Waimea Homestead Farmers Market

Waimea, up near the north tip of Hawaii Island. If the west side is where tourists gather, the relatively mountainous Waimea is really for locals. A small farmers market is held every Saturday morning on the grounds of a public school.

This stand also had some lovely beeswax candles.

Hand-cut pasta. Interestingly, I get the impression that Italian food isn't particularly in demand on the Big Island. Japanese food? Yes.

Stand selling various types of flavored Macadamia nuts.

Freshly chopped coconuts.

A very popular local bakery. Their cinnamon rolls and cookies tasted like heaven on the plane ride back.

There was a stand selling exclusively orchids.

Quail eggs, which were larger than the ones sold in supermarkets in Japan.

There was quite a long line for this stand.

 I must try these one day.

This suggests that something has escaped.

Golf Course Nature Walk

After hours on a gold course in Waikoloa, Hawaii. It is a surprisingly good place to do some animal-watching.

An eagle eye (and a photo enlargement) will spot the animal hiding in plain sight in this photo.

 

It's a mongoose! All these years, I'd wondered what the ferrety animals were, and now I know. It's possible one of the most bizarre animals you could ever find on the island. 

Some backstory: in the late 1880s, a sugar mill received 72 Indian mongooses from Jamaica for the purpose of eating rats. They did not fulfill those expectations, and preyed on birds and eggs instead. They drove animals to extinction, and with no animal to challenge them, grew exponentially in number. For over 100 years, Hawaii has recognized them as a threat to their environment.

 

I mean, look at the number of mongoose holes in this patch of land. I've even seen them steal cat food.

Completely unforgiving lava rock.

A family of quails rapidly running away. Ironically, I would not have noticed them if they had not been so fast.

Here as well, there are at least five quails, but if they had stood still, they would have blended in perfectly. Incidentally, the mongoose in the second photo stood so still, it took using the zoom lens to recognize that it was animal, not a rock, even though it was standing on the green grass with nothing to camoflauge it.

I marveled at how swiftly they were able to move across lava rock to get away. There are seven quails here.

A panorama view.

Wild Goats on Hawaii Island

It's become somewhat of a family tradition to go to Hawaii in the summer, so there are some things that I'm always looking forward to ticking off my list when I'm there. One is: spot the wild goats living on Waikoloa King's Course and the highway.

Goats were brought to Hawaii Island by Captain Cook in the late 1700s, and it quickly became clear that their existence meant trouble for the native plants. Unlike other animals on the island, such as cats or mongoose, I don't see any humans feeding them. They seem to manage fine on their own, living among the inhospitable-looking lava rock. I've heard that wild pigs live alongside the highway too, but I've never been able to spot them.

It's another story for the goats living on the golf course, though. They have swathes of grass to feast on! Even then, though, the surrounding area has nothing but lava rock.

They seem to make their daily routine walking from one end of the golf course to the other. I like how they move in a big, lazy pack, with babies running up out of nowhere.

Procuring Free Coconut Water

A coconut I dragged back to my place from the beach in Waikoloa, Hawaii.

I knew from past experience that breaking open a coconut is much harder than it looks, but it was still quite strenuous as a task. Fortunately, the Big Island is covered with sharp lava rocks. I bashed the coconut against them for about 20 minutes and sawed away with a bread knife to get to the hard inner shell in the center.

You can see the white part of the coconut slowly becoming visible.

I poured out the coconut water and carved out as much of the white skin as possible.

Filtered it, and as an extra-cautionary measure, heated it up...

...and voila!

Panorama Shots of Hawaii Island

The fishponds that lead to Anaehoomalu Beach Park, right next to the Waikoloa Beach Marriott. There are larger fishponds elsewhere, but I found these to be the most accessible and most beautiful.

A similar shot, although this is a different fish pond.

One of the most picturesque beaches on the Big Island. (This is truly saying something.) The waves were fierce and the rocks were massive. Definitely not for novices. I noticed the beachgoers were mostly locals who knew better to mess with the coral reef.

Hapuna Beach, where the water is clear and the sands are fine. I had to tell off a Japanese family for actually walking on top of the coral! Knowing that more tourists equals more destruction for the coral leaves me feeling truly conflicted.

The rocky beach between the Waikoloa Beach Marriott and the Hilton Waikoloa Village, which can be accessed publicly. Definitely not an area for swimming.

Yet another state park, where I saw at least ten sea turtles. I will not write the name for fear it will bring too many tourists with not enough respect for nature.

A massive path of lava rock leading to the beach. I very much appreciate how a lot of the paths leading to public beaches are unpaved and quite rough to walk to. It's definitely one form of protection.

A view of the Waikoloa King's Course, which is an amazing place to walk after hours. I imagine star-gazing there would be brilliant.

The 2013 Horse Expo in Waimea.

The beach on one side, a large fish pond on the other.

Stopped at a "Scenic Point" area by the highway.