The Big Island

 

Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022

Jen here:

We have one day—a partial day—on the Big Island on the coast of Kona (the coffee comes from here).  Some passengers disembarked as soon as we landed at 7 this morning, to get out on tours to see the Volcano National Park or take an historic tour of the nearby village.  Jerry and I had scheduled a whale watching tour (with a group not through the ship’s tours) for the early afternoon, discovered it was to get back to shore at the same time as the final tender* was to return to the ship. We warned the ship of a possible delay then hiked off to find the company on land and see if we could negotiate a possibility that wouldn’t cause us to miss the tender and thus the ship.  Nope.   They were sympathetic to our timing, but already had 83 others booked.  They refunded our money.  We chatted a while and learned that ours was only the second cruise ship they’d seen in two years.   As we wandered the shops along the coast, it was apparent that Covid had left its mark on lots of empty storefronts. 

In one of the areas, a young woman’s voice shouted, “Where in Iowa?”   Jerry and I were wearing our Iowa hat/visor again.  We followed the voice to two young adult women walking our way and stopping in front of us. 

“Le Claire,” Jerry said.  “You?”

“Mason City.”

Jerry was saying, “My wife grew up near there” as I said to her, “Nora Springs.”

“Manly.” As we both narrowed our origins.

We chatted a bit and learned the Iowa neighbor had been in Hawaii only a few months and she and her friend were on their way to open a shop where they worked.

Later that afternoon, I learned more of this story.  As I relayed the quick discovery story to my youngest sister who lives and works in Mason City, we were shocked to uncover that this young woman is the l

 Since we had no tour now, we scouted out something to see and learn about the Kona, Hawaii area.  Luckily, we were in the midst of a historic area.  The western coast of the Big Island has a history of chiefs dating back to the 15^th Century, and we saw some drawings of villages.  Perhaps you’ve heard of King Kamehameha (kuh MAY uh MAY uh--a fun word to say) who in the 18^th Century united the tribes and consolidated the islands.  He is said to have been almost 7 feet tall, built like the Fridge.  Other photos we saw showed daughters and younger generations who were equally large—one was 6’3 and weighed 400 pounds.  Not what some stereotypes depict of Polynesian folk.  We had a docent take us through the Hulihe’e Palace, a museum inside the final residence of royalty, which has been refurnished with nearly 85% of the original furniture and silver serviceware and china—all of which had been sold over the years by inheritors.  The wood furnishings were made of koa—a nearly extinct wood found in rainforests.  The wooden bowls and furnishings were spectacular.  King K. also had a church built near the palace which has now been rebuilt across the street.  We couldn’t go into the church as it is being refurbished after an earthquake, but a kindly man met us at the gate, spoke about the facility, then gave us a copy of the Lord’s Prayer in Hawaiian.  A treasure for future Pentecost worship services as the wind howled and all spoke in their native tongues…

We shopped the many shops along the coastal street.  One thing you notice is that all these places that rely on tourist dollars are really hurting as evidenced by closed shops and limited tourist options.  There was no Hop-on-Hop-Off Trolley running as large signs advertised and we dutifully trod to the ticket booth a few blocks away. The tours that are sponsored by our cruise ship are often disappointing because the stops and the included sites are often reduced because of closed sites, restricted entrance which doesn’t work well on large tours.  We headed back to the ship and prepared for dinner.  The show this evening was a singer who is a theatre actor of some renown.  He was really good.  Sea days ahead as we go south to the French Polynesian Islands.

*a “tender” is a small vessel used to transport people from ship to shore when the harbor is too shallow for the ship to go directly to shore itself.  This ship offloads two of its enclosed motorized craft that are part of the many saved for emergency evacuations.  Each is rated for 150 passengers in a lifeboat situation can hold 100 on tender trips and is allowing 50 at this time on molded plastic benches inside.