this year and now all trash from that side is trucked to the west side landfill. At some point that will become full. And then what. It’s not a situation that’s likely to get better any time soon.

Signs: Do not miss this, whatever it is

Driving toward Hawi recently, I noticed this sign. The speed limit in this area is 45 mph and I was actually traveling at around that speed, but by the time the sign registered and I looked at it, I was unable to see what it said.

Next time I drove by, I slowed down and focused on the sign. I still couldn’t read it. Today, I stopped, got out of the truck and walked over to the sign to see what it actually said. I had to get pretty close before I could read it. I doubt many passing drivers, the target of the sign, had any clue as to what it was about.

It’s one of those signs that might have looked good on a computer screen, capturing the rural feel of the area, but it’s a real world fail.

And what is the event being promoted? It’s the Kohala Country Fair and it’s happening today from 10 am to 5 pm. Better get your skates on.

Fishing

This week’s Friendly Friday challenge theme is ‘blue.’ See more responses here.

Here in Hawaii, blue sky and blue water dominate, especially along the coast. Fishermen are at the forefront of those who get to see these things the most, or they would be if they were around. This scene is typical: blue sky, blue water, a fishing pole, but no fisherman. No doubt resting somewhere in the scant shade provided by the trees.