Man-made Extravagance

 In contrast to God's  extravagance of tropical flowers is the man-made extravagance at the Hilton Hotel Waikoloa .  It's a sort of Hawaiian Disneyland, on a small scale of course.  A 1,240 room facility, it also has 3 pools, 3 spas, tennis courts, 2 golf courses, and 9 restaurants. 
In the lobby are several loud parrots who sometimes condescend to repeat "hi" or "hello"  when you greet them. 

 Waterfalls cascade down into one of the pools.

 A bed on the beach! That's my idea of the ultimate beach experience. 

 Terry poses by one of the many sculptures from Thailand, Japan, and China.

 When we were at a SOWER project in Florida, we looked in vain for for flamingos .  Here they are in a pool!

A typical Chinese-looking sculpture.

Turtles in the lagoon, which actually opens out to the ocean.  After walking around the path encircling all these sites, it was a relief to step inside the climate controlled "bullet train", a shuttle that took hotel guests from the lobby to one of the three wings of the hotel, for a brief ride.
We spent the next hour on the couches in the breezy lobby, so relaxing I fell asleep. 

This visit reminded me of Sunday's sermon:
Ecclesiastes 2:1 says
I said to myself (says King Solomon ) "Come on, let's try pleasure.  Let's look for the good things in life"  But I found that this, too, was meaningless.

God's Extravagance

Our Saturday tour was kind of an old folks' outing.  First we went to Mauka Meadows, above Kona.

Here is a view of Kona from the slopes of Hualalai, an extinct volcano above the town where we live.  

We strolled down a slope resplendent with blooms.  To the right are different coloured Impatiens, bigger blooms than any I've seen before.  This African native alternated in colourful shades of reds, pinks, and oranges. It was easy to walk along the paved path for those with walking difficulties. 

This Jade Vine was the most interesting shade of turquoise, a colour not often seen in flowers.  Clusters hung from an arbour like some kind of bizarre grapes.  The flowers are commonly strung into leis. 

The vivid orange flower in the foreground is the Bird of Paradise, a close relative of the banana plant.  It's cultivated in other parts of the world, but grows well in Hawaii, and almost seems associated with the Islands.  A great addition to tropical bouquets.

I love this flower, the Anthurium. Popular in cut flower bouquets, it lasts a long time in water.  I remember a friend in Slovakia, who'd given one of us a flower bouquet, proudly telling us that she'd chosen this flower because it would last three weeks.  "It's plastic!"  exclaimed one of the school children at the time.  He didn't believe it was real.  Actually, the "flower" is the yellow part, and the red part is a specialized leaf, looking, indeed, so waxy and shiny as to appear artificial.  It was fun to see it actually growing along the path.  There were white ones, too; not quite as spectacular to my mind.

I think this is a kind of Protea.  Its native habitat is South Africa. It's actually a cluster of tiny individual flowers.  Very showy.

My brother, Ed, grew an Angel's Trumpet like this in his garden in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.  He most likely would've called it Brugmansia Candida, because he likes to call plants by their Latin names.  Its Hawaiian name is Nanahonua ( I'm not taking the time right now to find a keyboard with the various accents, that characterise Hawaiian vowels.)  That name means "gazing downward", an appropriate name tying together its shape with its English name.  Origin: South America.

The Bougainvillea is a tall, spready bush in various flamboyant colours.  We see splashes of it on Kuakini Highway at the entrance to the University of the Nations in bold magenta, salmon coloured, electric pink shades and even white.  It survives on little water, and thrives on the dry side of the Big Island.  We've seen it in other sunny places, too, such as Arizona.  Country of origin: Brazil. 

At the bottom of the asphalt pathway stood a small pavilion where the Japanese owners of the gardens and coffee plantation offered people small cups of their coffee.  They were hoping we would buy some, but didn't pressure us. Terry is waving from the crowd.

 In front of the Pavilion was an infinity pool

Phyllis is trying a different perspective to see the water appear to stop at the horizon.  The picture of me lying at poolside is not quite so elegant, so I'm not posting it.

On the way home I threw caution to the winds and ordered an iced  matcha latte. I don't usually buy any kind of drinks, but felt in an extravagant mood as befitting the extravagant display of flowers God had provided this day  This drink has kept me awake at night in the past, but I did enjoy it !  I wonder what kind of flower this is, thick and waxy, arranged so densely in its dish.  Is it Pua Kenikeni?
Part two of our tour to be continued.

Coffee Plantation and the Freedom Seminar

Two weeks ago we toured a coffee plantation.  Here are a few photos of that time:

This is a cacao plant, from which chocolate is made.  That was just an incidental tree at the coffee plantation.

Amanda wanted to hold the chameleon.  Elijah had told us that we might see one there, so looked for them amongst the coffee tree branches.  He had the funniest feet!

Here is the delicately scented coffee flower.

Our tour guide showed us a coffee cherry, on the left, and then some beans which would then be dried in the sun.

A cautionary sign on a palm tree at a doughnut shop.

After the tour, the destination was South Point again.  This time the water was calm enough to jump into .  For the young people, that is.  One Korean girl wanted to jump, but was very nervous about it, not sure she really wanted to go through with it.  She stood uncertainly at the edge of the Thirty foot cliff.  The more she thought about it, the worse it got.  Finally she agreed to have one of the guys push her.  Not a good idea.  She went in sort of sideways, and did a partial bellyflop.  I watched her land in the water with a smack.

  Elijah jumped right in after her.  This is not actually at the same cliff, but I thought you might want to know what Elijah looks like.  Like a lifeguard!  The girl was finally persuaded to climb up the ladder, but was very sore, and very shaken.  A few days later, I saw her walking on campus holding her side.  Ouch!
After walking around for an hour in the noon sun, I ended up with a sunburn on my shoulders.  Somehow I'd forgotten to put on sunscreen.  Here we are at the most southerly point in the United States.  I'm with Janice and Vern from Trochu, Alberta. 

This weekend no tours were planned to give us Mission Builders an opportunity to attend the Freedom Seminar, a whole weekend event.  Gord Whyte from Kelowna, BC, was the guest speaker.  Topics covered were the 'orphan spirit' vs our true identity as sons and daughters of God, forgiveness, demons, bitter root judgements, soul ties to other people or to things of the world, making inner vows ( I'll never....) and how to renounce them, and our destiny as Christians.  We had lots of opportunities to be prayed for, to learn new things, and to review things we'd known before, but forgotten. The best Valentine's gift ever, that Terry and I got to share in this event together. 

A Close look at a Lava Tube

The concept of a lava tube fascinates me. I'd read the novel Kona, by Marjorie Sinclair, when we got here a month ago.  The heroine grows up on the Big Island and playing in the lava tube was as normal as playing in the back yard.  When I found out we were going to visit another lava tube on the next tour, I was excited.  It didn't matter that we were with a group of people again, and that we'd been sitting in the van for hours.  It was another adventure!

The location is near Hilo, on the tropical side of the Island, where we'd been the last time we went on a tour with the Mission Builders. The abundant rainfall, which we've managed to miss each time results in lush rainforest. Huge philodenron vines, you know, the kind that are houseplants back home, twine up the trunks of trees.  Speaking of vines, Terry fulfilled an item on his bucket list by swinging on a sturdy vine in the forest.  In my admiration, I forgot to take a picture!

We were supposed to see a wonderful waterfall called Akaka Falls, but found our access barred as we were told they were looking for a missing man.  Instead, we walked down a jungle trail to another black-sand beach with crashing waves. By the way, the only birds we saw all day were pheasants, and rock pigeons.They were not in the jungle, but on the  lava fields that were already covered in grass on the dry side of the Island.

This is Laupahoehoe Point, a scene of tragedy in 1946.  On April 1, twenty-one schoolchildren and three adults were swept away to their deaths by a tsunami travelling 500 miles per hour, and wiping them out in mere moments.  They had just gone out for break.  After that, officials finally moved the town up the hill.
This is definitely not a swimming beach, but it was fun to watch the surf crashing onto the huge lava rocks

To the right is the beach of the Tarzan vines.

Finally , the entrance to the lava tube!
In 1881 Mauna Loa erupted, and the lava ran twenty-five miles to the sea, creating a long cave, and threatening the town of Hilo.  I'm not sure it's this long any more, as it has probably collapsed in several places. 

I'm ready with my flashlight as we entered the cave, the only time I've actually used my cell phone on the Island.  Ferns and moss grew around the opening, and water dripped from the ceiling.

At first we had to duck down, but were assured the floor levels out beyond this narrow entrance.

Really, the walls were much darker than this picture shows.  Fascinating to rub your hands along the walls to feel the cool, smooth lava, looking like hardened chocolate pudding.  The floor
was rough and porous; no chance of slipping here.
After we'd walked about one hundred metres, a large rock stood in the middle of the path.
"Don't go any further," said our leader, Elijah. "There are big holes beyond this point, and Mission Builders have had to be rescued by helicopter from this site before."
I wish I could post the video Terry took.  You can't see anything; it's so dark you can't see your hand in front of your  face, but our rendition of   "How Great Thou Art"  sounded good. 
Not quite the same as being in an acoustics chamber, though, as lava rock is porous.
There were actually long roots growing through the ceiling here.

Close-up of shiny lava rock

One more stop at a fruit stand.  Ten rambutans for three dollars.

 It's kind of like eating a peeled grape, with not much taste.

"I feel like a Hollywood star!" said this smiling lady who hacked off the outer shell of a coconut with her huge machete as we all cheered.  After Leslie-Anne sucked up the coconut water, more blows with the machete and the meat was scooped out and put into a small plastic bag for the eating.  

Another fun adventure on the Big Island of Hawaii.