Kona-day 3

This morning was beautiful and fairly calm. When we got home this afternoon from our travels, the water was the calmest and quietest it had been the 3 days we've been here. Did we get to enjoy the quiet waves? No, because our neighbor was using his gas blower to blow the leaves in his yard! As I write this by our lanai, the ocean has gone back to being the wild thing it is.
(Okay, you have to start at the end of your trip to have it be at the end of your blog-dumb!)


We headed down the coast (the southern route). We had to go up away from the coast to get down to the southern region. As we're heading down Route 160, your father says, "I think I just saw a lion. I think those people back there have a lion!". I said let's turn around and see. So we did and this is above)what we saw-a huge cage with a german shepherd inside (you can't see the dog because he and the other "lion" started barking at us so I rolled my window down about 2 inches and took a picture and we drove off before the lion tamers came out to yell at us.







Our next stop was this church, called St Benedict's Painted Church. The walls, columns, and ceiling depict biblical scenes painted by a Belgian priest names Father Velghe. They still hold meetings in the building. This isn't the only painted church on the island. There is another one in Hilo which was painted by another Belgian priest.
People so desperate to snorkel that they're willing to sit and sunbathe on lava rocks which are extremely uncomfortable (not to mention hot!)
Our next stop was at the Pu'uhonua O Honaunau (Place of Refuge). It is a 180 acre National Historic park which was once a safe haven for women in times of war as well as for "kapu" (sacred laws) breakers, criminals, and prisoners of war - anyone who could get inside the 1,000 foot wall (in the background by the hut) which was 10 feet high and 17 feet thick could avoid punishment. War weary soldiers could also seek refuge here. When the war was over, they then had to turn their allegiance to whomever won the war. Criminals or "kapu" breakers would go through an absolution ceremony with a priest, be forgiven, and then in a few hours were allowed to go home and not be in trouble with their people.
One side of this "complex" was a refuge and the other was a recreational area for the ali'i (royal chiefs). This hut was a temple for the ali'i and was the dividing point between the refuge and royal area. They used to make offerings on the tower.
Three of the Ki'i standing watch over the reconstructed temple and mausoleum where the bones of 23 ali'i were housed.
This cove was the royal canoe landing. Only royals were allowed to land here. The wooden post in the middle of the cove was to warn commoners not to land here.
To seek refuge after breaking a kapu and being pursued by warriors, you would swim from the bay to this area - pu'uhonua. No one is allowed to shed blood in the refuge.
Is he seeking refuge? Our first sea turtle spotting. He was just swimming around in circles.
I think he's telling us to scram, beat it, leave me alone OR maybe he's saying hi.
This was our second sighting of a different nesting turtle. The place of refuge is now a place of tide pools. You walk on lava rocks which are various heights and sizes to reach these tide pools which can take you out to the ocean-gorgeous area but a little treacherous because the wet lava rocks are very slippery.
He was really hard to see through my camera so I didn't get a very good picture of him coming up for a breath. He's got his eye on me (I had to say it).

This is what we were walking on. It is all over the island. I guess it's what the island is made of!
This is the southernmost point in the United States! It is called South Point-duh.

Remember I mentioned the messages that locals and tourists "write" with white coral. This is our message to Andrew at the most southern point in the United States. Grandpa has a piece of the coral for Andrew who'll be thinking, "What you went all the way to Hawaii and you just brought me a rock?"



I thought the sand would be more tiny bits of lava but it was sand. Very strange to be walking or sitting on black sand. This was our final stop of the day. A good day. We even had a downpour on the way home.