The Adventures of Sunsette -- Texas Travels, Part II— Apr. 12

[neon_jellyfish]

Yay for a magical/lucky find! All the pics are beautiful, but the last one is extremely beautiful!

[davidd]

The night photo with the stars is uh-maze-ing!!! The peeking-through-the-leaf photo is super cute, too!

Your story is amazing, too! I guess the menehune were watching you, and decided to offer their help! (I started believing in that stuff when I lived there.)

And the little geckos! Oh, how I miss the geckos! We had several of them living in our house most of the time. Old house, single wall construction, windows and doors open most of the time... so yeah, house full of lizards. It was awesome. They would go to the kitchen sink to lap up beads of water from the dish drainer.

This looks like a truly remarkable place. All it takes is several million dollars to live that lifestyle full time, huh?

[Alliecat]

"Aloha again everybody!  Still with us?  Mum took soooo many photos...  So here we are with another batch.  davidd, mum wants to know, did the geckos poop in the house much?  It would be kinda fun to have them around if they were clean.  We actually didn't think about the menehune when Aloalo's garland disappeared, but maybe you're right cos I might have found their doorway..."


"This isn't it... this is the entrance road to the retreat center.  The trees have been there since the hurricane."



"This is what some of the roads are like in south Puna.  Isn't it wonderful?"



"Mum and the retreat people visited a sort of commune-y place in Puna, and we met this little cherub."



"This place is called Mermaid Ponds...  There weren't any mermaids cos the surf was pretty big and rough.  Definitely no swimming.  Here we are through a salty lens in the gale."



"Found at Mermaid Ponds.  Mum thinks it's part of a honu shell...?"



"These flowers were falling as we walked through the enormous hala grove.  Mum hasn't found out what they are.  Can we stump davidd this time...??"



"A couple more pix of the magic garden at night..."



"...we listened to mum's camera going beepbeepclick out there until we fell asleep."



"He's the right size to be our friend..."



"And here we are at the top of Kahuna Falls, which you can only get to down a VERY steep secret path.  The bottom part of the falls is about 400 feet high.  Mum was in this very gorge, on the other side, last time she was in Hawaii.  She took a picture of it, and never would've guessed she would find herself there all these years later.  Wow eh??"



"Back in the magic garden, this was where we were going to shoot before Alo lost her kupe'e the other day."






"See, mum?  If we lived here you could have all your orchids outside, all year..."



"It's a mini cymbidium.  Aren't they pretty?"









"We love it here.  PLEASE can we stay???"



"Is this how the menehune get into the garden?  How big are they, anyway...?"

"...wait... what if it was originally supposed to be mini hune? What if we're related????"



"Mum and the retreat people met a kahuna and went to a sacred site on Mauna Loa.  It was a beautiful clear day.  Here's a view over to Mauna Kea on our way up."






"It was sooooo COLD, about 5C with the wind chill.  Everybody froze and we didn't get pictures outside.  Then it was too bumpy and our driver was going too fast for a decent picture on the way down.  We wanted a picture at the sacred crater but mum was afraid we'd blow in..."



"Whoa.... waitaminute... I'm getting dizzy...."



"On another day, mum and the retreat people visited Leilani Estates, which got half destroyed by lava last spring.  Mum watched the daily updates all through the eruption.  She found it quite surreal to actually be there.  This is 180-foot high Fissure 8, the monster itself, from the end of the road.  On google street view, mum found where we were.  There was a green-bordered road and more subdivision down there.  Some people have moved back and Pele is sleeping again for now, but the vents are still steaming."



"You know, mum wants to stay here as much as we do.  We need to work on this thing..."
"I know."

[fishy]

Wow, great photos!!

[neon_jellyfish]

What a spectacular batch! Oh, orchids outside all year... Sigh.

[Lejays17]

Beautiful story. So pleased that you were given the garland back again.

The shots with Sunsette peeking thru the leaf is so cute, and the ones on the swing and meditating.

[dargosmydaddy]

My favorite is Sunsette with the mini cymbidium. That eression! So cute!

[Lejays17]

Another gorgeous bunch of photos - the ones with the flowers are particularly nice%

And the nighttime ones are stunning

[davidd]

 davidd, mum wants to know, did the geckos poop in the house much?  It would be kinda fun to have them around if they were clean.  

Yes, the geckoes pooped in the house all the time! But it was just dry little white specks, easy to sweep or wipe up. Worth dealing with for the amount of entertainment they provided. Plus, they eat ants, and ants are an issue in Hawaii.

I am totally stumped about the name of that flower. Twenty minutes of online research didn't provide any answers. It looks familiar. I think there were some growing in an overgrown lot near my house when I lived on Oahu.

A "secret" path to a 400 foot waterfall? How awesome is that? Like, seriously awesome, that's how awesome!

Those do look like they could be turtle rib bones! I never saw anything like that!

So... you'd even consider living near the volcano, huh? Yeah... so would I. I doubt that it will have a major eruption again in our lifetimes.

(But I see that ocean view homes can be found where you currently live for 1/20 the price of something similar on Hawaii! However, my research indicates that Canada is not even remotely welcoming to immigrants... unless they bring high-tech job skills or millions of dollars in cash with them.


"We need to work on this thing." Yeah, I know that, too.

[GreysPrincess]

Lovely photos as always!

[Alliecat]

"Hey everybody!
"Thanks for following our adventures!  We enjoy sharing them with you.  WOW, we stumped davidd on a Hawaiian thing!! Mum couldn't find those flowers either. (It's a tree; they were falling from way above the halas, if that helps.) Probably asking on some Hawaii facebook site would find an answer, but we haven't, yet.  Mum did confirm those are honu shell plates though.  A little sad, cos we wonder where and how it died...
Canada's been pretty welcoming to little plastic immigrants, but we're sorry we can't answer for any other kinds... "


"We do know what these are, however...  'Ohelo is one of the first things to grow on lava, and tradition says if you're going to eat the berries you should offer some to Pele first.  This one was we-sized, and Mum really wanted to take our picture with it, but it was just SO cold and windy at the sacred crater on Mauna Loa."



"We're not sure if this 'meaning of aloha' is traditional or something that's been developed more recently for tourists.  Nice though."



"'Uncle Robert's night market' way down by Kalapana is a real Hawaiian-kingdom local favourite sort of place.  Live music, people come out of the crowd to hula... big crowd, tons of food and other market vendors."



"It downpoured on Valentine's Day.  Even the rain seems lusher here.  And within an hour or so of a downpour it can be hot and sunny again."



"After the rain, the stream that was nearly empty when we arrived, was a rushing torrent.  The retreat centre runs on hydro power, so they were happy.  Sometimes they even have to leave lights on to burn off some of the battery power.  Or something..."



"The caretaker said this little standing rock has withstood hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods, for many years!"



"We were very careful not to be the ones to tip it."



"On a last beautiful morning after the rain, we had to say goodbye to the magic garden.  Mum put the remains of our lei into the stream.  It carries your wish to return, down to the sea."









"The road down from the retreat center."



"Remember the photo of us by the secret pool below the little waterfall?  That pool is right in the middle of this photo, at the top of these falls.  Mum took a similar photo all those years ago, never knowing she would wind up back here."



"...and with a whoosh, we are on our way.  Farewell Big Island...  Farewell Mauna Kea ... perhaps we'll reach your summit next time...?"



"Hello Honolulu!!"

"...stay tuned..."

[Lejays17]

Ooh, more adventures! The one with the story of the lei in the water is lovely.

And also the one with Sunsette peekng through the leaf.

excellent photos like always, it's been so much fun following along.

[davidd]

"Mum took a similar photo all those years ago, never knowing she would end up back here."

Let's hope Mum's next return is much sooner! Fingers XX'd that the lei released into the stream does its job!

The stone bridge is certainly picturesque.

BTW, I think the "mystery blossoms" are a color variant from the hau tree. The blossoms change color before they fall, usually from yellow to pink or red.

[Elfy]

Rain then hot sun, sounds like FNQ.

[neon_jellyfish]

More gorgeous photos! The ones of girls in all that wonderful nature are the best!