HAWAII'S EXOTIC ORCHID ISLE:
The Big Island
by
Bruce Burnett
Imagine
a sun-soaked island with only 25 people per square mile, with beaches,
rain forests, deserts, remote hiking trails into pristine wilderness,
historic sites, active volcanoes and high mountains where, for several
months of the year, you can actually ski under the tropical sun.
This is the Big Island of Hawaii, also known as the Orchid Isle, because
more varieties of this exotic flower are grown here than anywhere else
in the world.
The Hawaii Volcanoes National Park has 240 kilometers (150 miles) of
uncrowded trails, varying from half-hour strolls to three-day treks.
The trails, well marked and safe, wind past steaming craters, through
yawning lava tubes and into jungles of fern and ohia. Particularly awesome
is Devastation Trail where sepulchral tree trunks sprout like charred
tombstones from the black lava. For backpackers the park provides A-frame
cabins equipped with bedding, kitchens, utensils and fireplaces. Even
in the tropics the nights are cold at 6,500 feet.
Linking the Kalapana and Kilauea sections of Volcanoes National Park
is the Chain of Craters Road, built in 1965. Since then lava from the
Mauna Ulu eruptions of 1969-74 has out-blacktopped the asphalt in sections.
Over the past 20 years the size of the Big Island has increased by more
than 200 acres due to flowing lava.
The National Park Visitor Center has maps and guidebooks on the 350
square mile park, which was established in 1916. Kilauea Caldera and
Mauna Loa are completely separate and are considered to be two of the
world's most active volcanoes. Kilauea's activity is evident everywhere
in the park, but the most dramatic scenes are from Crater Rim Drive,
misted along its 11-mile length by steaming, sulfuric vent-holes.
At 3,600 feet on the volcano's rim is Volcano House, a comfortable mountain
lodge that has been serving visitors since 1846 when it was a grass
shack. Afternoon tea or an evening cocktail on the inn's balcony affords
a breathtaking view of the great Kilauea caldera.
The 12,825-foot high Mauna Loa and her big sister the 12,942-foot high
Mauna Kea are the Big Island's crowning glories. Measured from its base
in fact, Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world, soaring nearly
30,000 feet up from the ocean floor. The Mauna Loa is the most massive
mountain in the solar system, with the exceptions of Maxwell Mons on
Venus and Olympus Mons on Mars.
The second largest city in the State of Hawaii (Honolulu on the island
of Oahu is number one) is Hilo, the City of Rainbows, on the east coast
of the Big Island. The city derives its nickname from a nearby waterfall,
Rainbow Falls, where spectacular colored light prisms dance in the spray
of cascading water. Not far away at Honomu, the 400 foot high Akaka
Falls plunges in the heart of a sprawling arboretum of ferns, ti, azaleas,
giant bamboo and orchids. It is the state's most accessible and tallest
sheer-drop waterfall and an ideal spot for picnics.
In the Hilo area the acres of lavender orchids and the greenhouses filled
with hundreds of species of the flower are well worth seeing. A guide
is always on hand to explain orchid culture.
Among the most photographed spots in Hawaii are the black sand beaches
at Punaluu and Kaimu. Spewing from the hubs of hell, the hot lava hit
the ocean, exploded and became pulverized. Years of pounding surf have
reduced the black cinders to a fine sand that does not stain skin or
clothing.
The Big Island is the only region of the United States that commercially
produces coffee. It is grown on the sunny slopes of Kona, after which
the coffee is named, on the island's west coast.
Adjacent to the coffee farms is Kealakekua Bay where Pacific explorer
Captain James Cook, arriving at festival time, was mistaken for the
God Lono by the natives. The same natives, later learning that Cook
was not Lono, put him to death.
The southern tip of the Big Island, Ka Lae, is the most southerly point
in the United States. Here a hiking trail leads to a green sand beach,
a delightfully secluded emerald strand that derives its color from volcanic
olivine (magnesium iron silicate).
HAWAII'S
EXOTIC ORCHID ISLE: The Big Island
was first published in The Sunday News
