The subsequent posts are not going to be so much a blow-by-blow chronologically accurate account as pictures with captions. I've fallen behind in the blog so what happened when has greyed a bit.
We flew into Hilo, hired an SUV - barely fitting all our suitcases in as it is - and headed south, through a rather lengthy car-park of a crawl through Keaau, over to Pahoa then down the Pahoa-Pohoiki road to the water. I was aghast to see all the beautiful trees that had lined the road just after the Lava Trees park appeared to have been cut down.
WHY??!?
Then I remembered: a cyclone/hurricane had gone through this area: what we were seeing was the devastation left by the horrible winds. The place was not the same, at all, except for a really short area that was a bit protected. Even Mackenzie Park was closed. I guess even ironwood trees were no match for those winds!
We got down to the Beach House at Kehena just at dusk. We scrambled to get the bags inside: the party was happening at Kalapana and we didn't want to miss it! And it was hopping: music and food and tie-died die-hard hippie-holdouts and locals and visitors ate and mingled and listened to the music and watched the hula. Derek and Jackie had amazing pizza, we had an asian dish each. I was going to stand, but the lovely lady sitting with her mates told me it's not good eating standing up and offered me her seat at the park-table. What a lovely soul!
