We started the day with coffee outdoors on deck 15, enjoying sunrise and spotting whales as we cruised into Hilo.
After breakfast, Julie and I headed toward the Hoppa-On, Hoppa-Off Bus Tour on an unusually sunny morning for Hilo, thinking about how great the snorkeling would be with such bright natural light.
And it truly was.
Perhaps we had never gone quite that close to the point.
Our new friend Mark, the naturalist on Star Princess, had come on the bus with us, and we tagged along with him as he walked to that spot where we got in.
We climbed craggy rocks and waded through the shallows to take a look after Mark told us where they were.
However, we wanted to primarily snorkel while the lighting remained bright, knowing most times we can expect rain in Hilo, on the wetter side of the Big Island of Hawaii.
I embarrassed myself by trying to swim out from an inlet closer to the turtle cove, and in the process I ran out of the underwater sandy "trail" and scraping my belly on some mossy rocks by the shore.
I was too stubborn to stand up and turn around, so I scraped along about fifteen feet, staining my rash guard (which Julie later cleaned in our ship's shower; thanks, Julie!).
That wasn't my most embarrassing moment in Hilo, but not even Julie witnessed the actual event at Liliʻuokalani Park and Japanese Gardens after lunch. While waiting for to Hoppa back on our bus after a rainy afternoon stroll, I wandered over to a lagoon by the ocean to see if green turtles might be there, too.
I was standing on black lava rock that was a bit wet but not at all slippery...I thought!
Lickety-split, my round bottomed Skechers slid down the slope.
I'm not sure how, but my feet flew out in front of me, and I landed hard on my hip that was badly bruised and created a giant knot, did a back somersault in which I put a three inch gash in my left forearm and then nearly dislocated my left shoulder before scraping both legs before scrambling back to the shore from several feet away.
As we rode along the shore heading back to the ship, I couldn't help thinking about the people in this area whose entire lives had been turned upside down by disasters.
The survivors put themselves upright and pulled their lives together, rebuilding Hilo better than ever, including taller buildings.
The Japanese fishing village of Shinmachi had also recently been rebuilt when, in 1960, an 8.2 magnitude earthquake in Chile brought another tsunami to Hilo.
We had driven past a monument where Shinmachi had once stood in Wailoa State Park earlier in the day, but history just doesn't seem that relevant when you could be swimming through pristine waters or basking in the sun.
In Hawaii, this seems to be particularly true.
Nonetheless, having arrived in Hawaii after four nights at sea speeding along about about 21 knots, we can't help but marvel at the fact that non-motorized outriggers powered by human muscle and perhaps primitive sails could possibly have traveled the great distance from Tahiti, which is about the same distance away as Los Angeles, to get there, even if they knew where they were going.
Keep in mind this wouldn't have been just muscular warriors hopped up on toxic masculinity. This was a new settlement, so women had to make the journey too.
Somehow, they found their way to these specks in the vast ocean, whereas even with relatively advanced navigation techniques and devices of the 16th century, more than one European ship lost its trying to find a predetermined rendezvous point or even missed entire continents starting from much shorter distances, according to onboard lecturer Wes Smith. Those errors cost many scurvy-stricken sailors their lives
It is assumed they came from the Polynesian triangle based on oral legend taken from Hawaiian chants, and Tahiti would have been about as close as any of those islands. That also takes four nights for a large Princess ship to cruise.
Why would they even attempt such a seemingly insane trip to an unknown destination?
Perhaps their home had been destroyed by a natural disaster like a tsunami, volcano or gradual climate change.
We only know they ended up on the Hawaiian Islands somewhere between about 100 and 1300 AD, depending on whose legends or carbon dating you believe. They spread out into tribes among the different islands.
Anyway, back to the our journey through Hilo, the Hoppa-On bus starts with a mandatory 15 minute stay at beautiful Rainbow Falls in an easily accessible rainforest park.
Beautiful, yes, but nobody on our bus chose to have an extended stay this time. Our motivation was to start snorkeling at the last stop, Richardson Black Sand Beach..
We had another mandatory stop at Wailoa Park (where Shinmachi had once been), this time for five minutes to view King Kamehameha's statue, near what had been his favorite surfing spot.
Flashing back to Wes Smith's onboard presentation, I considered the fact that the King had been sort of the Shaquille O'Neal of his time in the islands, a giant at maybe seven feet tall. He must have been a fearsome warrior, but it was the addition of advanced European weaponry after Captain Cook and others arrived that allowed him to unite the Hawaiian Islands.
Kamehameha I conquered rivals on the Big Island of Hawaii and the other islands, except Kauai, which he could never defeat in battle.
Wes Smith said that Kamehameha took the king of Kauai to sea on an outrigger and gave him a choice: surrender and become what Europeans would call a vassal, or get thrown overboard and drown. Kauai's ruler chose to live in subservience.
Other stories said Kamehameha had tried to poison Kauai's king.
In any case, Kauai was the only Hawaiian island never conquered in battle.
However, we wouldn't be in Kauai for another two days, and that meant two more nights enjoying delicious dining and excellent entertainment aboard the warm and welcoming Star Princess.
As an aside, I'd like to share that while no one dallied beyond the minimum stays at the Rainbow Falls or Wailoa Park, when the bus driver stopped at Big Island Candies and said the best free samples of chocolate covered macadamia nuts would be available early, everyone else on the bus exited.
Apparently unlimited food, including free desserts lined up in display cases in the buffet and the Atrium's International Cafe all day was not enough to stop them from devoting the morning in Hilo to sampling candy indoors on a bright, sunny morning.
Odd, to say the least.
Julie and I continued with the driver on the otherwise empty bus to Richardson Black Sand Beach.
The driver said he needed to make a detour back to the starting point. That turned out to be to pick up Mark Harris, who like a private guide led us to the perfect spot to enter the water.
As I said, we enjoyed terrific snorkeling and sea turtle encounter there.
Make the most of your vacation.
"Better service leads to better trips!"
However, we wanted to primarily snorkel while the lighting remained bright, knowing most times we can expect rain in Hilo, on the wetter side of the Big Island of Hawaii.
I was too stubborn to stand up and turn around, so I scraped along about fifteen feet, staining my rash guard (which Julie later cleaned in our ship's shower; thanks, Julie!).
I was standing on black lava rock that was a bit wet but not at all slippery...I thought!
I'm not sure how, but my feet flew out in front of me, and I landed hard on my hip that was badly bruised and created a giant knot, did a back somersault in which I put a three inch gash in my left forearm and then nearly dislocated my left shoulder before scraping both legs before scrambling back to the shore from several feet away.
My clothes were drenched, as was my Microsoft smartphone that soon went dead, and blood was still gushing into the napkin I held against my forearm when the bus arrived.
Julie later said that she had looked over to find I had completely disappeared. She wondered where I had gone. If I had hit my head as hard as my hip, she probably would have been featured in a "Did she or did she not murder her husband?" special.
Somehow, nobody on the bus seemed to notice that I was soaking wet, and when the driver did, he laughed as he told me to take a seat rather than standing like I 'd planned.
Somehow, nobody on the bus seemed to notice that I was soaking wet, and when the driver did, he laughed as he told me to take a seat rather than standing like I 'd planned.
As we rode along the shore heading back to the ship, I couldn't help thinking about the people in this area whose entire lives had been turned upside down by disasters.
I wasn't thinking about the man-made disaster that at Pearl Harbor, but tusnamis that pounded Hilo
In 1946, a tsunami that originated in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska brought seven 50 foot waves that ravaged downtown Hilo and cost 159 people their lives.
The survivors put themselves upright and pulled their lives together, rebuilding Hilo better than ever, including taller buildings.The Japanese fishing village of Shinmachi had also recently been rebuilt when, in 1960, an 8.2 magnitude earthquake in Chile brought another tsunami to Hilo.
This one started with smaller waves, and most of the residents who had fled to the hills returned, but then the waves grew to be 35 feet tall and again wreaked havoc with downtown Hilo and completely wiped out the village of Shinmachi.
In Hawaii, this seems to be particularly true.
Nonetheless, having arrived in Hawaii after four nights at sea speeding along about about 21 knots, we can't help but marvel at the fact that non-motorized outriggers powered by human muscle and perhaps primitive sails could possibly have traveled the great distance from Tahiti, which is about the same distance away as Los Angeles, to get there, even if they knew where they were going.
Somehow, they found their way to these specks in the vast ocean, whereas even with relatively advanced navigation techniques and devices of the 16th century, more than one European ship lost its trying to find a predetermined rendezvous point or even missed entire continents starting from much shorter distances, according to onboard lecturer Wes Smith. Those errors cost many scurvy-stricken sailors their lives
Why would they even attempt such a seemingly insane trip to an unknown destination?
Perhaps their home had been destroyed by a natural disaster like a tsunami, volcano or gradual climate change.
Anyway, back to the our journey through Hilo, the Hoppa-On bus starts with a mandatory 15 minute stay at beautiful Rainbow Falls in an easily accessible rainforest park.
We had another mandatory stop at Wailoa Park (where Shinmachi had once been), this time for five minutes to view King Kamehameha's statue, near what had been his favorite surfing spot.
Flashing back to Wes Smith's onboard presentation, I considered the fact that the King had been sort of the Shaquille O'Neal of his time in the islands, a giant at maybe seven feet tall. He must have been a fearsome warrior, but it was the addition of advanced European weaponry after Captain Cook and others arrived that allowed him to unite the Hawaiian Islands.
Kamehameha I conquered rivals on the Big Island of Hawaii and the other islands, except Kauai, which he could never defeat in battle.
Wes Smith said that Kamehameha took the king of Kauai to sea on an outrigger and gave him a choice: surrender and become what Europeans would call a vassal, or get thrown overboard and drown. Kauai's ruler chose to live in subservience.
In any case, Kauai was the only Hawaiian island never conquered in battle.
However, we wouldn't be in Kauai for another two days, and that meant two more nights enjoying delicious dining and excellent entertainment aboard the warm and welcoming Star Princess.
Apparently unlimited food, including free desserts lined up in display cases in the buffet and the Atrium's International Cafe all day was not enough to stop them from devoting the morning in Hilo to sampling candy indoors on a bright, sunny morning.
Julie and I continued with the driver on the otherwise empty bus to Richardson Black Sand Beach.
The driver said he needed to make a detour back to the starting point. That turned out to be to pick up Mark Harris, who like a private guide led us to the perfect spot to enter the water.
As I said, we enjoyed terrific snorkeling and sea turtle encounter there.
Make the most of your vacation.
"Better service leads to better trips!"
No comments:
Post a Comment