Not but maybe 100 yards from the Pu’ukohola Heiau is a beautiful beach park with granular light sand, shallow water, small waves and beautful coral. There are camping spots and activities such as volleyball court and hoops to make this an ideal spot for a reunion picknic or camping weekend. We enjoyed the waves but I couldn’t get out of my head that all those reef sharks were just to the side of us still in sight (although we didn’t see any we were told they were there and I believe the park rangers) so we didn’t swim too far from shore.
We enjoyed the drive home checking out the dramatic shoreline of the the northern tip of the island and just down the eastern edge of the tip. So beautiful we can’t wait to go back and hike it.
The drive was so green . We were welcomed from the dry side side of the island to the wet by a beautiful rainbow.
We learned that the annual rainfall at the Heiau was 9″ per year so out of curiosity we looked it up for the rainy side, Kurtistown, which is where we live.
I share this because you can go on line and listen to the history for yourself it is pretty interesting.
The reef here is full of reef sharks we watched for them but did not see any. Supposedly they are easy to spot in the morning their black triangular dorsal fin moving above the water.
This calm child friendly beach was our pick to try out for Saturday. Actually we were going to go to the last National park on the island but for got our pass, so that will just have to wait. This beach is shallow a long ways out we kept an eye on the kids but didn’t have to stay at arms length. We played for several hours until a little guy got stung by a Portugese Man of War (like a jelly fish but not) they came in with the tide. Chad got stung on the back of his leg too so we called it a day and headed home. It was calm and restful. We stopped at the Waimea park on the way home. It reminded us of the Gilbert House.
We knew we couldn’t stay too late if it was going to take us another 2.5 hours to get out so we cut it short about 3:30pm. A guy who had offered us a ride in offered us a ride out and this time we took him up on it. He was a life saver as we were all hot and tired. We got home I time to have pizza for dinner. Thank you nice man. We apriciate you so much.
We found a washed up coconut and Chad managed to break into it with his knife. It was perfect, the agua de coco was clear and refreshing, the meat was soft and disappeared quickly as everyone dug in and devoured it.
The kids descovered a handful of hermit crabs that kept their attention until it was time to go.
There was at least one humpback whale breaching and blowing half the distance from the rock barrior to the penensula beyond we loved just sitting there watching him as the kids played. Had it not been getting dark we could have stayed a few more hours just watching. It was dark when we got home so we had to catch some frogs before heading to bed.
We pass this Macadamia nut plantation/processing factory everytime we drive into Hilo. Today we got to stop and check it out. There was a self guided tour which was pretty interesting and offered in five different languages you just have to push the button with the coresponding countries flag. We learned that you need three hundred pounds per square inch to crack a macadamia nut shell. In the days before automated machines of every kind macadamia nuts were cracked by driving over them in a car. Now they have flat presses. We enjoyed the three mile drive into the visitor center and the lovely 2,500 acher farm that boasted 250,000 trees that produce delicious macadamia nuts. The nuts them selves were delicious enough, but it was fun trying all the many flavors and picking out a few to take home with us for later snacks.
Which they are still going strong and we are nearly to midweek. 
The market closes at 2:00pm so really there was only time for a quick dash through. Then on to snorkeling at Kapoho Tide pools about 40 min. From our house. It is made up of lots of different separated pools with a whole rainbow of colors and types of coral and loads of fun fish.
We swam until late.
The little jungle monkeys at our house. And at work yesterday I got to try a new fruit that was as awesome as it looks.
Owens Endeavors 