OCR Text |
Show VISITORS TO NAlVAilAH ISLFifliS TELL STOtlY OF W? EDITOR'S NOTE At the request re-quest of the local ediior, Mrs. I Clair Ashton ha's written a res- ume of the trip recently taken by the Ashtons and Mayor and Mrs. J. V. McLea to Hawaii. So many have asked questions about the trip and about the is-, is-, lands that we felt this a means to answer them. After reading the following article, if ycu haven't a yen to visit the islands, is-lands, it is a certainty that you will have one when you finish the account. After five days at sea. two of them exceedingly rough, we found ourselves being welcomed to this . "Land of Paradise" by a happy and hospitable group oi people a thrill we shall never forget. Our boat stopped at Diamond Head, an extinct volcano crater jutting out into the sea and marking the beginning of Wai-kiki Wai-kiki Beach. Here the official I welcoming .party came aboard ' and presented everyone with 1 flower leis, a kiss, greetings and ! alohas, while native boys dived for coins tossed into the sea by the passengers. The boat then proceeded to Aloha Tower and docked, while bands played, groups sang, Hula girls danced, and hundreds of people shouted a warm greeting to those aboard. We were then driven to the Moana Hotel where still another an-other group welcomed us. As we walked through the hotel to the large court completely com-pletely shaded by a large Banyan Ban-yan tree the panorama oi beautiful Waikiki Beach lay be-forexUs. be-forexUs. The coast line bordered with, coconut palms, the white sandy beach that dipped down into the pale, greenish-blue waters wa-ters of the Pacific, the white-capped white-capped breakers dotted wit1! surf-board riders, the sailboats and outrigger, canoes carrying loads of bathers in brightly colored col-ored suits, the strains of soft Hawaiian music drifting in from the court where the group was still bidding Aloha to the new-j I comers, all seemed to hold us j spellbound. 1 Our first tour took us to the top of Mt. Tantalus, where we I had a beautiful view of Hono- lulu City-and Harbor, j . On this drive we went to the Pacific National Memorial cem- etery, located in the Punch I Bowl Crater. In it are buried the ' thousands of World War II dead. It is completely grass covered and looks like a huge lawn. This is the cemetery where the crosses were all removed and flat marble markers placed at the graves, which caused a lot of criticism and protest. I However, to me, it is the most beautiful cemetery I have ever j visited. Here is the grave of Ernie Pyle, the noted war correspondent. cor-respondent. j This mountain drive introduced intro-duced us to many of the beautiful, beau-tiful, exotic flowers, shrubs and trees that grow in the Islands Is-lands the large tulip tree, covered cov-ered with flowers like our parrot par-rot tulip ; the hibiscus in many colors, the emblem of Hawaii and to me the most beautiful flower other than the orchid; the Bombax tree, with huge pink pom poms exactly like an ostrijh feather pom-pom; Elephant Ears, elongated calla lillies in shades of creamy pink, shell, red and torch ginger; Plumana, cup of gold, and wood P 1 u m a n a; Cup-of-Gold; and Wood Roses. Here, also, were the Banana, Papaya, Guava, African Pine, and many other trees too numerous num-erous to mention-. The Philadendron vine that we coax along in pots and planters plant-ers grow wild, carpeting the mountain soil and twining up the tree trunks. The individual leaves measured up to 14 inches long. Among the many other places visited on this tour were the, University of Hawaii, the Mormon Mor-mon Tabernacle (the most beautiful beau-tiful church in Honolulu), and the little grass shack of the poet I and author, Robert Louis Stevenson, Stev-enson, where he. did much of his writing. Our next trip took us past the Doris Duke mansion, along the coast to Koko Head, an extinct volcano. En route we passed a large tubercular sanitarium There are many of these on the Islands. We were told that many "natives live on an unbalanced unbal-anced diet of fish and rice. This, with so much dampness, makes them very susceptible to the disease. After a few more days of touring, resting and shopping, we left by plane for Kauai, the "Garden Isle," so called because of the lush mountain greenery and beautiful gardens. It is also "Menehune" land. The Menc-hunes Menc-hunes are commonly called pixies pix-ies or dwarfs of legendary Hawaii who performed marvelous marvel-ous feats of construction all in One night, such as building dams, fish ponds, etc. Anthropologists now think that the Menehunes were the Island's first settlers- normal-sized normal-sized men who became dwarfed in comparison wiin tne tan, warrior - like Polynesians who came later. Kawai is a dissected volcano dome. The highest peak, Mt. Waraleale, is 5,170 feet high. The wettest spot in the world, it rains here continuously, 620 inches being recorded in one year. We went by motor boat up the river to a large fern grotto a large cave in the solid rock, about 50 feet high. The face of the cave is veiled by hanging ferns, some branches 10 to 25 feet long. A filmy mist of water sprays out over the ferns fantastically fan-tastically beautiful. , On this island were the large I sugar cane and pineapple plantations. plan-tations. The pineapple fields are never irrigated, but the sugar cane comes in for expensive irrigation. ir-rigation. The sugar cane fields yield as high as 14 tons per acre. On this island one also sees the native fishing villages and rice paddies. We also visited unique Kolo beach with the famous blow hole, "Spouting Horn," activated like a geyser by winds and tide. The large double red' poinset-tias poinset-tias in Kanai were really something some-thing lafge, bright red flowers flow-ers and heavy green foliage completely com-pletely hiding the brancnes of the six-foot-high shrubs. After two ' days we flew to the Island of Hawaii. We passed the Islands of Mani, lvoiokai, and Lanai en route. We landed at Hilo, Hawaii, the "orchid Isle." Our guide met us at the plane and started us on a tour of the most beautiful and unique island of them all. Nearly everyone in Hilo has a plot of Vanda Orchids in his garden. But it was when our guide took us to a nursery where the large ones are grown that our ooohs! and ahs! turned to screams of delight. Here were orchids of every size, specie and color white, green, bronze, yellow, yel-low, blue, lavender and speck-eled, speck-eled, large butterfly and hybrid Vandas too beautiful to be true. We carried pots of them into the sun to get pictures, and the owner, a little Japanese lady, very generously gave us a corsage of three large orchids. After this we had a difficult time settling down for our trip to the volcanoes. Hawaii is the largest island and the one where volcanic activity has never ceased. The largest volcano- is Mauna Loa. Its spectacular 23-day 23-day eruption in 1950 was the largest in historic times in tons of lava produced three large flows going down to the sea. Kilewea volcano, quiet since 1934, may at. any time resume her eruptions. Since its activities activi-ties seem to be correlated with Mauna Loa, it is thought to be an outlet for the lava of the same source that feeds Mauna Loa, which has errupted on an average of every ZVz years. Although we were warned by signs that to approach the pit, or crater, of Kilewet was dangerous, dan-gerous, we edged oir (deserted by our guide) between the deep cracks left by a somewhat recent re-cent earthquake, and peered down into the pit. This crater is 750 feet deep and 300 feet wide. The walls are straight up and down. The floor was flat and had not a trace of vegetation. vegeta-tion. When we held a lighted match to one of the cracks near the crater, steam would boil up and flow out. There were also many spouts of escaping steam near the crater. We attended a colored movie, shown at the Volcano House, showing the 1950 eruption of Mauna Loa. It was dreadful, but beautiful. Even today, where the road crosses these lava flows, one can drive a stick down into the road bed and it will be hot when pulled out. Our drive back to Hilo took us through the large fern forest. That night we attended an Hawaiian pageant. The entire cast and 95 of the audience were native Hawaiians. The story of Hawaiian culture was depicted. Many modern hulas as well as their ancient dance pageantry pa-geantry were given. Every hula dance is a story. Each gesture j of the hands tells the story, 1 while the body sways in -hythm to the music. The next day we drove through the Parker Ranch to Kona. This ranch is the second largest U. S. ranch 300,000 acres stocked with 33,000 cattle and 500 sheep. Kona is the. center of the coffee cof-fee district. Here we saw coffee drying and visited the plant where it was cleaned and roasted. roast-ed. It is also noted, for its deep sea fishing. We drove, up to the pier just in time to see a fisherman fisher-man bring in a 375-pound, 10-foot 10-foot Marlin (swordfish). We visited the ancient "City of Refuge." . This is walled by large stones placed one on the other to form an 8-foot wall. The stones are so large that it would seem humanly impossible to lift them. This they say proves that the ancient Hawaiians Hawai-ians were a group of giant-like men. The human sacrifices were made at this place, . and the women and children were placed inside these walls for protection. We also saw the Hieaus, or caves, which once housed the femains of Hawaii's great , kings. j The Kona Inn, at which we stayed, was at the water's edge. , The white, rolling surf, the lovely sunsets, the fragrance of, 1 the flowering trees made one I feci Kona as well as see it. I We returned to' Honolulu by i plane. There are no railroads 1 in the islands and since the advent ad-vent of planes, boats do not run passenger service. Perhaps one of our most interesting in-teresting ventures was attend-' ing a Hukilau, a fishing festival. We watched them throw the ! nets into the sea and then pull j in the fish. Then came the feast which we didn't much enjoy. en-joy. The food for this Luaw consisted of the meat from whole pigs, wrapped in tarro leaves and baked in a pit with preheated rocks; Lomi, raw salmon; and Poi, a pastry substance sub-stance made from the tarro root. I After the feast there was an outstanding program of singing and dancing in native costume. Dancers from Samoa also participated par-ticipated in this. We were unfortunate to arrive ar-rive at the beautiful Mormon Temple at Laie after the grounds were locked, so we could only see this ' beautiful structure from outside the gates. The gardens and pools are very beautiful. After two more days in Honolulu, Hon-olulu, we very sorrowfully packed our bags and boarded the Lurline for our homeward journey. As the boat rounded Old Diamond Head, we threw our lies into the sea and said "Aloha" to a divinely beautiful land and hoped that someday we might return. |