As far as farm work goes, I had gotten close to achieving my goal of clearing the north side of the property line from the house to the road, but there was one really dense patch of nasty, dried up vines mixed in with shrubs that had created an impenetrable ball of jungle mess that had to be attacked. On what felt like (and probably was) the hottest day of the year so far, Monica and I put on our farm clothes and got our clippers, machetes and saws, headed down to the vine jungle and hacked away. At one point this lovely little corner of the farm had a wild pig living in it, so it stunk like death and was super buggy. After 2 hours of cutting and yanking and smacking each other in the face with branches and vines, and getting totally bit up by all the critters, we had made a clear path to the road. Then we had to haul all the vines and branches over uneven lava rocks down to the road so it could be hauled away. By the end of it I was so tired, sore and itchy that I haven’t done any farm work since, but I will get back to it tomorrow.
The following day I went back down to meet Jodie with Hawaii Wildlife Fund to do native seed collection at South Point. Again, we hopped in the Polaris with big ol’ dog Bondo, and drove the dusty red roads down to the coast. I love it down there. It is so rugged and wild, pristine and remote – thanks to HWF. There had been plans in the works to develop the land for a high end gated community and this resort or that, but HWF got the funds together to purchase hundreds of acres of land to protect it from any sort of development in perpetuity. Hooray! A win for the good guys.
A few weeks back, Monica’s friend, who has become my friend, asked me if I could help her husband bartend a wedding she was planning this last Saturday. It sounded like fun so I said yes, but also because they requested lilikoi margaritas and mine are, well, famous – or at least becoming increasingly so. During the 6 hours that I bartended, we must have made 200 lilikoi margaritas. I told people it was a secret family recipe, passed down from generation to generation (lies, but good for conversation), and that we grew the lilikoi ourselves and hand squeezed the juice, so they better not waste a damn drop (the truth). I had never bartended before, so it was a fun experience, but I was at the wedding venue for 12 hours, and prior to that I had swam the Monument so by the time I got home at 1 AM I was so very tired. The next day I sat on the couch for the majority of the day, and only felt mildly guilty about not taking full advantage of one of my few last precious days here. But I made up for it today.
Over the past 4 months (in my humble opinion), I’ve done a pretty good job of getting out and seeing and doing things, particularly around Kona. That means, to see and do new things, I have to go kind of far. One of my lists of things to do was a special list just for Hilo, so I decided to take today to complete the list. I left the house early because the top priority was to surf Honoli’i, the surf spot Hilo side that I have seen many times but never had my board with me to surf it.
I packed up my rickety little car and left the sparkling, sunny Kona coast, wondering why I was leaving because there were waves at the local breaks and it looked beautiful. But I’m running out of time and today felt like a last opportunity to make it happen. I drove over Saddle Road and descended into the dark rainy cloud of HIlo, kicking myself. As I got closer to the coast the rain cleared up, and the wind hadn’t picked up yet. I drove up to the beach park at Honoli’i and was greeted with clean, chest high, peaky surf, with a little crowd – but that’s kind of a nice thing when surfing a spot for the first time. I changed quickly and watched where other people walked down the cliff, and paddled out. I made sure not to drop in on any of the uncles and before long they were calling me into waves and telling jokes. The surf spot is at the Honoli’i rivermouth and looking back up into the ravine I could see the thick jungle. At times, squalls came through and rain battered the green cliffs, but nobody seemed to mind.
After a really fun surf session, I got lunch, then stopped at the very bougie coffee shop I had wanted to try and got a very bougie coffee, then headed to the Lyman Museum. For whatever reason I’ve really been pushing the museum thing, but it was on par with the museum in Kaua’i: mildly interesting. That said, after reading and looking at the same material over and over, I’m getting a pretty good grasp of Hawaiian history. Maybe I’m just practicing museuming for Europe, but yeah Hawaii’s museums, at least the ones I have seen, are mediocre.
My last stop of the day was Boiling Pots, a waterfall and rapids above Hilo. I did a little walk and put my feet in the water, and was tempted to hike up the falls to the upper pools, but the “Beware of Flash Floods” signs spooked me. Rivers aren’t my element, and flying solo I tend to be a little more cautious, so I called it a day and headed home. Hilo Pride is this weekend, but I am opting for a camping trip with the family, so I think this was my last chance to spend some time in Hilo for a while. In spite of it being one of the rainiest places on earth, it is a charming little town, and very authentically Hawaiian.
And so, my last days will be spent hanging with the family, working on the farm, going camping down south, hanging with the few friends I’ve made here, a surf here and a snorkel there. It is a pretty incredible life.
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