This morning, we took a walk through parts of the Waikoloa Beach Resort we hadn’t previously seen. We could have walked a couple of miles each way on the sidewalk that runs in front of the Marriott, but that wouldn’t have been very interesting. Instead, we took the first “Shoreline Access” trail that we saw, which led us to a series of anchialine ponds that they’d built during the construction of the resort.

These anchialine pools have an underground connection through the porous lava to Anaeho’omalu Bay and respond to the tides there; their water is brackish (or so the signs say – I didn’t test it) and they’re loaded with small shrimp and snails, though I didn’t get close enough to photograph them.

The trail took us all the way to the shoreline of the bay, where I was close enough to photograph one of the little fishes swimming around.

The trail took us to the Hilton resort, which hosts a “Dolphin Quest” operation that lets guests swim with dolphins in one of the hotel pools. There were big signs facing the shoreline trail claiming that the dolphins are happy and benefit from the interaction, but I have my doubts.

We walked back to the Marriott along the shoreline trail.

When we got to the Marriott, we saw people peering intently into the water – there were sea turtles very near the shore.

When they built the Marriott, they perserved two royal fishponds, and fish still flock there (though I’m pretty sure they are no longer harvested).

We had lunch at Kona Brewing again on our way to South Point, the southernmost piece of land in the fifty United States (some territories are farther south). It was a long, slow drive with few places to stop (we did make a pit stop at Kai Loki, the southernmost bar and restaurant in the US), but it was worth the trip.

There’s an ancient Hawaiian heiau just a few hundred yards from the coast.

We walked to the edge of the sand (there were rocks and lava farther out, but the waves strongly discouraged us from getting any closer to the water than we did).

On the way back to the car, I caught sight of Pu’u Hou, a littoral cone formed during the 1868 eruption of Mauna Loa.

I thought about visiting the green sand beach nearby…but “nearby” would have involved a couple of miles of hiking, and it was already getting late, so we skipped it. Instead, we stopped at Paradise Meadows on South Point road to taste coffee and macadamia nuts and tour their farm, which let us see four parrots who had been abandoned by their previous owners.

We left with three bags of macadamia nuts, only two of which were chocolate-covered. I can’t say that it’s worth driving all the way to South Point to go to Paradise Meadows, but it’s a great place to stop along the way!

Our resort (the Marriott Waikoloa Beach) offers a few “cultural” activities, including the “Nēnē and Native Plants” walk we took this morning. Our guide, Pua, took us around the hotel and showed us places they are trying to preserve or plant native species, like this ti plant.

There were a lot of non-native species too, giving me an excuse to include yet another hibiscus photo in the blog.

We didn’t see any nēnē, but Pua showed us pictures which demonstrated their kinship to the Canadian goose.

Pua took us to the luau pit, where the crew was getting ready for tonight’s luau. They’d spent a couple of hours burning kiawe (Hawaiian mesquite) to charcoal, and now they were ready to add the pig and other meat, then turn the whole thing into a giant pressure cooker where the food would cook for several hours.

It’s always good to see professionals at work.

After the tour, we set out to explore the northern end of the island, beginning with a stop in Waimea (known to the USPS as “Kamuela“), home to the Parker Ranch and the Paniolo Heritage Center, where we stopped to enjoy their mid-week farmers’ market and visit the Nā Wahine Holo Lio Paʻu Museum, honoring the history of the region’s pa‘u riders.

We had hoped to have lunch at Merriman’s Restaurant, but they were closed for renovation, so we did the next best thing and ate at Village Burger in the Parker Ranch Center. They use local beef and lamb, and I really enjoyed my burger.

We drove about 20 miles up Kohala Mountain Road to the little town of Hawi, which used to be a major hub of the Kohala Sugar company. These days, its main street is lined with art galleries, restaurants, and craft shops – we had dessert at Our Founding Farmers, a “farm-to-scoop” ice cream shop. It was an interesting experience – as soon as we walked in, the owner asked us if we had any allergies and proceeded to give us tastings of about half of their flavors! All were delicious, but I could only have two – I finally chose Lilikoi with Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate. Highly recommended if you’re in the area.

The next town down the road is Kapaau, home of the original King Kamehameha Statue.

Kamehameha’s birthplace is a few miles away, but we decided against going there and drove back to the resort so we’d have some time before going to a magic show later this evening.

We passed the Pu’ukoholā Heiau National Historic Site on the way home and decided to stop, but we only went to the Visitor Center because the winds were too strong for us to go to the actual heiau (they were notified of a Red Flag Alert while we were there)!

We didn’t get to go to the magic show, either – tonight’s performance was rescheduled for Friday evening. We consoled ourselves with foofy drinks and quesadillas at Aloha Wine Bar.