"Big Island" Hawaii - Day 4: Christmas Eve in Hawi

Nativity scene outside the Catholic Church in  Kapaau (Hawi), where I cycled to this afternoon-->

It's Christmas Eve today, and so to our Christian friends and my family, we wish you a VERY merry Christmas.

We're definitely not having a 'white' Christmas here in Hawaii. But I hear snow in Vancouver may be on the way by the time we come home next week, so perhaps we'll postpone that nostalgic encounter.

<--early morning, just after sunrise outside our rented condo in Waikoloa Beach

In the meantime, we returned our rather costly car to the rental company last night, grateful that we had wheels for the past three days.  So today, no car. But it's no problem, really.

After arriving home after an early morning walk to Starbucks to bring home lattes for Hilary and I, (a holiday ritual),  the girls headed to Waikoloa beach today, a short walk from the condo, for a day in the sun.

And I headed north, retracing our drive the night before to  Kapaau (Hawi), using the only wheels available to us now... my rented Cannondale bike.

For the first time of our stay in Hawaii, it was a sun-filled day. And HOT.  I drained five water bottles filled with electrolyte for my three and a half hour, 95 km return ride.

My route, recorded by my bike's GPS unit. Click on the image to enlarge-->

<--For more details, click here . 

What a ride!  No wonder the highway between Kona and Hawi was chosen to be the route for the annual Kona World Championship Ironman competition.  The scenery was spectacular. When you are riding at 30 kph, the world around appears to be a much different place than travelling in a car.

We visited this park, the site of an ancient Hawaiian village on the beach, on Day 2 of our visit-->

<--note how lush and green this area is compared to the previous photo, taken less than twenty miles away. 


There's time to savor the countryside, take photos, and see details that are often missed when whizzing along at 80kpm in a car.

Many of the older homes on the Island, dating back to surgar cane and coffee plantation days, still have tin roofs. You can imagine what that must sound like in the middle of the night during a heavy rain storm!-->

And then there's the wonderful feeling of conquering a hill, then flying down it at breakneck speed to the next one. 

The Big Island is especially interesting in that although it is only 97 miles long and 80 miles wide, it has eleven geographically distinct micro-climates, ranging from desert-like areas to tropical rain-forest, to occasional snow at the top of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.  I passed through at least three.

Wind turbines on Upolu Point, just outside of Hawi-->

Electricity on the Island is expensive, making solar and wind power attractive.  Apparently, Upolu Point is one of the best places in the US to build a wind farm. Wind blows constantly there, about 70 percent of the time.  Completed in 2006, these turbines create 10.6 Megawatts of electricity.  Combined, wind power contributes about seven percent the island's energy needs. Other electricity sources, including geothermal energy (20%) and solar energy make up about 35% of Hawaii's energy needs. The rest, which Hawaii is trying to become less dependent on, comes from imported petroleum.

<--Sign at the entrance of the village of Hawi

Unfortunately, I had a late start, leaving at 12:30 PM, the hottest time of the day. But I made it to Hawi, part of North Kohala, with just enough time to wolf down a cinnamon bun at the local coffee shop, fill my water bottles with Gatorade, and head back home before sunset.












I made it just ten minutes before Hilary and the girls arrived home, and well before the sun went down.  It was a nice feeling of accomplishment. I've now cycled the entire Kona Ironman bike route, stretching from Kona to Waikoloa (which I did two days ago), and on to Hawi, my destination today.

In the meantime, Hilary and the girls had their own adventures on Waikoloa Beach.  Amazingly, they told me that there was absolutely no need for us to have traveled to Kona to visit that lonesome turtle yesterday.  There were several right on the beach where they were today, a short walk from our condo!  

Here's the girl's story, told by Naomi:
Today we decided that we would not spend the whole day in the air conditioned stuffy car.  Instead, mom, Becca and I went to the beach while dad went for a ride in the baking heat (coming back very very sweaty and disgusting :).   Note from Dad:  so THAT's why everyone was so anxious for me to be the first into the shower!!!  :-)))

We had a lot of fun at the beach. When we got there, we went on a hunt for three chairs in the shade...it was too hot in the sun. Eventually, mom got this brilliant idea of going out on a kayak to cool down. We were on the kayak out on the water for about half an hour which, since it is us, is pretty good. After the short but pleasant kayak trip, we went back to our chairs and read for a little bit. Then, I got super bored and asked mom and Becca if they wanted to play cards. Fortunately for me, they agreed and played cuncan (Grandma and Grandpa, is that how you spell 'cuncan'?).

After a few rounds, with Becca winning two, me winning three and mom winning one, Becca and I left mom and went snorkeling. We saw a few small bright coloured, shy fish (not like the fish you see in Lilo and Stich).

Concluding our day at the beach, mom, Becca and I found out that there were turtles at the beach!!! Becca stayed behind and read as mom and I walked down to find the turtles. 

Two of them were chilling on the shore and was posing for pictures as another one was swimming in the ocean coming into shore.




Then, mom and I walked back to Becca and then mom and Becca left me and went to see the turtles again.

At the end of our pleasant yet short day at the beach, we went back to the condos, showered off, and then went for dinner at a delicious Japanese restaurant. After our dinner, we went to the grocery store and rented a hilarious movie called 'Grown Ups'. Now we are settling down and slowly getting ready for bed. 


Tomorrow we are going to have another relaxing day and then on Sunday (I think) we are going on a full day volcano and waterfall tour!


Goodnight. We are sad to see our holiday coming to a close, Naomi