. We went to Haʻena (otherwise known as the "Shipman Beach" after the prominent family who owns the land adjacent to the beach). I seriously am wondering if they have any teen/young adult sons who would be interested in dating my girls after this trip....okay, not seriously, but wow! They did a good job of keeping their lands in the family and keeping it involved in agriculture. And the "beach house" the family keeps for its use is AMAZING. I could live there quite happily, thank you very much. The beach is almost as nice as Kailua, where I grew up, and that is saying a whole heck of a lot.
The beach is actually accessible to the public with a hike from a parking lot (new, thanks to the generous Shipman family), so I have a plan for the weekend. Several of my co-workers jumped in and swam - some of them in clothes. I wasn't that brave (white tank top - not a good idea), but it was so great. I love that my boss wants to furnish us with a sense of place, and I love that the place is so beautiful. Puna is kind of looked down on these days, and to be honest, for good reason - it is quite cheap and so you get people who are trying to make it and people who are barely hanging on, and those latter sometimes make very bad choices for themselves, and sadly, their keiki. But, today, I learned that Puna is quite significant in both ancient and modern Hawaii - and I refreshed my memory that there IS a great beach here. We were spoiled on Oahu and this young island has beautiful but rocky beaches - but here is one with a healthy reef and lots of Uhu fish to make sand.
There is a very large fish pond and makaha (where the freshwater joins the ocean) which is well kept and beautiful, and the hala trees are abundant. I took pictures of the beach, and like I said, I am hoping to upload them soon. Ah, here's the connection....and here are the pictures:
The makaha - where the fresh water flows into the ocean. The family member told us 75 million gallons flow through here every day. Wow!
This is a hala tree. The lauhala (leaves) are woven into mats. I've always wanted to learn, but the centipedes that love hala are really NOT a favorite of mine.
2 comments:
Nice Pictures! I really do NOT miss those centipedes!
Oh, uggh, me, either. There aren't any up here in the mountains, but they got so big where we first lived when we were married. I even found one - oh, it was SO huge, at least 7 inches long and an inch thick - upstairs where we first lived. Oh, even 24 years later, it makes me shudder. We hacked it up and burned it, it was so horrifying, like a monster movie.
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