Indonesian Ginger

Flora, Fauna and Fun Oh My!

Yesterday following the trip to Hilo we visited the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Gardens located on the Onomea Bay. As we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed how the trees soared toward the sky and how vibrant color of the flowers. As we entered the gate, a large plaque explained the vision behind the gardens. In 1977, Dan Lutkenhouse purchased the 17 acre tract because of its natural beauty. It took him eight years of hard work to prepare the the gardens for visitors. Leading away from the dedication plaque, a 500 foot long elevated boardwalk snaked down the steep-walled, narrow ravine of Kahalii Stream. The Kahalii ravine is festooned with exotic tropical growth of giant bamboo, bananas, flowering vines, orchids and ferns. We noticed an abundance of some type of nut lying on the forest floor and upon research realized these came from the betel nut palm trees. They resembled acorns that we find in abundance in Arkansas. We were so surprised to find out they came from a palm tree!! As we made our way down the path, we noticed thick vines hanging from many of the trees. The plant life below the canopy was dense and colorful. A banana tree, heavily burdened with fruit waiting to ripen, served as a resting spot for a local lizard. Many of the plants boasted beautiful, colorful flowers or seed pods. We noticed that one plant had a flower that resembled a brightly colored bird! It was very interesting! Many species of ginger grew in a plethora of colors! When touched, they felt like wax! It was the strangest thing!

As we continued our journey to the floor of the forest, we came upon a beautiful waterfall. The sound of the falls could be heard well before they were seen. Following the tranquil sound of water, the breathtaking view appeared before us. The water tumbled over the large boulders on its way to the pool at the bottom of the valley. The small stream then meandered its way toward the ocean. Continuing on our journey, we came across the Orchid Garden. A variety of species created a unique display in this area. The size and color varied greatly. We learned that the vanilla bean is the seed pod from the vanilla orchid! Who knew?? Behind the orchid garden stood a large cage that housed Macaws. These are large, colorful birds with a distinct squawk! It was quiet funny when Dr. Bramlett talked to one of the birds and the bird talked back! This unique experience was a reminder of how nature works in harmony to create a beautiful landscape. The website to the garden is www.hawaiigarden.com. I encourage you to check it out!

Tikki statue 

Aloha!

Mrs. Norton

The Temple on the Hill

King Kamehameha

The Temple on the Hill by Mrs. Harrison

Today we visited one of the last major sacred structures on the island known as Pu'ukohola Heiau National Historic site. What an interesting story you will find here! The early Hawaiians prophesied that a great leader would one day come to bring peace and unity among the islands. They were looking for a sign from the gods in the sky to announce the birth of child that would become the king. A white-tailed star streaked across the dark sky in the year of 1758, believed to be Haley's Comet. This was the very night that an infant named Kamehameha, was born in the Kohala district on the northwestern tip of the island of Hawai'i. The destined king was to be hidden away so that other kings could not find him and kill him before prophesy was fulfilled. Does the story sound familiar yet? The child grew to be a strong and powerful warrior working his way in the ranks of his family. Kamehameha had a rival that also wanted to rule the island, non other than his cousin Keoua Kuahu'ula. Kamehameha invited his cousin to view the great heiau (temple) that he and his warriors had recently constructed and Keoua willingly accepted the invitation. Now this wasn't the family reunion you would expect! Kamehameha had intentions of killing his cousin to overtake the rule of the islands and his cousin was fully aware the outcome would be death. A great battle happened between the cousins at the site of the temple and as you guessed it, he became the king. Kamehameha was successful in bringing unity and peace among the islands. His rule lasted until his death in the year of 1819.

Encountered Animals

While in Hawaii, we saw many animals. Some animals that we saw were native to
Hawaii, and some were animals we see everyday in Monticello.
We saw donkeys, chickens, birds, mongooses, mules, kane spiders, horses, and even a Billie goat. We saw sea turtles, eels, crabs, dolphins, Hawaiian monk saeal, ferral cats, and tropical fish.
An interesting fact about the kane spider is that they are not poisonous. They look a lot like our spiders at home.

An interesting bird that we saw was the honeycreeper. This bird is endemic to Hawaii which means it is only found here in Hawaii. It was a beautiful reddish orange bird with black tail feathers and white feathers underneath.

An endemic mammal to Hawaii is the Hawaiian monk seal. We actually got to see one in O'ahu on Rabbit Island that was born about three weeks ago. Be sure to check our our blog post on the monk seal and the video.

We also mentioned the ferral cats. They were everywhere! We would sit down to eat and they would be all over the restaurants. They would walk up and down the street and no owners were anywhere to be found. At one restaurant, it was said that the owner did not want the cats to be there but the waitresses liked them and promised to take care of them. We also noticed signs that warned not to feed the cats because they are trying to capture them to control the population.


Did I mention the sea turtles? Several of our blog posts have addressed them. We were able to get really close to them a couple of different times. Some of them were humongous. On one account, Mrs. Harrison was able to catch a fascinating picture with the turtles head above the water.

They always say...third times the charm

Strolling through the botanical gardens taking in every beautiful flower around us, we heard a strange movement in the bushes. As we looked over the rod iron fence, there he was! Right in front of us, a mongoose with his head held high. There was a no trespassing sign into the fence, so I wasn't able to chase him. However, I was able to sneak in on him and get a great picture to share with you.

Mongoose

Mrs. Grimes

Hello Hilo!

Hello Hilo! by Mrs. Harrison

Today we drove to Hilo by way of the Saddle Road. Hilo is on the opposite side of the Big Island from Kona, where we are staying. The Saddle Road is a highway snaking between Mount Kileaua and the Mauna Loa volcanoes. When we first turned onto the highway we noticed a strong odor of sulphur which is the gas emitted for the volcanoes. If you have driven around the paper mills in Arkansas, you are familiar with the smell! After a stop at Rainbow Falls to view an impressive waterfall, we stopped for a quick bite to eat in Historic downtown Hilo. The buildings of this quaint coastal town took you back in time because history was evident in the architecture such as the Pacific Tsunami Museum. The museum holds pictures and many artifacts from tsunamis that have affected many Pacific Islands. I instantly made a connection to the tsunami that slammed into Laupahoeoe Point on April Fool's Day 1946. As many elementary children were arriving on a Monday morning an earthquake off the Aleutain Islands was creating a massive wave that would come ashore with a great force. The waters receded way beyond the norm and students ventured out to see the fish left behind only to be swept away by the next wave. A monument stands today to commemorate the 24 students who were killed. In the museum a colorful quilt can be found hanging that was made by local students in 1997 to remember the event. The story took my breathe away as I couldn't begin to comprehend such a catastrophic disaster occurring to my students.

Hawaiian Monk Seal

One of our many adventures led us to Rabbit Island in Honolulu, HI. As we arrived at Rabbit Island, we interviewed an officer with the Department of Conservation. He informed us that there was a monk seal born on the island about three weeks ago. This is very unique because only one out of five monk seals make it to adulthood. Scientists believe it may be from competition for food from sharks. Wildlife scienctists say there were over 15,000 in Hawaii in the past and the population is declining with only about 1,500 remaining.

Our Typical Day

Several students have asked what our typical day has been like in Hawaii. The answer is.....nonstop. We leave the hotel every morning around 7:30 and don't return until 7 or later at night. Katie asked about how many times we had been swimming at the beach. The answer to this is none. Actually, we did swim when we went snorkeling. Well, I don't know if you could really call it swimming. It was more like floating while trying to hold on to all of our snorkeling equipment. And, for someone like me, it was a bit frustrating. I couldn't seem to get it all together, which is normal for me.

We have seen some really amazing sites and learned so much. However, we do come in at night extremely exhausted and begin working on Facebook, twitter, and our blog. We want to make sure that we get pictures, information, and video footage for you to see as soon as possible do you can too experience.

We have been able to Skype with two of our students so far which was so neat! As you know, yesterday we skyped with Zach Jones and today we skyped with Mason Morgan from Rainbow Falls. Rainbow Falls was a stream fed waterfall that flowed into a river and ran east to the Pacific Ocean. At the top of the waterfall was a massive Banyan tree. You could climb and climb and never reach the top. The branches kept going and going, just like the energizer bunny!

We "LAVA" Hawaii!!!!

We "LAVA" Hawaii by Mrs. Grimes

Just when we thought we couldn't go any further, we arrived at South Point, the southern most point in the United States. It was here that the massive waves crashed against the shore. Just around the corner, it was said that waves reached 40 feet and would pull you under if you were standing on the rocks overlooking the ocean. Words nor pictures could explain the beauty of this place. Although we weren't soaking up the rays in our swimsuits relaxing, it was a gorgeous place to be. It seemed like the world stood still. 

We couldn't stay here forever, because there were many more places to visit and not enough hours in the day. We were off to the black sand beach known as Punalu'u. ( Wow, that was a tough one to spell.)  Here, we received a chemistry lesson from Dr. Bramlett,  dean of the math and science department at UAM. The black sand is made from iron silicate. As we walked up to the sand, a rather large sea turtle was basking in the sun on the shore. He was very friendly and allowed us to take pictures up close and personal. We were planning to bring some black sand, but it was prohibited. Just up the road, there was a green sand beach. We were not able to visit, but we did get a sample of green sand at a local restaurant. The green sand is made of magnesium silicate, or the mineral olivine. 

Conveniently located near the black sand beach was an amazing lunch stop. We ate at the southern most bakery in the United States. Here we sampled a new yummy treat for dessert. It was called a Malsada, a Portuguese doughnut. Faddie the Food Critic ( videos to come) found the strawberry filled delicacy to be wonderful. There were many flavors including guava, passionfruit, taro, and chocolate. These are not as sweet as a doughnut, but very filling. 

Because we had many things to do, we hopped  into our vans and headed to what we had been waiting for all week!!!! We were off to Volcano National Park. Our trip through the park had to change a little due to high 
levels of sulfur dioxide. We walked along the rim of the craters at Mt. Kilauea and saw steam  vents.  This was the main crater and lava would flow into the field and drain into the lava tubes ( resembling a straw like underground cave) heading into the Pacific Ocean. This is how Hawaii is growing, creating new land even today.

Our next stop was the Jagger Museum. This stop gave us a closer look at the crater. As we walked up to the front of the museum that overlooked the crater,  the steam was rising. We were able to share this with one of our MIS students, Zach Jones. We skyped with him allowing him to see exactly what we saw. Upon visiting with the park ranger, we learned that the lava flow was about 400-500 feet below the caldera. When asked how they knew this, he said they have a camera that took still photos every 15 minutes. While we were there, it showed the levels of lava were rising and the photo looked like the lava was active and bubbly. Tonight, they hoped the embers would glow and would light up the night sky. Man, we wished we would have been able to stay around to see this! 

The journey was not over yet. We kept driving along on the coast of the ocean to a lava field. This was one of our coolest stops of the day. It was here we walked about a mile atop layers and layers of lava to reach a sign that said, " road closed." This was a fitting sign for this location because it was impossible to pass. In the early 80's, lava flowed across the road closing the road forever. Piles and piles of lava covered this  area, some very smooth and some very jagged and rough.

On to the next stop on our marvelous journey through the national park. The next stop was a very unique sight. It was a forest overtaken by lava. The trees were green, but the lava covered the trunks of the trees. Imagine that, more lava in the Volcano National Park. The lava cooled so quickly that it didn't kill the trees that grew there.

Boy! We have learned a lot today. But, the excursion is not quite complete. We had one more stop. We actually got to walk through a lava tube. Wow! That was really cool and we shot some video footage that we will be sharing with you later. To get to the lava tube, we had to walk down steep steps through a lush, beautiful rain forest, leading to the entrance of the tube. A cool experience in so many ways. It was cool in temperature, not what you expect being connected with lava. It was also cool in appearance. It was a dark, cool, man-made looking cave with ferns hanging from above. As we exited the lava tube, our attention was directed to a native Hawaiian bird, the apapane. This is a red bird, somewhat resembling our cardinal, however appeared smaller, more like the size of sparrow. 

 Who knew we could take in so much information in one day? This day was an awesome experience and we wanted to take in every moment. However, we are sitting here extremely exhausted! We have just arrived back at our room, dragging just a little, but working very hard to keep everyone back home in Arkansas informed so you can experience this journey with us. If you notice, many of our posts appear to come in the middle of the night. For instance, it is almost 11pm here and in Arkansas, it is almost 4am. 

 Be sure and check out our pictures that will explain some of the sites we visited today.  For now, we must sign off to get ready for our adventures tomorrow. We will be departing bright and early to visit a botanical garden.