Hilo to Waipi’o, continued
Laupahoehoe (below) was the best boat landing along the coast. Today is a very pretty day, very calm, but the waves still splash and the boat ramp seems impassable.
A plaque commemorates the tragic loss of 20 schoolchildren and their teacher who were taken by the great tsunami of 1946.
A fiddlehead fern from the waterfall walk.
Water from the Akaka falls lands, finally, at Kolekole Beach Park (left). The park is very popular with local people. Children get to play in really fun swimming pools, here. Three littles swing on a rope and drop down into the pond.
Waipi’o Valley (right) is described in the Big Island Handbook as “the way the Lord would have liked to fashion the Garden of Eden if he hadn’t been on such a tight schedule.” From the overlook, 1,000 feet above the sea, the valley appears magical. Surf from tradewinds of the vast Pacific roll onto the east facing black beach; the opposite valley wall is a green verticallity scribed by a faint trail z’ing down: further in, what appears to be natural wetland is patched green-on-green with raised grass-islands; and further in are crop fields looking miniature and perfect in a perfect happy valley. I expect a cricket to speak or a bluebird to sing of exquisite harmony in lives of these people.
There is a road that descends to the valley floor (25% grade); only 4WD vehicles are permitted to pass. The Big Island Handbook says “If you attempt it in a regular car, it’ll eat you up and spit out your bones.”
John walks down to the first bend, to see further into the valley. Even walking down strains the thighs. The light is not right. Clouds shadow the valley’s upper end. As he turns to ascend, a slender young man going the other way, with a pack on his bare back and wearing enormous hiking boots says in a friendly way, “Not going all the way down?” With a half-laugh John owns up “Not me.”. The fellow is cheery and pleased with life; “Good choice. It’s a mile down and ten miles back.” And then skips and dances merrily down the road, his ponytail dancing behind him.
In 1946 the tsunami crested in Waipi’o Valley with a height of 40 feet and swept inland for half a mile. The devastation to homes and the land was tremendous but no lives were lost. Many great kings are buried in Waipi’o and people feel that because of their mana, no harm comes to those that live there.