Day 13 - North Shore Adventure

Compared to what we were doing with the Hawaiian Field Studies class, this tour was a breeze.  The guide's name was David Atkins.

We started at a cemetery - Valley of the Temple Memorial Park.  Odd place to start, but in the back of the cemetery is a full sized replica of the 11th century Phoenix Hall of the Byodo-In Buddhist temple complex in Japan.

  

Inside is a large Buddha.

Interesting place.  These are family plots where the bodies are cremated and added to the family plot.

Next place we stopped at was a structure called Chinaman's Hat.  It is also known as part of a legend.  Something about a dragon tail.  It is also called Mokolii which means "little lizard".

On the East Shore, we stop at Liea Point.  This is a beautiful little spot.  Nothing of much significance, but I am sure that there is something geology based and volcano based info here.

We drove through the town of Kohuku.  Here they have 12 wind turbines and are going to be getting a lot more soon.  Hopefully this will help cut down on the cost of their electricity.

We drive by the Shrimp Ponds.  We did not get to get out, but I did get to see a few birds, but no pictures :-(

Night Heron
Hawaiian Coots
Red-face Moorhen
Hawaii Stilt

On to the North Shore.  We stop at Sunset Beach.  This is where the big surfing competitions happen.  Definitely NOT in the summer.  It was just about as flat of water as Galveston...which is really flat. There was one area that had a little surf and people were surfing there.

Slightly unimpressive in the summer, but it was exciting to see where the BIG surf competition happens.  Here is a picture of what surf was happening.

Waimae Valley - we came here to see a Hawaiian temple.  We were reminded that Hawaiians did not have a lot of technology, so it may not seem grandiose, but was very meaningful to the Hawaiians.

Turtle Beach - There were two Green Sea Turtles resting on the beach.  It was so cool.  There is an organization that volunteers to watch the beach and rope off the Sea Turtles so that they are not disturbed.  Our guide said that someone is being fined for sitting on top of a Sea Turtle and taking pictures.  Goodness.  Some people.

Last stop was the Dole Pineapple Plantation.  Apparently, the Pineapples grown there stay on Hawaii for the most part.  Most of the Pineapples eaten now come from Central and South America.  I ate some yummy Pineapple Ice cream with pineapple chunks on it.  I was not going to eat the whole thing, but I did anyway.