At this point I hope it's just a rainy start and not a rainy day. I woke up at 7 to the sound of steady and heavy rain. It rained a bit yesterday afternoon after I arrived here in Na'alehu - of course while I was out walking up the road by the B&B without a jacket. That was light rain, and unfortunately this morning's water from the sky is pretty heavy. It seems like the kind of rain that could continue all day long too. Here's hoping that it doesn't!
9:30am
The rain settled into a light drizzle as I headed from my room to the house for breakfast. (Most of the rooms here are under the main house looking out on grass and then the orchard - but you have to walk around the house to get into the main house.) Breakfast was delicious - french toast made from Portugese sweet bread that Charlene baked yesterday. After breakfast we were offered a tour of the orchard, and of course I said yes. Charlene said she would stop by for us on the lower level, so I headed back to the room for the designated 5 minutes. Of course as soon as I got down here the skies opened up again. So I am sitting on the swinging lounge just outside of my room watching the rain. The sky seems to be getting lighter again, and the rain also seems to be a bit lighter - but that could be my imagination at work. There are worse places to be on a rainy day though, and since my planned trek to the green sand beach - a couple of miles walking from South Point - isn't an all day activity I'm hoping that the weather decides to cooperate a bit and that I can manage that trek in conditions that don't include an absolute downpour! I think that my last minute purchase of essentially a dry-bag (a very cool bag made by a company called AQUAPAC) for my camera may actually be needed today.
A quick change of plans - the other guests preferred not to do the orchard tour in the rain, so we've moved it to tomorrow morning. No problem, that works for me too. Charlene joined me on the porch swing / lounge outside of my room and we chatted for a good hour and a half. A nice way to spend a rainy morning. And no, we weren't sitting in the rain. Not only does the lounge have a cloth roof, it's also under the upstairs deck - so no moisture came through.
I found it interesting that the other guests here are all staying at Macademia Meadows B&B for the better part of a week. They are driving to the things they want to see and do each day and then driving back here at night. For example, one couple went up to Volcanoes National Park yesterday to hike, and today they are headed north of Kona to find a place to snorkel. While there are beaches here in the southern part of the island, the waves are extremely strong and they are not ideal for snorkeling. Volcano is 40-some miles from here - 2 ways, add more mileage for a trip around the crater or down Chain of Craters road. And Kona is between 50 and 60 miles away. All things considered, the distances aren't too bad - but I'm much happier with my bicycle touring-influenced plans of driving someplace, then wandering close by during the day rather than driving the kind of distances my fellow guests are driving every day. And yes, I know that I drive that kind of distances all of the time at home, but the thought of spending lots of time driving when I could be hiking or relaxing just doesn't sit well with me. (What? This from that crazy gal who would happily sit on her bicycle all day to get from place to place?) You could say that I'm happy with my decision to stay 2 nights in each place (only 1 in Hilo) and be relatively close to my planned spot or activity of the day.
5:15pm
As it turns out, I was very lucky today. After my relaxing morning I headed out to South Point. It wasn't raining when I left, but I passed through some rain on the way there. It stopped though, so I wasn't destined to spend the entire hike in a downpour. There were sprinkles coming from the sky occasionally, but not enough to even warrant a jacket. And it absolutely poured for a while on the drive back. I don't know if that was luck or if it didn't rain between South Point and the green sand beach. I suspect that it rained there too, but you never know.
I've been told that the distance from the parking area to the green sand beach is two and a half miles. It sure seemed longer than that though. The trail is well marked since folks tend to drive out there with 4-wheel drive vehicles. And once a track gets too rutted they start a new one.That made for easy walking with no direction-finding, but it seems that the land would be better with no vehicles allowed to cause their own form of erosion. When I got to the parking lot there was a couple just returning to their car. I talked to them for a minute, and they told me that the beach was less than 5 minutes away. I guess they thought they went to the green sand beach but they only walked to the local boat landing. I wonder how often that happens.
But back to the walk... it's very possible that the reason the walk out felt longer than it actually was is that there was a strong headwind the entire way. (Based on information from my hosts, the wind here consistently blows at least 19 to 20 miles per hour - and that's on the quiet days.) And even though the wind was behind me on the way out it was still a long walk. It was absolutely beautiful though. And it probably helped me that it remained cloudy - although still bright enough to require sunglasses - for the entire time. I have a feeling that a sunny day would have made the walk more difficult. The green sand beach is a low spot between two cliffs. Although there was a very steep trail leading to the beach, I chose to enjoy it from afar. I've never been fond of that type of exposure, and I was very happy with the view from the top - as were two other people I met who were sitting at the top waiting for the rest of their family to return.
A view of the green sand beach - from the top, of course!
I noticed one very strange plant (more likely part of a plant) during my walk. The noticeable thing was bright yellow, an oval shape, with prickers coming out of it, also in bright yellow. A seed pod of some sort? I wonder... I'll either have to remember to ask Charlene if she knows or I'll have to try to do my own research after I get home. I wonder what kind of response I would get if I enter my description into Google. Probably a very strange list...
Here's the yellow seed pod, flower, or ???
There's an old, partially in service, wind farm on the road to South Point. I wonder what the story behind this place is. It seems that this would be a perfect place to generate power from the wind, especially since the wind seems to be always blowing at this southernmost spot in the United States. It appeared that less than half of the wind mills were operational. Some of them were simply frozen in place, and some were missing the fan blades. The ones that were running gave off an eerie sound. And yes, I absolutely did stop the car to listen!
My next stop was at Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. I've been there before, but how could I resist another visit to a beach with pure black sand. Although it's not the color that most of us expect to see on a beach, it's beautiful. Black sand, white breaking waves, black rocks with patches of very green plants and more breaking waves. Wonderful.
Punalu'u Black Sand Beach
The rain? As I sit on the lounge outside of my room in the early evening, the skies have opened up again. I guess I really was lucky today, and I hope that my luck extends into tomorrow too.
Photos for today can be found in my South Point to Punalu’u photo gallery.
