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| On a mountain road in Ka'u |
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| Ka'u District, Big Island |
Hawai’i
was a second home to me in the 1980s, as my mom scratched out a place for
herself over the years. If the Big Island was likened to a diamond with Kona on
the left and Hilo on the right, then the place I know best is the southern
area, known on the Big Island as Ka’u District.
My
mom and some of her friends bought land within a block of each other in a rural
subdivision, Green Sands. There was no electricity, and water was hauled in
after being collected at the Wai’ohinu Park spigots. Ka’alu’alu Road didn’t
even have a road sign, I think; we just knew to turn off the main highway onto
the road parallel to the drainage ditch between the towns of Wai’ohinu and
Na’alehu.
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| Walking on South Point |
One
family arrived in a renovated school bus they had driven across the mainland
and shipped over the Pacific. Another family came like mine, occasionally. Most
people had kids, and by luck they were all around the same age. Neighbors were
far enough apart that the woods of haole
koa and Christmas berry became the children’s territory while the parents
hand-cleared their chosen spots, strung up hammocks, and built shacks on stilts
with corrugated tin roofs. Parents could say, “Go play outside” and have just
about nothing to worry over.
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| Tutu's home |
For
years we just camped, then there was a 12x12 shack, and finally a barn-like
house. We went from a porcelain toilet bowl in an outhouse made of beach mats
to indoor plumbing.
Now
as then, this was the epitome of the countryside for this city-slicker gal. The
only concrete was keeping a post in place. Out here the dirt roads glitter with
olivine crystals, a color that makes my husband think of apple flavored Jolly
Ranchers. When night falls, a million stars sparkle, and even the Milky Way
appears as a long, whitish smudge across the dome of the sky.
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| The Green Sands playground |
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| Green Sands Beach |
There
are more people living around her now, naturally. More dogs, more roosters
crowing at 3 a.m. But it’s still the deep countryside of Ka’u District, the southernmost district in all of the United
States. This autumn, my husband and I brought our three-year-old out here. We
were fortunate to be joined by Tutu, our daughter’s grandmother, who is now
seventy.
The few jaunts I’ll be writing about are not exhaustive by any means--they are slivers of a great place to explore. Check back soon to read about some hikes on the Big Island. Mahalo!
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| on Punalu'u Beach |
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Ka'u horse
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| Dinner in Ka'u |
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| Under the trees of Waiohinu Park |
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| Hanging on the back porch |
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Foggy, a Ka'u cowboy
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| The best thrift store in Ka'u, located in Na'alehu |
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| Tutu's hug |
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| Waiohinu cuteness |
