Hawaii Kona

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The Big Island Hawaii

We sighted Hilo through heavy rains and the captain of our ship decided not to dock at Hilo. The weather was too rough. The ship started moving along the coast towards Kona.

“Hey, we are supposed to go south and we are going towards north. Will you please tell the captain to move the ship around and go in the opposite direction? We won’t see any lava otherwise” I said to my husband in panic.

He was least bothered. “The captain knows best what he is doing, dear” he said, “so, chill and eat your ice cream.”

“But look, we have the coast on our right and open sea on our left, so that means we are moving north. Don’t you remember, when we are strolling on the Worli Seaface ( a promenade in Mumbai) , the sea is on our left when we are going towards north. At this rate we will end up in the Arctic Circle and like Titanic, hit an iceberg.” I said.

“My dear girl, Mumbai is on west coast and here we are skirting the Big Island on the east side, so don’t worry. You WILL see your lava” he said. "Your ice cream is melting" he added.

My fears were thus put to rest and logically, I understood the position of the ship, but somehow, the sight of the coast on the right was at variance with my sense of direction, and I kept feeling that the captain was making a grave mistake.

I am a total landlubber. I even get seasick.

We did see the lava that night and what a sight it was! Of course, the ship kept a safe distance from the lava, so we did not ‘Feel the Heat’ as they advertise in the brochure of the helicopter, but the sight was awesome. Red hot, incandescent lava was pouring down the cliff into the sea, turning the water into vapor, but the luminosity of the lava was so great that we could see it even through the vapor. Rivers of lava were crisscrossing the landscape.

The Big Island is getting bigger every day. The cooled lava increases its area constantly.

In the lounge, the Hula dancers (staff of the ship tutored by Kavika) were performing amazing gyrations with their hips, but nobody was giving them much attention. The dance of Madame Pele (Goddess of Fire in Hawaiian mythology) on the outside was more mesmerizing. The Hula dancers just could not compete with her.

We sat in the lounge sipping our ‘Blue Hawaii’ drink and watching the fiery spectacle outside listening to the Hula music, though we hardly saw the Hula dance.

‘Blue Hawaii’ drink is named after a movie of the same name starring Elvis Priestley.

The next day we were at Kona.

So far, on every island that we had visited, we had docked directly onto the harbour, but at Kona, the ship stood away from the docks and we went to the shore in the ship’s boats. The sight of the ship’s boats (How I would love to call them ‘cutters’! It, sort of, gives the ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ touch to the whole thing. ‘davits’ also. I WILL use that word at least.) being lowered into the sea from the DAVITS with the help of pulleys and tackle, hypnotized my husband. I still do not know what exactly men find interesting about a WINCH.

Kona is a shoppers’ paradise. The shops on the Alii drive are full of goods, whether ethnic or from China/Taiwan I do not know. They sell everything from jewelry to fruits and vegetables.

Nothing is cheap. (This word is out of fashion. Now they call it ‘low-cost’ or ‘budget’.)
The goods at the flea market were as expensive as the shops, so we decided to shop in the malls rather than take chances with road-side vendors. Yes, like in Mumbai, there ARE roadside vendors in Kona.

Why is it that the women of hot, tropical countries wear dazzlingly bright colored dresses (Our saris are no exceptions) while women of cold countries wear delicate pale dresses? Intrinsically, I feel that it should be the other way around. However, I DO wear bright, jazzy dresses and saris (‘Gaudy’ my friends tell me), and so, found the dress material in Kona shops very attractive. The bright red, green, orange, blue evoked the memories of Paul Gaugin paintings I had seen somewhere.

We came back to the ship with our itsy bitsy shopping (I bought only jewelry) and wishing that we had the Dollar-power.

The ship set sail for Maui the same evening. No, there is something wrong with that sentence. The ship did not carry any ‘sails’. It was powered by engines, so I should say:

“The ship sailed for Maui the same evening.’ However, can’t get rid of the word ‘sail’.
“The ship moved towards Maui”? No, it suggests sluggishness on the part of the ship. “The ship ran towards Maui”. No way. It suggests an earthbound vehicle.
“The ship took off towards Maui”. No, this is only for flights.
“The ship sped towards Maui”. No, this is only for the getaway cars of ‘perps’ and their abettors.

OK. The ship set sail for Maui the same evening. (With apology to the NCL)

See! I did not have much ‘material’ to write about the Big Island of Hawaii, because we could not take a shore excursion at Hilo and visit Volcanoes national park, but since when has that deterred me from writing a full-length blog?

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Photos

Boat being lowered
The 'Cutter' being 'Winched' into sea from 'Davits'

Kona harbour
The Kona horbour

Plumeria and coconut tree
The Plumeria and coconut tree at Kona

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[udhhalika]

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chhan ahe.