Rainbow Falls

When we left the town of Volcano, on the big island, right near Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, we drove to the town of Hilo on the east side of the island.  There we found Rainbow Falls which is 80 feet tall and pours into a pool below.  It is surrounded by vegetation that strangely enough, is not tropical, according to Wikipedia. It is a beautiful falls, but there was no sign of any rainbows.  We were there in the afternoon, and I am thinking that you would have to be there in the morning when the sun was shining on the falls.  Man, there are photographs at every turn in this landscape.

Along the South Shore of Oahau

We spent much of one day visiting sites and beaches on the southeast coast of the island of Oahau, which is the island that Honolulu is located on.  This first photograph shows the magnificent landscape and the two kinds of coast there, as seen from Halona Cove..  In the foreground is the coastline formed by lava flows.  In the distance is a beautiful sand beach at Sandy Beach Park.  Sandy Beach Park is a well known body surfing beach because of the waves there.  The waves, however, are really tricky, and dangerous.  That beach is informally known as "Break Neck Beach" and people have been disabled and even killed there, when they were dumped on their heads on the beach, by a wave.

This is a view of an area at Halona Blowhole Lookout.  At first I thought these towers of rocks were some kind of natural erosion, but then I realized that they are cairns - stones piled like this by people.  This is an area where waves crash all the time, so  I am not sure how long the cairns last.  It is such a strange kind of landscape to see these towers on the edge of the lava.

And this is the main attraction - the blowhole.  You can watch this for a long time, waiting for the perfect wave pattern to arrive so that water and wind is forced up through the blowhole and you are rewarded with this really cool effect!

In the Mist and Fog

On the day we visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, we had mist and drizzle and rain off and on all day.  We had bought some clear plastic raincoats to wear to keep us dry.   We were driving on Chain of Craters Road (more on that later) and we would stop and investigate craters and lava flows along the way.  I happened to be following Amy as she made it along this pathway to investigate a cinder cone and photograph it.  I love how she almost blends into the fog in the distance.

Sugar Cane

This is the last sugar cane mill on Maui, which closed about a year ago.  Sugar cane was once the most important crop on Maui.  Polynesian settlers introduced sugar cane to Hawaii more than one thousand years ago but at the time they just chewed the stalks.  They started making sugar in 1835 when the first successful plantation was established on the island of Kauai.  I passed this plant on two occasions - coming from the airport and going to the airport four days later.  I could have spent half the day here photographing this abandoned plant!  Instead I had to grab a few shots out the window as we drove by.  There is a sugar museum across the street from this plant and I would have loved to see that as well.   You should know that when the plant was operating, smoke poured from the stacks in the picture.  And as part of the process, the sugar cane fields are burned after the harvest, and people hated the smoke from the fires that made some homes unlivable during the burning.

How to Photograph a Tree

We went to a beautiful beach to do some snorkeling - Amy found that it was listed as one of the best snorkeling beaches in Hawaii.  When we arrived at the beach, I immediately noticed this sun bleached silver tree at one end of the beach.  I immediately started photographing it as the light changed and I tried different compositions.  I started with wide views and then moved in closer.  Two days later we came back for more swimming and things were different, so I took even more photographs. So here are four of the variations - you can pick your favorite.  And please let me know.

Above The Beach

The ladies were downtown shopping in Honolulu, and I was on my way to hike the trail to the top of Diamondhead.  Only it was closed because they were repairing a rockfall on the trail.  Earlier I had driven by a lighthouse on a cliff, so I went to try and photograph the lighthouse.  What I discovered was that when I stood on the cliff by the lighthouse, I could see a beautiful beach about two hundred feet below.

So I saw some people walking down a trail, and I followed them down to the beach.  There were a number of people down there, some sunbathing and some getting ready to surf.

This surfer with his board stood here for perhaps 5 or 10 minutes while he carefully studied the water and the surf, before he put his board in the water and paddled out.

I walked along the beach to try and get closer to the lighthouse, but this was the best view I could get.

And this is a view of the landscape at the bottom of the hill.  I love the neutral brown colors and the faint green color in the distance.

Eats

I have written about and showed you the shrimp truck.  So this is everyone eating the shrimp from the truck.  See all those smiles?  That was some awesome Louisana style spicy shrimp!  There are a couple of picnic tables set up near the truck so people can sit and enjoy their meal.

This is everyone, getting ready to eat again!  Maybe 20 miles or so after the shrimp, we stopped at a collection of maybe 10 food trucks.  That's where I found my wonderful Kona Mocha Latte.  Here everyone is quizzing the coffee merchant before ordering their drinks.