Wordless Wednesdays - Sunrise in Hawaiian Paradise Park

A Tropical Garden Tour + Trio con Brio Copenhagen

I went on a garden tour on the beautiful Hamakua Coastline in the northern part of the Big Island and sponsored by the Hawaii Concert Society ,  including a meet and greet with the amazing Trio con Brio Copenhagen.  What more can you ask for in a gathering, beautiful music, gorgeous gardens and amazing Hawaiian vistas.
Before we start our tour, go ahead and click on the play button on the you tube link below, we are having special guests perform from the Trio Con Brio while we tour the gardens… Its already
the twilight timeframe, the perfect time for our garden tour.

We started our tour with our hostess who is a vireya gardener and her gardens were filled with blooms that afternoon, the vireya walkways are large borders with varying levels of mature vireyas and all seem to be blooming on command.






































Our hostess has this large raised bed of saucer sized hibiscus that were truly amazing and the color combinations were just so unreal, take a look….















On the way to visit her fruit orchard, I spot this tree I’ve never seen before and it was filled with these amazing yellow flowers that looked like peonies,this is how they look from a distance…






The tree is called a double Buttercup tree or Cochlospermum vitifolium.  Here’s a sample of one of the flowers, aren’t they striking!








The parcel fronts the ocean and I stopped to view the coastlines and take a few pictures of how beautifully lit up the skies were against the coconut trees.














One of the coconut trees we passed had this amazing string of bromeliads climbing up to the base of the tree.








At their fruit orchids there were the usual lemons, limes, oranges,  mangoes and pineapples, but this Musa Ae Ae, really stood out, the variegated bananas are almost ready to be picked.






We are now going to the other side of the garden to view here prized lillies, more vireyas and a waterfall the cascading out to the open ocean.






Pearl earrings of ginger called zerumbet, shell ginger









A white powderpuff called calliandra





A variegated crown of thorns or Euphorbia splendens










This ones a real dazzler called Brownea Capitella, a beautiful shorter tree species



























Our guests of honor were the Trio con Brio from Copenhagen, they did a spectacular concert the following night with their amazing performance. Did you enjoy the sample piece they played above on the link?






The sun is starting to set soon, time to take the party indoors and enjoy some food and conversation with members of the concert society. Thanks for taking this tour with us this afternoon.

Watery Wednesday - Sunset in the Kohala Coast

A view of children playing in the warm waters of Spencer Beach before the sun sets in West Hawaii and the water is still warm for a refreshing dip.

To see more Watery Wednesdays go visit http://waterywednesday.blogspot.com/

A Historic Site Called Puukohola - My World Tuesdays

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The campsite I visited recently is located close to a national historic site (strange to think there would be national landmarks here). The site is called Puukohola, it is a set of three heiau’s or temples that the early Hawaiians used to gather together, prayed and perform human sacrifices to appease their local dieties which were mostly gods of war, of the harvests and of the ocean.  These heiau’s were also significant because the main chef of Hawaii island named Kamehameha was the first ruler to unify all the disparate island nations of Hawaii into a unified whole.









A prophecy from a kahuna (priest) advised Kamehameha that if he built this large temple to honor his local diety Ku (the god of war) he will be the first ruler to unite all the warring islands of Hawaii.  This effort was no small part to build a large temple due to the fact that it is made entirely of smooth stones which were only available some 20 miles west of the island. An entire sea of laborers were required (in fact the entire population including the chief) and formed a human chain twenty mile long handing rocks from on hand to another and then build an edifice in less than a year and completed in 1791.

All through the building efforts, other local chiefs from neighboring islands hearing that a large temple was going to be built and knew of this significant omen, banded together to attack Kamehameha during this crucial stage. Kamehameha crushed these armies and also his main rival on Hawaii island who knew that his own death would proficised this outcome,  he willingly submitted himself to Kamehameha during the celebration of the temples completion, and his body and his chiefs were consecrated at the temple as an offering to their god Ku and eventually Kamehameha ruled all of the Hawaiian islands as a unified whole.







His legacy lives in these monuments and other temples around Hawaii island which attribute this king as a significant leader to Hawaii and fulfilling a great destiny. An annual celebration for King Kamehameha day is celebrated throughout Hawaii to recognize this great leader with amazing garlands of beautiful and scented flowers around his statue and hulas from various dancing troupes are performed and chanted in his honor.























What is really amazing about this area called  Puukohola is that it is on the dryer side of the island with an average rainfall of less than 10 inches a year. Hard to believe that a civilization would create a life in this barren lava zoned area with not much vegetation and create enough sustenance to survive in this environment.

I was just glad that the camp site had warm showers, drinkable water, a large community pavilion and cooking pits on each stall and that was roughing it for camping here!  Boy, I’m glad I’m living in today’s world and enjoying the sunsets from my simple tent.


 
To visit other worlds on tuesday visit http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/

The Other Side of the Island

Its rare for me to go to the other side of Hawaii Island from the east side since it takes almost two and a half hours to get here, but some friends invited me for a camp out on the beach during the week and I thought its monday … why not.

Sleeping on the beach here is really peaceful, the campground’s are very well provisioned and maintained and there’s nothing like being able to camp out on the beach with cool trade winds blowing all night into your tent.

Its morning time and I’m just lounging in my tent overlooking a white sandy beach called Spencer Beach…mornings are relaxing.





There’s something magical about just looking up at the trees in your tent and day dreaming….









No-one is on the beach yet, maybe its time to take a nice walk and even a dip… I’m sure there’s alot of tropical fish busy looking for their morning meals. I spot a lot of colorful fish, and even more exciting some turtles and lobsters hiding in some rocks!







I forgot that the beaches are quite nice on this side of the island, beautiful white powdery beaches and amazing trails leading you to even more secret beaches.







I think I can just stay here all day and take a nap under some of these mesquite trees when it gets too hot…I can’t believe its February here and already 80 degrees.







Aaaah, life is good today…

Skywatch Friday, Over looking the Lapahoehoe Point

The North shore of Hawaii Island is rugged with tall cliffs and waterfalls going down gulches and flowing directly into the ocean. The coastline is battered by rough seas and now teaming with many pods of humpback whales staying during the winter months and birthing during their visit here in Hawaii.

I came down to this part of Hawaii looking for the whales and see them spouting blow holes, flapping their tales and if I'm lucky, seeing them breach out of the oceans turbulent waves....and I am lucky today. I see many pods doing everything you hope to see when you look for them. They are very close to the shoreline and easy to spot.

Its a very windy day, but the sun is nice and warm, a perfect combination, I think.  Although, the water is always too rough for any chances of swimming in this bay.

Still it is nice enough to spend a few hours, just looking at the skies and the ocean and seeing the occasional whale peek above the waves.

To view more sky watch friday scenes go visit  http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Happy Aloha Friday!