A co-worker of Racheal had recommended Ho'okena Beach as a great place to go for camping. Though we didn't bring any camping gear here, we decided to check it out anyway. It's on the southwest side of the island and 2 miles off the main road. The 2 miles consist of a narrow "2 laned" road that switchbacks all the way down to the ocean. We had went there awhile ago on one of our first drives to Kona and decided to go down last weekend again to let the kids "burn off some energy". And boy are we glad we did.
The sand is a grayish color with a mixture of white and black sand but it is fine and soft. Henry loved digging in the sand and making a sand castle. Anika enjoyed searching for shells and looking for small hermit crabs. She caught 3 of them in the strainer and liked watching them try to climb out. She put them in the water still in the strainer and claimed that they were wrestling. Then she proceeded to make them their own aquarium adding little shells/rocks and sand.
I think they would have been fine staying there all day instead of just the hour we were there. We will definitely go back and frolic there again.
Here at Pu'uhonua o Hōnaunau (Place of Refuge) National Park, the kids are sitting on what was described by Mark Twain as the favorite place for the local chief to sit and contemplate. The holes in the rock could at one time have been used to house sticks that held up a canopy for shade.
On display at the Jaggar Museum overlooking the Kiluaea Caldera are some impressive paintings depicting Pele. All paintings by Herb Kane.
The Nene, also known as Nēnē and Hawaiian Goose, (Branta sandvicensis) is a species of goose endemic to the Hawaiian Islands. It became the official bird of the state of Hawai’i in 1957. The Nene is exclusively found in the wild on the islands of Maui, Kaua’i and Hawai’i. The Hawaiian name Nēnē comes from its soft call.
According to the Hawai’i Audubon Society, the Nene, currently on the Federal List of Endangered Species, is threatened today by introduced mongooses and feral dogs and cats which relentlessly prey upon the Nene’s eggs and young. Preservation efforts are continuing and the success of the Nene in Hawai’i, although not a certainty, is promising. There are now about 800 wild Nene in Hawai’i and the numbers are rising with each breeding season.
We were able to see the Nene at the zoo outside of Hilo and many of these Nene crossing signs. However, we had never seen one along the road. We wondered if they really did exist until this last weekend while driving to the dry side on Hwy 11. Racheal spotted it out the window and had to get a picture to capture the state birds along the way.
