Hoku‘ula - the site of a battle between the Kingdoms of Maui and Hawaii, circa 1650 A.D

After finally capturing a photo of Hoku‘ula on a sunny afternoon, I wanted to learn more about this iconic Waimea landmark’s place in local history. A Google search led me to the Waimea Community Association’s Waimea place names list and I realized that what I really needed was to find a map that would give me some perspective on exactly where all the hills mentioned in the list are located. But where to find such a map?

Anna Ranch Discovery Trail Interpretive Signs

Over the last two years, I’ve had a few opportunities to talk with Kay Kammerzell, Executive Director of Anna Ranch Heritage Center (who I met when working on this ‘Ranching in Hawaii’ post), about her plans for the Anna Ranch Discovery Trail. When I started looking for information about Waimea’s pu‘u yesterday, I was excited to discover a photo gallery of interpretive signs created for the Discovery Trail, hopefully a good indication that plans for the trail are moving forward! The gallery includes the image below, exactly what I was looking for to help me get a better understanding of where the pu‘u are located in proximity to each other and to learn more about their place in the legends and history of South Kohala:

Click this image to view a large version of 'The Pu‘u (Hills) of Waimea'

Red Rain = Red Water?

One of the signs, #6, mentions a “fine red rain” falling on Hoku‘ula. My next quest will be to find out more about this “red rain” and how it might tie into Waimea’s “red water.” If anyone knows where I can find good information about that, please let me know and I will add links here.

Hoku‘ula in Hawaiian History

Read about ‘The Hill of Hoku‘ula’ and the war between the Kingdom of Hawaii and the Kingdom of Maui (PDF – see pg 14)

Hoku‘ula (Buster Brown Hill) During World War II

It was not all beer and skittles for Marines in Waimea. Forced marches and incessant drills were the order of the day. They hewed and slashed their way through thick underbrush and tramped over raw lava in North Kohala. They toted full ‘packs and rifles up steep Buster Brown Hill, that flanks Waimea, on the double. Dietz said he hated that “damned pu‘u” for officers watched below and woe betide the Marine who dropped any of his gear. It simply meant an immediate return trip on the run.

Source: the Camp Tarawa Memorial website

The Agapanthus is commonly known as the "Blue Lily," the "African Lily" or "Lily of the Nile"

Agapanthus – The Flower of Love?

The beautiful blue flower pictured above is growing by the sidewalk on the grounds of Kamuela’s North Hawaii Community Hospital. A few days ago, I asked someone who knows about these things what kind of flower it is and was informed that it is an Agapanthus, a perennial that seems to thrive in the climate of upcountry Waimea.

According to one website, because the flower’s name comes from two Greek words:  ἀγάπη (agape – which means “love”) and ἄνθος (anthos – which means “flower”), the Agapanthus is sometimes called “the flower of love.” Other common names for the Agapanthus are Lily of the Nile, African Lily and Blue Lily (even though it is not really a lily, it is not native to the area around the Nile, and it can range in color from white to blue to indigo).

To the Source – On a Walk in Africa

A bee on the Agapanthus above

While searching for information about the region where the flower is endemic (southern Africa), I came across a blog called “Walk in Africa” that has this great photo of an Agapanthus africanus growing in a rock fissure on Table Mountain.

The blog also has a post with photos of other flowers growing on the mountain. Big Islanders will recognize the Protea and there are a few varieties of orchids featured as well (very familiar to those of us who call the Orchid Isle home).

After discovering the “Walk in Africa” blog, I’ve added hiking Table Mountain and taking a photo of an Agapanthus in its native habitat to the list of things I’d love to do… someday. In the meantime, I’ll continue to admire the Agapanthus flowers growing around Waimea when I’m out for my run.

Learn More

If botany, plant morphology or vocabulary is your thing, you may already know what an Agapanthus umbel is. If umbel is an unfamiliar term, here’s a definition from dictionary.com:

A Spider Lily's umbel

Umbel: Flat or rounded indeterminate inflorescence in which the individual flower stalks (called pedicels) arise from about the same point on the stem at the tip of the peduncle. The geranium, milkweed, and onion have umbels. Umbels usually show centripetal inflorescence, with the lower or outer flowers blooming first.

(Translation: the flower looks like an umbrella.)

More?

You might enjoy scanning Agapanthus: A Revision of the Genus (start on page 37).

Spider Lily photo courtesy Claudia Meyer

Waimea's Church Row Park Cherry Trees

In early February, Church Row, one of the Big Island’s treasured historic sites, was host to the annual Waimea Cherry Blossom Heritage Festival, which celebrates the centuries-old Japanese tradition of hanami, or cherry blossom viewing.

Unfortunately, I missed the festival last month, but, since moving into Waimea town, I have been walking by Church Row several times each week on my way toward Parker Ranch Center where I start my Ala Ohia run.

Seeing the cherry trees in bloom at such close proximity over these last few weeks has made me more curious about them. Who planted them? Why? What happens after the blossoms fall? How many different kinds of cherry trees are there?

Hanami: Recognizing Transience

A fascinating NPR article posted earlier this week (about hanami in Japan after the tsunami) prompted me to think more about why the blossoming of the cherry trees seems to strike such an emotional chord with those who view them. The article says this about the significance of the cherry blossom in Japanese culture:

“The blossoms are heavy, and they fall to the ground soon after they bloom,” says James Ulak, senior curator of Japanese art at the Freer Gallery and the Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. “Japanese poets from early on took this as analogous to the ephemerality of life, … and this blended with a strong Buddhist notion of transience: things are passing, nothing is permanent.”

The pieces of art pictured in the NPR post are beautifully evocative. I encourage you to take a few minutes to listen to the interview and to look at the large versions of the images if you haven’t seen the article already.

Sakura: Flowering Cherry Blossom Trees

Fruit on one Waimea cherry tree

This weekend, when I noticed that some of the trees I pass along the road here in Waimea have lost their blossoms and are producing fruit, I also wondered whether these are ornamental trees or whether the fruit would be edible.

(Have I mentioned that I’m not really much of a gardener? And that I missed the Cherry Blossom Festival where, as I understand it, information about the Waimea trees was available?)

A bit of research led me to this, from the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii’s website:

According to Jack Tsujihara, … president of Wahiawa Nikkei Civic Association, sakura or cherry blossom trees are very temperamental. They grow in cold climates and require a lot of sunshine, space, rain and breeze. The flowers bloom when a cold spell (45 degrees or lower) is followed by a warm spell.

The sakura in Waimea are all along Church Row Park. The first trees (three to be exact) were planted in 1953 in honor of Fred Makino of the Hawaii Hochi by his widow. These trees are the Formosan cherry trees, which produce flowers but no fruit.

Parker Ranch gardener Isami Ishihara later propagated more trees and in 1972, the Waimea Lions Club planted 20 trees. In 1975, the Lions planted 50 more in honor of Emperor Hirohito’s visit as well as the centennial celebration of Japanese immigration to Waimea.

So, there’s the answer, at least in part (I’m not 100% sure if all the trees I see in Waimea are the same type and I’m assuming that “no fruit” in the excerpt above means “no edible fruit”).

A “flowering” cherry, the Formosan cherry tree, with its rosy-pink flowers, is also known as the Taiwan cherry, bell cherry, or more officially as Prunus campanulata, a variety that can thrive in warmer climates better than others, according to this gardening site which also lists several other types of cherry trees.

Learn More

Below the following photo from Church Row Park are a number of links for more information about Washington, D.C’s cherry trees and the National Cherry Blossom Festival as well as a link to an old Waimea Gazette article about one of Church Row’s historic churches.

If you know of other resources with more information about the history of Waimea’s cherry trees or Church Row, I’d love it if you would leave links/suggestions in the comments section.

A closer view of a few of the Waimea Church Row Park cherry trees and the Green Church

From National Public Radio:

• Japan’s Cherry Blossoms in Brief, Beautiful Bloom
• How D.C’s Cherry Blossoms Almost Didn’t Bloom

From U.S National Park Service:

• History of the Cherry Trees in Washington, D.C.
• What Types of Cherry Trees are in Washington, D.C.?

From the National Cherry Blossom Festival:

• Upcoming 2012 Centennial Celebration of Tokyo’s 1912 Gift to the U.S.
• Plant a Tree: Purchase from Arbor Day Foundation to Benefit the Festival

From the Waimea Gazette:

• Read about Imiola Church on Waimea’s Church Row
• Read other Waimea Gazette articles about Waimea’s history

I had an opportunity to stay in Kona Bay Estates on Monday and Tuesday night this week while I was working from Clark Realty’s Kona and Keauhou offices. On my first night at the vacation rental, I watched from the back lanai as people walked or jogged past on the low rock wall that separates the property from the shoreline. On the second night, I went out to walk along the wall myself just a few minutes before sunset.

Most of the following 17 (unedited) photos were taken with my Droid phone as I walked from the end of Kona Bay Estates toward “Keiki Beach” and Kona Bay. The last few were taken as I walked back and found a place to sit on the wall to watch a beautiful West Hawaii sunset.

(In the 6th photo you will see the public beach access path. Hawaii law guarantees access to the shoreline below the “upper reaches of the wash of the waves.” More info here.)

View from the Lanai

Not only was the view from along the wall an inspiring (and calming) one, the view from the lanai of the second floor of the house held a few surprises as well. On Wednesday morning, the perfectly timed (20 minutes before my alarm) noise of birds in the palm trees outside woke me to the sight one of the cruise ships that visits the Big Island passing by just past the shoreline. With this to greet me, I wasn’t too upset with the birds.

The ship just after it passed by the lanai of the vacation rental in Kona Bay Estates

The ship stopped here for a while - I could see passengers taking photos of Kona Bay

Plan a Visit 0r Buy a Home

If you are interested in a Kona Bay Estates vacation rental, VRBO has several listings you can browse. (As I walked past this one I stopped to admire the infinity pool!) If you want to browse the homes currently for sale in Kona Bay Estates, visit this page on the Clark Realty website to see active listings.

Read more about the aftermath of the Kona tsunami in this Honolulu Star-Advertiser article: Homes, emotions devastated: Small Kealakekua Bay community is the worst hit of all the Big Isle’s damaged areas

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House floating in Kealakekua Bay earlier today

Like many Hawaii residents, I didn’t get much sleep last night.

Even though I couldn’t hear the Civil Defense sirens that sounded hourly beginning at 10 pm, I was awake most of the night keeping a close watch on updates about the tsunami waves that were generated as a result of the devastating earthquake in Japan.

Countless news articles, videos and blog posts about the earthquake and the tsunami have been shared today. I’ve read many of them and I wrote one for the Clark Realty blog. I also watched a lot of video last night via Hawaii News Now, CNN, Al Jazeera English and (don’t laugh) the Waikiki Beach Surf ustream channel.

Even after sorting through all that information and all the visuals (I especially like the NOAA wave model we used in the Clark post), when I came to the end of my day today and saw the BBC video that Gary Davis of our Waimea office posted, I knew I had to slow down and take time to feel this event in a way that I hadn’t been able to when we were all still anticipating “what might be” for Hawaii.

Gary posted the link to the BBC video right at about the time Dorlene Kolina Chao, an agent in our Kona office, posted this photo what was the Kealakekua Hale sinking in Kealakekua Bay (pictured above earlier in the day):

The Manini Beach house sinks in Kealakekua Bay - Photo courtesy Dorlene Kolina Chao

Something about Dorlene’s post made me pause. It somehow signaled an end to the immediacy of the events of the day. And it prompted the realization that, through posts from various onlookers who shared photos over the course of the day, we were able to collectively watch from afar as someone’s house sank into the bay. Let me repeat… we watched as someone’s house sank into the bay… I still find that kind of connectedness rather amazing in times like these.

After Dorlene’s post, I unplugged from Twitter and Facebook for a while and talked for a few minutes with Karen Clarkson and Juanita Montgomery at Clark Realty’s Waimea office to hear how they had dealt with an unusually difficult day. Back online later, I discovered that Big Island Video News is calling photos of the house floating in Kealakekua Bay the “iconic” image of the 2011 Kona tsunami. I totally agree. Of all the Hawaii photos I’ve seen so far, none captures the “Big Island-ness” of what this day was quite like these Kealakekua Bay photos.

I’m wrapping up the day looking back over the last 24 hours and the events that have been so devastating for those in Japan. I’m feeling very relieved that Hawaii was spared any more significant damage than we have experienced. And I’m feeling grateful for the community of which I am a part here on the Big Island.

It has been a sobering day. But we are ending it with an “a hui hou” instead of with good-byes as some are. We have much for which to be thankful tonight.

Sleep safe and sleep well, Big Islanders.

–

*First photo above courtesy CC Greenwell of Clark Realty’s Kailua-Kona office – This is the first image of the house most of us saw this morning.

Ala Ohia Road

One of the things missing in my world after I left Oahu in 2004 was an “out the front door” walk/run route like the 4-mile loop to which I had easy access when I lived on the slopes of Diamond Head in Honolulu. No place I have lived since has offered such perfect logistics for exercise…until now.

As of March 1, my days of commuting each week between Waimea and Hilo are over — and there is one major advantage to my new location that I’m really happy about:  I now have “out the door” access to Waimea’s new Ala Ohia Road/recreational corridor.

Parker Ranch Center to Mamalahoa Hwy

For my first walk this weekend, because I also had errands to do, I made the short drive from my new Waimea home and parked at Parker Ranch Center. I can’t begin to fully describe how beautiful this part of the Big Island is, so please “join” me on my Ala Ohia walk by viewing the slideshow above. I think it will be easy to see why I feel incredibly fortunate to be living where I am now. This is truly an inspiring place. And it’s where I’ve wanted to be for a very long time.

Mauna Kea was obscured by clouds yesterday, but the South Kohala sky was still beautiful. The winds were strong, but just enough to make the walk a little more challenging…I needed the workout, so that was nothing to complain about!

I’m looking forward to making this walk (eventually run?) a regular part of my new life in Waimea. It’s good to officially be an upcountry girl at last!

Luala'i sign at Mamalahoa Hwy

About Ala Ohia

If you aren’t familiar with Waimea and Parker Ranch or with the history of the long-anticipated link between Pukalani Road and Mamalahoa Highway, you can learn the background of this roadway in last year’s Hawaii County News post Ala Ohia Road Opens in Waimea.

The two residential subdivisions you can see in the photos are Luala’i at Parker Ranch and Holo Holo Ku.

Please note: The Luala’i video is from 2008, prices are significantly lower now…mid $300s. And, the Holo Holo Ku site is not a Community Association or real estate brokerage website, but it does have great pics.

If you want information about these communities, let me know. I’m biased, but these planned communities are in a pretty incredible location.

CC&Rs not your thing? Let’s discuss.

Want to know more? Read about the Waimea Town Center Plan

KITV4 news posted Susan and Emma’s photos in their Weather Q&A section today along with a statement from Derek Wroe, the lead forecaster at the National Weather Service in Honolulu.

Read Derek’s explanation of the “hole punch” in the cloud ring around Mauna Kea here.

Larger versions of Emma and Susan’s photos can be found here.

Original post – 3/4/2011

Early this morning, before leaving Waimea to drive to Hilo, I took a minute to try for a photo of the clouds over Mauna Kea — I could tell it was going to be a dramatic scene when the sun rose a little higher in the sky over the Big Island. After arriving at the Hilo office, I soon saw evidence that I wasn’t the only one watching the clouds over the mountain. The drama had intensified as I was making the Hamakua Coast drive.

The following pictures are all cell phone photos (unfortunately a little dark) taken by me, Susan Chouinard (my supervisor at Clark Realty) and her daughter Emma. Susan’s was the first I saw after arriving in Hilo, so let’s start there:

Photo by Susan from the parking lot of Parker Square in Waimea

Mauna Kea is behind the trees in Susan’s photo. Emma’s photo, probably taken at about the same time, shows a nearly perfect hole in the cloud cover right over the summit of the mountain:

Photo by Susan's daughter Emma from Mamalahoa Hwy

An hour or so earlier, I had posted this next photo on Facebook from my cell phone. Susan says this must have been just before one layer of clouds disappeared (her explanation, of course, was more technical). Look at the left side of this picture, just above the top of the mountain, to see what the hole looked like an hour before Susan and Emma’s photos:

A littler earlier than the other two photos, from Waimea

Susan posted this a little later:

NOAA GOES West Satellite Image

Susan is a former Navy “weather girl” so she’s looking into the precise reason for this morning’s mysteriously beautiful portal above Mauna Kea and she say’s she will let me know when she gets more information. I’m happy just thinking it was pretty cool.

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Updated 3/5: After I posted the photos above, Julie Ziemelis pointed me to another picture taken by Laura Kinoshita near Seagull School at Mauna Lani. This is how the mountain looked from down at the Kohala Coast:

Photo by Laura Kinoshita from near sea level on the Kohala Coast

Mahalo Laura for sharing your photo!

A few photos from an early afternoon walk down Puako Beach Drive.

The Mauna Kea Beach Hotel was founded by Laurance S. Rockefeller in 1965

After presentations at two Clark Realty offices today, one in Waimea and one at our office at The Shops at Mauna Lani, Susan Chouinard and I finally took a much needed break from the insanity of the last week (the completion and release of the Clark Realty website redesign) to stop at the Mauna Kea Beach Resort for lunch at the Hau Tree beachside restaurant.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a day for surf and sand or mai tais and sunsets. We did, however, enjoy sharing a rather large tuna and artichoke sandwich and a chance to take some time to talk work strategy while watching the waves break just offshore.

A few big waves rolled in while we were having lunch, but I missed the photo op!

It’s 7:15 pm and we just resolved another data issue on our site. Tomorrow, we make the drive to Keauhou for our last office meeting of the week. Looking back, stopping for lunch today was the perfect break–just what we needed to clear our heads and get us through the rest of another long work day.

I hope to catch up on a few posts here on the blog soon, but, as my friend Eric points out, when you live in Hawaii there are times when “real life” reminds us that we aren’t on a permanent tropical vacation here on the Big Island. These last few weeks have definitely been those weeks…but I can’t complain. There was still time to stop and get my shoes in the Kohala Coast sand today. For that, I’m grateful.

Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!

My Favorite Photo of 2010:

Horses grazing on Paauilo Mauka Road on Hawaii's Hamakua Coast

The posts where these photos were originally shared:

• “The Rest of the Story” from a Day in North Kohala
• Big Island Residents Start the Day at Hilo Bay
• Turtle Independence Day at Mauna Lani Bay
• Tsunami Saturday
• Hamakua Wednesday