KONA COAST

During our visit to the Island of Hawai'i, we stayed at a resort in Puako, probably a made-up name for a collection of resorts and expensive shops about 20 miles north of the Kona Airport.  A couple of times we drove south past the airport down the southwest side of the island, known as the Kona Coast.

The terrain on the west side of the island is in many places otherworldly.  There are vast fields of broken up lava that are virtually devoid of vegetation, despite the fact that the lava was deposited over 150 years ago.  In other spots there is sparse vegetation, mostly consisting of tuffs of grass, as in the following.

This volcanic rock remains extremely sharp.  When I took this shot from a kneeling position, I wound up with a cut on my knee that immediately began weeping blood.

On our first trip south we visited St. Benedict's, a small but amazing church the entire interior of which was painted over 100 years ago by the local priest untrained in the arts.  I earlier posted photos of that church.  The second time we visited, among other spots, the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, which has preserved ancient native fishing grounds from several hundred years ago.  Here are a few random shots from that visit.

First, what I initially thought was simply the park ranger's hat but in reality was a small sculpture, since the brim appears to be about 3/4 inch thick.

I liked how I was able to keep the focus on the sculpture while retaining the background view of the coast as recognizable despite being out of focus.

And here is another sculpture of some sort of totem at the entrance to the park.

Finally, a portion of a mortarless stone wall, part of a retaining wall that the natives built to capture fish that swam into manmade ponds during high tide and then were trapped when the tide waters subsided.

I find it difficult to capture seascapes without turning them into cliches.  Here is a daytime shot in full sun.

And another that I caught with my iPone of the one sunset that we witnessed.

John