Tsunami

Yesterday we had a brief scare here in Hawaii. A huge earthquake shook the Island Nation of Samoa triggering Tsunami warnings in New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii, and other Pacific Islands.


This was a small reminder of the risk of living in paradise. Just off the tip of my head I can think of the following natural disasters that could occur here in Hawaii- things that wouldn't happen in the midwest, or never have.

1. Volcanic Explosions
2. Earthquakes
3. Tsunami's
4. Landslides

Ohh Paradise, I guess it will be okay for a while though :)

Colombia

It's official- I'm going to Colombia. I purchased a ticket yesterday to visit Cali in December. After I complete my internship here in Hawaii I will be going directly to CO for 15 days. Don't worry mom, I will be back in Indiana by December 23 to celebrate Christmas with the Family.

Vamos!

Just another day in paradise

We made a trek to the beach again this weekend. This time we went to a beach with some real surf and sand- there were surfers, snorkelers, and tourists swarming the beach and waters. One of the guys I was with had brought a mask so I was able to swim around in the deeper waters and see an impressive array of tropical fish.

Tip 1- NEVER EVER watch Shark Week on the Discovery Channel before embarking on a 3 month trip to Hawaii.

I was paranoid the entire time while swimming in the water, not to mention the fact that Tiger Sharks are regularly spotted swimming in the area. I mean, should they even allow people in the water here?

Tip 2- If deciding to swim in the water in Hawaii after watching Shark Week always swim with a companion who has on a brightly colored swim suit. Hopefully the shark will eat companion first.



After surviving the deep waters at Richardson's Beach Park we headed over to a street festival in downtown Hilo. There were a couple stages set up with live Hawaiian music being played and a lot of food vendors all over the place. No elephant ears and apple dumplings though. A lot of booths had ethnic food like- rice, pork, things on sticks, sushi, and lots of other funny things with funny names. I bet they were tasty!

Loco Moco

The Loco Moco is a popular Hawaiian Dish. A scoop of white rice is topped with a hamburger patty, fried egg, and then a large serving of gravy is poured over the entire concoction to make for a tasty but heavy entree.



Mmm doesn't this look great?

23 years old or young?

At what age do people start saying you are -- years young today! I mean I didn't think 23 was that old and I have had people say you are 23 years young today! Is 23 really that old?

Expedition Hilo

I went to Hilo last weekend with 3 other interns. Hilo isn't a hot spot for tourists. The town looks like it's straight out of the 1970's-80's, complete with a 1950's downtown. The Big Island is known for its slow pace of life and country attitude, completely different than the Islands of Oahu and Maui. Everyone here seems to be "local or native." Hence- if you have blonde hair you stick out and if you go to the beach with two other blonde girls you really stick out in the crowd!

We spent the day at the Beach. Two little local boys loved playing with us! In Hawaii, young people refer to elders as Aunty and Uncle. The boys kept calling us Aunty and Uncle all day. It was Hilarious and we have no idea where their parents were all day. Hope the little kiddos made it home okay.


We found some Lilikoi- a type of passion fruit- at the beach. It was delicious,free, fresh, but had a very funny texture.


In Hilo Town we stopped to have a famous Hawaiian Shaved Ice. This Massive Snow Cone beat the pants off any snow cone you will ever find at Swiss Days or the Berne Pool!

Action Jump

A nice tourist lady had a fancy smancy camera and caught my jump off the 60 foot cliff at South Point. She sent me these pictures today.

South Point and Green Sand Beach

Yesterday we made the trip to the Southern most point in the US. There is no good road to get to the point so the trip involved some heavy duty off roading in a friends truck.

We stopped at some cliffs on the way to the point

I couldn't resist the jump into the deep!

We drove by the wind farm


After driving by the wind farm we made the trek to the Green Sand Beach. The Beach has abundant amounts of olivine in the sand making it appear green.



The dirty/rocky road to the Green Sand Beach

Life on the Volcano

Before I started my internship here in Hawaii I knew I was going to be living near Kilauea Volcano but I wasn't aware that I would be living on the volcano! The resort is actually located inside the gates of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and my apartment is about 1 1/2 miles from the summit of the volcano (not too far!).

Several people from home have expressed curiosity in the volcano because it's still active. Kilauea is different from the furious, ash and rock throwing explosion that struck Pompeii long, long ago.


Kilauea is constantly spilling lava into the ocean and has been letting out fumes for eons. If an eruption with any sort of explosion was to happen it would probably be slow, would flow towards the coastline and there would be a warning of at least a day from smart scientists.


In case you have any interest in checking in on the volcano heres a link to check out:

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilauea/

Tour de Big Island- Final Stage

The island tour is complete! We finished of the adventure with a quick 10-hour circle tour of the island. The day started out with a stop at Punalu'u black sand beach

next we continued south to-

the bread was delicious!

then we ran into some -


explored the place of refuge-



Do you see the resemblance?

paid our respects-


checked out the canoes in Kona-


and ended with a drive through the 250,000 acre Parker Ranch-


whoa! What a day. Now only if we had a car to go back and explore these places ourselves...

Volcano National Park - Stage 2

Today we had tours 2 & 3 of the Big Island series. Both tours were in the National Park. We actually live in the park so we didn't have to go too far. First, I had NO idea how big the entire park is. We drove 18 miles down to the coast line where the lava hits the ocean and you could see acre after acre of lava fields.

the black is the lava flow


picture down by the coastline


Thurston Lava Tube


Biggest "hole" (there is a more official name for, just can't remember) on Kilauea


I would highly recommend Volcano National Park to everyone. This is one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. It's hard to fathom where all this lava came from and it's crazy that this volcano is still alive!

Tour de Big Island

Today I did my first of four tours of the Big Island. The resort is allowing all of the interns to take all of the tours provided by KMC. This allows us to become better acquainted with the island and above all perform better in our internships because we will have a better understanding of the attractions around us, culture, and Hawaiian people. And the tours are great too because we don't have cars and we wouldn't get a chance to see most of these things if it wasn't for an organized tour or someone else dragging us around to the sites.

The first tour was in and around Hilo.

stop #1- Orchid Greenhouse/Farm


stop #2- Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory


stop #3- Akaka Falls


stop #4- Hilo Farmers Market


stop #5- 4 Mile Beach


Stage 2 begins tomorrow morning!