As part of our 10th anniversary trip, Cory took me to Hawaii, Hawaii. That is the Big Island of Hawaii. While on the "Big Island," Cory and I tried to take in as much of the scenery as possible. We stayed at the Kilauea Military Camp in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The military camp, for those who do not know, is part of a chain of resorts designed to give our heroes an affordable getaway in inspiring and serene places, or where they can take their families for a well deserved vacation. More on that later.
For several days we made the trek from Volcanoes National Park to the other National Parks on the Big Island, several of which are on the leeward side of the island, also known as the Kona Coast. The Kona Coast is on the western side of the island and is generally drier than the eastern/northeastern or windward side of the island, which is more of a rainforest, as it experiences intense afternoon storms, almost daily. Or at least much more frequently than the west/southwest coast.
As we explored the Kona Coast, we found three other National Parks, the Kaloko-Honokohau Park, Pu'ukohola Heiau Park, and the Pu'uhonua O Honaunau Park. Cory's favorite of these might have been the Pu'uhonau O Honaunau National Historic Park, where we found a Hawaiian Temple with massive Tiki statuary, carvings depicting Hawaiian deities, and around the temple were votive offerings of food wrapped in palm leaves, left for the gods by local native Hawaiians.
My favorite park, however, was the Kaloko-Honokokau National Historical Park. It was my favorite for one simple reason, Sea Turtles! This park has been preserved as an important cultural site for the Native Hawaiians because it is representative of the ingenuity of early Hawaiian peoples. Early Hawaiians created an artificial fish pond here, utilizing local volcanic rock to create a tidal pool in which fish would be corralled during low tides, and easier to catch. But this is not why I liked this place. Now that it is a national park and not in routine use, it is one of the best places to observe sea turtles, or at least I think it is, because this is the first place I have ever seen a sea turtle outside an aquarium.
Cory and I walked the path around the large tidal fish pond and were greeted by all kinds of wildlife, including black crowned night herons, cormorants, ibises, numerous other shorebirds, and feral goats. But the best thing by far was the green sea turtles, or Honu as they are called in Hawaiian.
As we were walking along the shore I noticed something slowly coming out of the water. It would poke its head up for breaths before going under again and maneuvering its way closer to shore. Cory and I watched this for close to 15 minutes. I could hardly hold back my excitement as this green sea turtle beached itself right in front of me. The way in which the sea turtle moved on land, looked very laborious. Without proper feet, sea turtles use there flippers to scoot up onto the beach, and after one or two good slides, of approximately 5 inches, it would rest for about 2 minutes. This was very slow, but very cool. I kept snapping pictures from as many angles as I could without getting too close or disturbing the turtles progress. It was just so beautiful and I was super excited.
Cory and I would find several other sea turtles that day and on several other occasions, including at the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach, but this was the only one I saw actively beaching itself. The others had already hauled themselves out onto the beach and were sunbathing.
Note 1: The green sea turtle is known as green because that is the color of its flesh if butchered. This is due to its diet of kelp and seaweed. These animals are now a protected species and they are not green in color unless it has algae growing on its shell.
Note 2: The black sand beach got its name from the color of the "sand" obviously. But the word sand is deceiving, this is actually recently deposited and even more recently eroded black volcanic rock, akin to pumice. But the rocks have been broken down, through water and wind erosion, into a fine gravel type consistency. Cory took off his shoes, because, "it would be a great natural way to get rid of calluses on his feet." This did not last long as the black sand gravel began to cut deeper than just his calluses.
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