Sun. Apr. 4: Happy Easter! We wanted to attend a UCC Church today and got two suggestions from a church secretary in Hilo with whom I had corresponded before we came. We ended up at Mokuaikaua Church, which proved to be an interesting experience. Built by early missionaries in 1837, using coral and lava rock, this is the oldest Christian church in Hawaii. Because the Congregationalist missionaries first came in April 1820, they were celebrating their 190th anniversary today. The service began with about 20 minutes of praise music and the Samoan minister had a pretty conservative, fundamental message for his very receptive congregation. But the people were friendly and welcoming, and the woman next to me gave me her lei with “some sugar” (a kiss). Heidi and I stayed to hear a history talk by a very fervent member, who did seem to know her stuff, but had a pretty sympathetic and approving (of the missionaries) point of view. Because the lines were so long, we regretfully decided not to stay for the anniversary luau to which everyone was invited. Instead we went back to change our clothes and make a lunch and took the roads leading to the north part of the island. There is a big difference along the drive between the lava desert close to Kona and the gentle slopes of the oldest part of the island as one travels north. We stopped at Kekaha Kai State Park Beach to enjoy our lunch and watch people playing in the waves. Marv and I went down and got our feet wet and marveled at the fine white sand beach, edged with harsh black lava boulders. Further on we took a very rough unpaved road to the south part of Kiholo Bay. Here we found “The Queen’s Pool”, a collapsed lava tube which has a spring that keeps a few feet of crystal clear fresh water in it. There is a ladder to climb down into it and one can swim under the rocks into another part that is open to the air above too, but none of us went in. Instead we hiked on up the beach to see the spectacular beach complex built by Paul Mitchell, which he apparently rarely visits. Pretty unbelievable!! Back in the car, the temperature dropped as we continued to drive. We drove around the northern tip of the island, encountering a lot of fine, cool rains. In Hawi we enjoyed a Kona Brewery draft at Luke’s Tiki Bar before retracing our route. As we came down the west coast we encountered the most vivid, full spectrum, full arc rainbows any of us had ever seen. Pictures may not do them justice but we took plenty! We returned to Kawaihae and had dinner at a Tres Hombres Mexican restaurant set back and above the beach at the harbor, over which we watched the sunset. Back “home we split a bottle of wine while we made our plans for Monday and Tuesday, and got to bed a little bit early.
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