Big Island Dreams

 

 It's been a while!

Climbing down the outside stair ramp from the airplane at the Kona airport, I was relieved that no air personnel needed to use their recent mask-fu training on me or anyone else. Now that they know they can slug us, they don’t feel the need to employ the “pretty please” voice when they tell you “Mask OVER the nose”).

Kona airport is small, and therefore completely manageable. In a few minutes, I was in my tiny rental Chevy and on the way to the Saddle Road (aka Daniel K. Inoue Hwy, but nobody calls it that). The day was overcast, humid and in the 80s.

It’s been more than 25 years since I last set foot on the big island, and I wanted to revisit a few of the things that thrilled me then. I had forgotten that this is the newest of the Hawaiian Islands, and much of the land surface is covered with gritty lava. The black ground was dotted with crowns of bright golden grass – the kind landscapers pay a bunch for a bunch.

The land changes coming up from Kona on the Saddle Road. More of a tinge of green, small trees and…goats. Wee feral goats graze on the wayside, and an occasional tusked pig makes an appearance. Coming from the mainland, the vast emptiness of this plain, on the slopes of Mauna Kea, looking south to Mauna Loa is breathtaking. You can see the enormous bases of both mountains, totally obscured by clouds.

More than halfway to Hilo, near the road to the Observatory Station, the terrain changes again. I’ve been passing through wispy clouds for a few minutes, and now they’re turned to chilly rain. And a forest of tall trees whips past my windows. From there, dropping down into Hilo, which still looks like Hawaii to me. Green growth everywhere, Houses on stilts for air circulation, sun-faded buildings, slickness kept to a minimum.

Along Kamehameha Blvd

Of course, it’s not all old-school. My first stop was at a faintly clinical Macy’s to use the facilities.