"Big Island" Hawaii - Day 5: Christmas Day on Waikoloa Beach

Today was perhaps the laziest day we've had so far.  After much discussion, we decided to stay close to home today. Time for the beach!

And so, I woke early, went out for my customary walk to Starbucks to retrieve two Lattes, made some Christmas calls and then headed out to Waikoloa Beach, a short walk from our rented condo.

And there we stayed, for most of the day.  While we were there Naomi and I paid another visit to the turtles the girls saw yesterday. There they were, swimming among shallow coral reefs about 100 yards off the beach.


<--Hilary enjoying the sun, and a good book

The turtles were huge, well over three feet across. You could swim within inches of them as they gently fed near the coral reef among scores of tropical fish, The great sea turtles are so graceful under water, an incredible sight.

<--Naomi, cooling down. It was hot today!


In the meantime, Rebecca found two friends whose families, she discovered happily, were holidaying here on the Island. Mara has been a school friend since she was in elementary school. Aria lives in Seattle, however, both Rebecca and Mara knew her from the summer camp they both attended last year. We left Rebecca with her friends and headed back to the condo to get ready for dinner.

<--Small ponds not far from the ocean, between the beach and the Marriott Hotel.. These lovely ponds, formed naturally from lava, do not communicate directly with the ocean but rise and fall with the tide.  Brimming with life, the salinity is lower than the ocean, which give rise to several unique animal and floral species that can live in these conditions.

Tropical plants growing outside the Marriott

On returning to our condo, however, I had another goal in mind, a visit before sunset to a petroglyph park we had walked past on the way to the beach
today.

View of the lava bed from inside the gated complex where our rented condo is located-->

And so, with Rebecca still with her friends on the beach and Hilary and Noami relaxing at home, I set out again.

What an interesting place.  Like the beach, it is only a few steps away from our condo, along a path known as the King's Trail.  The trail, which was about thirty miles long at one time, connected villages in the South Kohala area.

<--Part of the King's Trail. The stones marking out the sides of the trail helped to keep donkeys from straying off the path.

Carefully preserved remnants of the trail, carved through the lava bed covering the region,  can be found at the entrance to the King's Market, a modern mall that complements the Queen's mall across the street that I walk to in the morning to get my morning latte.  As I started walking along this disty, rough trail, I felt I was being transported back in time. I could not help but wonder about the travelers who have walked this trail for centuries.

Evidence of these travellers remain to this day, in 'C' shaped stone walls that were erected centuries ago as protection from the trade winds. Easily viable from the King's Trail, these structures were less than three feet high.   A sort of 'motel 6', perhaps?  They  complemented natural caves formed out of lava domes, also found nearby.  One wondered how much protection they would really have in a severe storm. These Hawaiians were pretty tough people.

But what was really remarkable were the petroglyphs.  At first I saw only one or two.  Then, as I walked farther along more came into view, until suddenly I was surrounded by literally thousands of stone carvings etched out of solid lava.   These messages clearly meant something to their creators. If only I could understand what they mean.











Though one can speculate, the true meaning of many of the symbols carved into the lava may never be fully known.

<--Cave shelter. At the entrance are hundreds of petroglyphs. Click on the photo to enlarge. 

There are literally thousands of human figures, long rectangles, circles within circles, and small deep holes and many other images etched into the lava bed.  How the holes are used are actually known as part of a custom that is very specific to this lava field.  When a baby was born, the "piko", or umbilical cord, was taken to the lava field.  There, a hole would be carved into the rock and the piko inserted.  It would then be covered with a stone.  If the piko was still there the next day, it was a sign that the child would have a long life.

Click on the photo to enlarge-->

<--Image of a male figure, with "piko" holes set into the stone.  Many holes indicated a large family.  One could imagine Hawaiians coming year after year to this lava bed to perform this ritual as each child was born.

Walking through the petroglyph field, among the many messages hidden these symbols, was a timeless walk through history.  They felt as if they had always been there. Almost certainly some of these carvings were there long before white men came to these islands. They were there at a time when Hawaiian kings ruled these lands, and life was very different from what it is today.   It made me wonder what will future generations think of the history we write now?  Will they feel the same sense of awe and mystery as we feel when walking among these silent stones?  More importantly, what are the stories we will pass to our decedents? 

<--the entrance to our rented condo





I arrived back home to find my girls getting ready for dinner.  I quickly changed and together we went to a lovely Thai restaurant nearby and finished off the day sending out last minute Christmas greetings and watching "Sherlock Holmes" on DVD at home tonight.  So far, it's been a great holiday. I have a feeling that tomorrow, however, will be a highlight of our trip. At last, we're journeying into Hawaii Volcano National Park.