Catching up

So, this is going to be a bit of a catch up blog because I haven’t had internet to compose a proper blog lately. Everything is documented in the photos which I will make links to below. Enjoy


Saturday
Ok, so this must first be prefaced with Friday night. Bonnie returned home from the airport but I managed to not see her for quite a while because we kept walking in circles around the farm. Then Travis got the call he had been waiting for from his grandfather who lives on Kauai. Something out of the ordinary was happening over there so he really wanted to go visit and finally was given an invitation to do so. So then Travis set about booking his ticket to fly over there the next day. I helped label and package the bananas we dried and then scooped a lot of lilikoi. Bonnie was trying to get ready for the farmer’s market the next day but the excitement over the trip seemed to get in the way of getting things done. Anyway, I got dismissed and then Saturday we set out early to the farmer’s market. We left a bit later than usual because I wasn’t told that I didn’t need to clean out the chickens’ water containers on market mornings. The market was in a parking lot in Kona but had quite a few vendors. This is the only market that really enforces that everything sold comes from the farm (no random jewelry/knick-knack vendors) and everyone seemed to have high quality stuff. I learned the proper ways for setting up everything at the market and impressed people that I already knew how to tie a clove hitch knot (thank you TFT). I need to work on my salesmanship but the market went well. Good mix of tourists and locals who wandered through. I got to go do some shopping at the grocery store and also went to CVS to get some bug itch cream. When we were done, we took Travis to the airport so that he could fly away and then we headed home. I did my laundry and Travis paid me $5 to do his laundry so that it wouldn’t mildew while he was gone. His 19 year old judgment isn’t always so sound, which may have added to my confusion the first few days.

Sunday
Sunday and Monday were declared my days off so I was told to go explore and do something on my own. In the morning on Sunday we went to another farmers market to get some produce and to scope out the prices/selection. Then Bonnie dropped me off at the trailhead for the Captain Cook monument. This is a 2 mile, 1300 foot drop from the top of the mountain down to the monument at the ocean. There was quite a variety of vegetation along the trail, as documented in my pictures, but the trip down went pretty quickly. When I got to the monument there were kayakers and snorkelers everywhere. Apparently that area has some of the best coral reefs in the state. I could see the fish from standing at the edge of the water. The shoreline also had lots of lava rocks with tidepools so I decided to go exploring. I figured out very quickly that porous igneous rocks are VERY slippery so I was being extremely cautious and slow climbing around on the rocks. The guidebook that I looked at mentioned that it was possible to walk around the bay but after slipping going 20 feet, I decided to explore just in that area and then go back up the trail. As I was wandering around and avoiding the kayakers who were getting chastised for bringing their boats ashore (you have to have a permit), I wandered out onto a lava promontory. To get to this you had to step across a channel of water, which is not a difficult task. However, my leading leg slipped when I stepped out and so I slid/fell and slammed my cheekbone into the rock. As far as I can tell, my leading leg extended completely until it hit the bottom and my head went WHAM into the rock. I really don’t know how I actually climbed out of that but I did and discovered that my hat fell off and my cheek was bleeding. I also immediately realized that I had a terrible hangnail on my thumb and decided to deal with that first which bled unnecessarily and distracted my very rattled brain. I managed to get off the little island I was on and then climbed to some dry rocks and ate my sandwich. My sleeve got all wet, my knee and forearm were scraped, and I am definitely still developing a nice bruise on my cheek. But anyway, this somewhat discouraged my interests in tidepooling so I started my walk back up the trail.
My whole goal with this was to get to the beach, which I could see on the other side of the bay, so that became my new objective. So I hiked up the trail (1300 feet, 2 more miles) and then came down Napoopoo road (which should be punctuated as Napo’opo’o). This is a very long and winding road and the mile markers helped me see how far I had gone. Now, when I was getting ready to go tidepooling, I switched into my running shorts, which are short, and was still wearing these as I walked down the mountain. The backs of both my thighs were covered in huge, swollen mosquito bites and I even had two bites/stings that looked like a pair of octopus tentacles. As I walked, my skin paled but all my welts became brighter red. I didn’t realize this until I made it most of the way down the mountain when I turned and looked at my legs and said “Eeww, gross.” I felt like quite a leper walking around and I heard someone in a car going by say eew. However, if I were wearing longer pants (which I did have) then my dignity would have been saved but all the bites would have been conveniently itched for me. I opted to go on and then, at the bottom of the mountain, decided that it wasn’t worth going all the way over to that beach. Swimming in the ocean where there are lots of rocks just isn’t that fun and it would have been an extra mile there and back to get there. So I went to Napoopoo beach, which used to be a beach but a hurricane took away all the sand. Now it is a big pile of rocks, so I rested there and ate a wrap that I got at a shack along the way. Finally, with food in my brain, I walked back up the mountain (1000 feet) to the farm. In total, I walked about 10+ miles, and covered quite a lot of elevation change. When I got back, I found Bonnie and asked her if she needed help with anything on Monday. She said that she wanted me to have a day off and recommended that I go to the other sandy beach in the area. This beach is 6 miles away along the highway, but I plotted out a route on my phone that I could walk that was more scenic but was 8 miles away. And so I nursed my minor blisters and got ready for the next day’s adventures.

Monday
So I started out early (8am) and followed my plotted out path to this beach. Along the way I took a road which is well known for being the flattest road in the area. Then this road ran into the highway which did an S squiggle to make it down the mountain. According to Google maps, there was a road that cut straight through the squiggle, making it much faster for me to get down the mountain to my next route. The first part of the shortcut was fine, going past a rodeo center and a barking dog. Then I reach the highway and tried to take the next shortcut, but someone had fenced off this segment of the road, leaving only the stop sign and double yellow lines visible to prove that it used to be a road. And so I had to walk along the highway through the lower part of the S squiggle. At the bottom I entered Pu’uhonua O Honaunau, which is a national historical site. It was neat to wander around and see the interesting statues and such. You also could wander out onto the lava (this was much less slippery) and look into the water. This is supposedly an area with a lot of sea turtles and I did see a few but they weren’t doing anything terribly exciting. The sun was out while I was there so I did get to see the ocean look some amazing colors. I wandered back and found the 1871 trail, which was one of the original trails that the Native Hawaiians used to get around the island. It was well defined and rather nice, but the surface of the trail was incredibly rocky. It wound past some amazing vistas of the ocean and some precarious ocean cliffs. Once I got to the south edge of the park I had to let myself through a little gate but the path continued on, still being very well maintained and clear. I even found the most amazing composting toilet out here in this netherland. So this continued for quite a long time and I was starting to get more blisters on my feet, and was walking differently to compensate for those blisters, thereby starting to give myself more blisters.
Finally, I arrived at Hookena and found only lava rock tide pools again. This was making me quite annoyed but fortunately, Google Maps served me well and I kept walking and finally found the beach. The beach was full of people, with their coolers and their towels and their boogie boards. While I ate my lunch I got to observe some very interesting people: the older guy with the Hawaiian islands tattooed across his chest grilling hotdogs, the dad trying to set up a two room tent with his teenage daughter and her friend standing around in their bikinis holding parts of the tent up but not really helping at all with anything, the 30 year old guy who spent about 5 minutes rinsing off in the shower and really getting the sand out of every place in his shorts while staring at the tent girls, and the middle aged lady smoking her cigarette while trying to take a picture of the other two ladies sun bathing who definitely wanted nothing to do with her. So anyway, I changed into my bathing suit and went into the waves for a bit. There definitely weren’t as many rocks here but there still were those landmines that I didn’t want to get thrown into. I found a flat place of sand farther out and was able to jump with a few of the waves. The beach really wasn’t too impressive, but could be a nicer place to be if there weren’t as many people there. Anyway, it was almost 2 and I figured I had better be starting my long walk home. I did my best to keep the sand out of my blisters and walked along the shore back. I saw two turtles splashing around and then got back on my ancient trail. The sky started spitting on me as I walked but I had no choice but to keep going. As I headed back up the highway, the rain started coming a bit harder and by the time I was on the flat road, I really got dumped on. It did finish by the time I got back to the farm at 5:30, making my total trip a 9.5 hour, 16 mile adventure, but I was soaking wet. I had blisters on both my feet and my whole calf was swollen with a rash from the mosquito bites. Bonnie said that Hookena is the best beach in the area, which made me question the quality of these “Hawaiian beaches.” I showed her my bug bites too, which were looking pretty nasty after the long walk.

Tuesday
So today was judgment day as it was the first day I was doing farm work for Bonnie and was a trial to see if I could survive much longer with my insect reactions. The first thing I did was walk around the entire perimeter of the farm spraying an organic molasses mixture that dehydrates and kills fruit flies. Consequently, this also attracts mosquitos so now I have bites on my ear and my other cheek and all over the 6 inches of skin that I was showing on my wrists. Then I got to finish weeding my pineapple patch and was able to get a picture of all my work. Now that Bonnie is back, she has been able to mow the grasses all over the farm and has begun to churn up the banana leaves into compost. I then got to rake up the leaves and get some other leaves ready to be mulched. In the mean time, some ladies who are doing science research on infected coffee plants came by and so Bonnie was busy giving them a tour and looking at all the coffee plants. Because I had no other instructions, I weeded the vegetable garden for a while and then was given another area to weed too. I let Bonnie know that things weren’t working out well and so after I was done working I went back to my tent to research other farms with fewer mosquitos. Right now I must say that I feel like the step-mother in Parent Trap when they torture her while they go camping. The work/free time arrangement also isn’t quite working for me. In all the places in New Zealand, I was part of the farm family and did jobs that needed to be done and stopped when I was finished. This farm (and most of them on this island) have very set work/break times and don’t want you to help or do anything for the rest of the time. I’ve offered and been refused. This place is exactly as she described it and I thought it would work, but it turns out that this is not the right kind of farm for me.
So, I have found a place, on the other side of the island, which is more like my New Zealand farm experiences. They have little/no mosquitos because they are one a ridge and get a breeze. They are a family that grows veggies and sells them in their stand along the road which is popular with tourists. I will be staying in a cabin with electricity and internet and eating meals with the family rather than buying my own food and cooking on my own. And I’ve been told that I’ll know I’m at their farm because there is a rainbow over the entrance. This sounds very exciting to me and I do hope that this new experience is much better than my current one. Getting on the bus at 6am tomorrow. No reason to stay around here any longer. Let’s see how loud the rats are tonight as they chew on their macadamia nuts in my roof.

Link to Sunday's Pictures
Link to Monday's Pictures
Link to Tuesday's Pictures