The East and North Shore

Today we took the state highway from our hotel and went as far north as we could go. To literally where the highway stopped. It stopped at Ke'e beach, where we snorkeled and laid in the sun. I love love love to snorkel. It doesn't take much to do it, and it so cool to see the fish that come right up to you.

Here are some of the cool pictures I took with the panorama feature on the digital camera. It will come in very handy on this trip since so much of this island is panoramic.

What have I liked so far? This is not the commercialized, over populated, over run, typical Hawaiian island. I felt the same way when I was on the Big Island four years ago. This island is so natural and untouched, it's hard to figure out when you've arrived where you want to be. The signs are incredibly limited. You can easily miss turns and locations if you don't pay attention to the landscape. We found a place today by looking at the map and realizing we passed a mountain and would be coming up on a community.

Tomorrow, the south and west side. We'll see where the road takes us. We are having fun, and truly enjoying the laid back, simple lifestyle here. Plus there is no bad view anywhere you look. Click on the pictures to make them bigger, much better that way.

The Kileua Lighthouse is at the tip of the point to the left. All the white dots in the canyons are birds. This is also a protected bird sanctuary.

This is US Forest Service land. Why the farms then? There is a cooperative agreement between taro farmers and the Forest Service. Taro farming, since it's done in shallow ponds, promotes water fowl environment. Since taro farming has fallen off in recent years, so has water fowl populations. This way the farmers can use the land, and the Forest Service promotes conservation. Sustainability working well. Plus it's a great view.

This is just a beautiful sunset we stopped to take a picture of.
The land you see is a farm. Simply a great view.