Kona Coast of Hawaii

June 27, 2018

Some things are stressful on a trip, but on a cruise, breakfast is not one of them. We love breakfast together, and the breakfasts on the ship were a delight. We could sit by the window at near water level and watch what was going on. The servers were always very good, and since we got there earlier than most, they had time for conversations with us.

Our overnight journey around the Big Island brought us to Kailua-Kona on the Kona Coast. The ship anchored offshore in this bay. Our plan was different for this day. After three days of exploring in a rental car, we decided to take one of the organized excursions on this day. It was called the "Land and Sea" excursion because part of it was by bus and the other part by boat along the Kona coast.

The other major difference for today was that since there was no dock for the ship to tie up, we were to be transported to shore for the excursions by "tender boat".
These boats were normally suspended above us on the 6th deck. While they would be a part of any rescue effort in case of an emergency, they also had the utility of taking passengers to and from shore in case of offshore anchoring such as we were experiencing.

The tender boats are stored in addition to the conventional lifeboats. Here you can see that one of the tender boats has been lowered, as were several others for this transfer process.

We had breakfast and were ready to disembark at 8:40am after going to our gathering place for the Land and Sea Tour. As usual, we checked out with our ship card in the scanner so they could keep track of who was off and on the ship. But this time we were just going to the edge of the ship to load onto a tender boat.

When our turn came we climbed down the stair to the platform attached to the hull of the ship and got onboard our tender boat.

Having never seen a "tender boat" before, I found the process very interesting. The Captain sat on a high seat and had an opening above him so that he could stand up and look around outside. Having left the side of the huge ship, he met other tender boats as we headed toward the shore. As I recall, we were carrying about 60 passengers in seats. But for emergency use, the boats were capable of carrying 150 persons.

We passed several other tender boats on the way in as the shuttle to shore continued.

This was our docking area in Kailua-Kona. We landed at about 9:20an and proceeded to our tour bus for the "land" portion of our Land and Sea tour.

We landed at the downtown area of Kailua-Kona. This is near the center of the shopping district. The church steeple is that of Mokuaikaua Church, the oldest church on the island. It was founded in 1820 by Asa and Lucy Goodale Thurston who arrived on the brig Thaddeus with the first company of American Christian Missionaries. Construction of this building dates to 1836. The walls are lava rock with coral mortar.

This aerial view shows the dock on which we landed and the area where the bus picked us up for the land part of the excursion. Note the Mokuaikaua Church at the right edge of the photo.

One of the notable historic buildings, the Hulihee Palace, was right by the water near the pier. It was built in the 1800s for royalty, and now is a museum dedicated to preserving Hawaii's unique cultural heritage.

We moved through the nice downtown shopping area and were on our way on the road.

On our way south out of town, we could see our ship anchored out in the bay with lots of little boats around it.

The road ran close to the coast, so we were never far from the surf on this part of the tour.

There were lots of folks relaxing on the beach.

We climbed from the coast road to an upper road and headed back north.

We could see the coast from the upper road, but it was hazy.

This Painted Church was our first real tour stop. This is the St. Benedict Roman Catholic Church, built in 1842 and moved here in the 1880s. Painted Church.

A current member of the church gave its history and current involvements. The paintings with 3D depictions of Bible topics are credited to Belgian priest Father Berchmans Velghe who used them for teaching at a time when most church attenders couldn't read.

I liked wandering the grounds. There was a statue of a Father (1840-1889).

There was a breadfruit tree on the grounds.

I'm pretty sure I've seen this butterfly species in Georgia, and he's sitting on pink Pentas. And what about that honeybee - I wonder when honeybees were introduced into Hawaii?

On the grounds of the Painted Church was a colorful hedge of flowers, so Darla took this picture of us.

Our next stop was a recreated Hawaiian temple in the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park . Brenda among the beautiful palm trees on the shore.

Darla with the beautiful palms of the Kona coast at the park.

This is the reconstructed temple which celebrates Hawaiian history. Jeff and Darla are at about the middle of the crowd.
This is the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Park (go Hawaii).

Rod and Brenda near the temple. We exchanged photography with another couple who was also carrying a big camera.

Brenda by the bay close to the temple.

Brenda by one of the large beautiful palm trees.

We saw a relatively small green turtle in the shallow bay. Certainly small compared to the large ones we saw a Punalo'o yesterday.
This sign on the beach indicates the efforts to protect them.

The palms certainly added beauty to the area.

One of the carved figures for which this park is noted.
From a history blog I got the information that these carvings, called ki'i, "were created by artists in the Kona area of the Big Island during the reign of King Kamehameha I (1782-1819)".

The temple with its abundance of carved figures.

"In old Hawai'i, if you had broken a law, the penalty was death. Perhaps you had entered into an area that was reserved for only the chiefs, or had eaten forbidden foods. Laws, or kapu, governed every aspect of Hawaiian society. The penalty for breaking these laws was certain death. Your only option for survival is to elude your pursuers and reach the nearest pu'uhonua, or place of refuge. As you enter, the great wall rises up before you marking the boundaries between the royal grounds and the sanctuary. Many ki'i (carved wooden images) surround the Hale o Keawe temple, housing the bones of the chiefs that infuse the area with their power or mana. If you reached this sacred place, you would be saved." National Park Service
Brenda with the two carved figures that you see most often in their literature.

Darla with the carved figures on the shore.

Darla by one of the sacred walls, faced with natural volcanic stone and up to 18ft in thickness and 12 ft high. This is a part of what is called "The Great Wall", described in a National Park Service article. It was constructed over 400 years ago.

Jeff between two sections of the massive stone wall structure.

Brenda hanging out with some more carved figures.

Demonstration of the process of drying fronds for the making of grass skirts.

Breadfruit? Gecko?

Weaver of hats from palm fronds. Part of the cultural center here.

A pity that the power lines so mess up the picture, but this is an excellent perspective of the location of the ship offshore from Kailua-Kona and the span of water we had to transit in the tender boats. We were on our way back down to Kailua-Kona to start the ship portion of our excursion.

We boarded the catamaran named Body Glove for the sea portion of our tour.

The tender vessels were still making transfers back and forth from the ship.

We got on board our big catamaran and started out. This is our view of Kailua-Kona from the boat. I was most impressed with that tree! And the people who would preserve it. About 1pm.

From our tour vessel we got this great view of one of our tender boats and the church onshore.

From the boat we got a wide view of the shore around Kailua-Kona.

We passed some zodiac boats out in the bay.

We passed our cruise ship in the bay as they were serving us lunch on the tourboat.

Another zodiac tour group.

We passed a couple of dolphins. Our captain thought they were regular dolphins rather than the spinner dolphins that they see so much around here.

A view from the water of the beach that we had passed earlier on the bus. It was interesting to see the nature of the residential housing up the slope from the beach.

This is certainly living by the sea! You would have the sound of the surf to help you get to sleep at night. From the extreme volcanic blackness of this shore, you wonder where they got that nice sand in the photo above.

Golf course by the sea.

I found the violent wave action against the black volcanic rock ledge on the shore to be extremely fascinating.

If the wave action is this violent on a calm day like today, what is it like during a storm? I loved the wave action.

The road our bus traveled on the land tour was just behind these shore trees.

One more time, as another sample of the endless variety in the wave action.

Our narration on the tour included a lot about Hawaiian folklore and legend, and in that legend this is the face of Pele, the goddess of fire. See links in references below.

These are the kinds of views that will stay in my memory of the Kona Coast: palm trees, black volcanic cliffs at the seaside, and an active, beautiful surf.

At the end of our traverse south down the Kona Coast, there were a number of boats with people watching the dolphins. Apparently a good place for dolphin watching. The Captain mentioned a pod of spinner dolphins that numbered fifty or more.

There was this monument to Captain Cook here, which identified this as Kealakekua Bay. It is 13 miles south of Kailua-Kona, so that established the length of our tour along the Kona Coast. There are a lot of archeological sites there.

I was fortunate to be standing on the front of the boat to watch this dolphin come up in the clear water from about four feet down. He appeared to be just playing with the boat. About 2:30pm.

We returned along the Kona Coast and at about 3:20pm we came alongside our ship with a parasailer above it.

We got to watch them reel in the parasailer onto the back of the small boat.

Many of the tours got back at about the same time, and we were supposed to be back on the ship by five, so there was a big crowd awaiting transport. The line stretched all the way out into the street. The tender boats ran like a trail of ants.

A tender vessel packed and headed for the ship.

They did have to be careful since there were a lot of other boats in the harbor and they were crossing traffic.

The tender vessel approaches the ship and crew members are on the platform to help with boarding the ship.

The tender boat slowly approaches the platform attached to the hull of the ship. Note the empty slots above where other tender boats had been unloaded for this transfer process.

Note the double ladder since they have opened two platforms so that two boats could unload at the same time. This was at 3:30pm and we were next to unload. Jeff and Darla stayed onshore a bit longer and were in the crowd near 5pm.

Enjoying our final views of the Mokuaikaua Church and the town of Kailua-Kona. We had seen quite a variety of settings on the Kona Coast on today's tours.

After a busy day of touring the Kona Coast, we enjoyed dinner together in the Skyline Restaurant.

References:

Pele in Hawaiian legend, wiki

The Legend Behind Hawaii's Goddess of Fire

Pele, Goddess of Fire and Volcanoes

Pele, Goddess of Fire