Alternately munching creamy macadamia nuts and sipping robust island coffees, we head for Ka’u…and volcano country. Along the Big Island’s backside, my hubby and I investigate the Hawaiian archipelago’s most unpopulated district, a vast landscape the size of Oahu.

Before settling into our Ocean View digs, we hike a three-kilometer interpretive trail in the 25000-acre Manuka Reserve. Sweet birdsongs and wild boar hoof-prints accompany us across ancient lava flows, through luxuriant rainforest and past old agricultural sites.A deep, greenery-covered pit crater marks the halfway point. We valiantly practice melodic Hawaiian plant names all along the well-marked lava rock trail; except for gnarled kukui nut trees, we recognize few of forty-eight native and one-hundred-and-thirty introduced species.

Later hobnobbing with locals at the busy pizzeria, we learn that businesses here are still family owned. Resort-free, they fondly refer to Ka’u as the final frontier. Residents just love their rural-style lives; scores of hidden upland strawberry, lettuce, coffee and protea farms flourish in dry, volcanic rubble…and guys hunt feral pigs on weekends.

Kick-started by memorable breakfasts amid stunning panoramas at Bougainvillea B&B, we plunge into several days jammed with fascinating sights. Kau’aoha’no Church steeple first signals arrival in tiny Waiohinu town, boasting an enormous monkey pod tree planted in 1866 by Mark Twain.

Standing beneath spreading branches vibrating with wildly chirping birds, my hubby quips, “Hey! No pods!” I snort, “No monkeys, either!” Although the original tree-trunk blew down during a hurricane in 1957, it has fully re-grown.

Neighboring Na’alehu is billed as the USA’s southernmost town, but its most tantalizing claim to fame is Punalu’u Bakeshop. Whiffs of fresh-baked Hawaiian sweetbreads entice us inside to savor purple taro rolls and warm mango malasadas, renowned melt-in-your-mouth confections, before investigating Whittington Beach Park’s fascinating lava tide pools.

We continue to Punaluu’s ultra-popular Black Sand Beach. Formerly an early Hawaiian settlement and later a shipping port, today’s park protects threatened green turtles. Immediately, we spy two mottle-shelled beauties basking on soft black sands; others flip and swim in the small bay fed by cold, freshwater springs.

Six miles away, a former sugar town nestles along Mauna Loa’s slopes. When Pahala’s mill closed in 1996, macadamia nut orchards replaced miles of sweeping cane fields; early 20th-century plantation mansions were restored as distinctive rentals for visitors. Most recently, small coffee farms have sprung up on the fertile hillsides.

Miles above Pahala’s ranchlands and native forests, remote Wood Valley shelters a Buddhist temple established in 1973, twice sanctified by the Dalai Lama.

Originally built as a turn-of-the-century Japanese Mission, today’s brightly coloured temple sits amid eucalyptus, stately palms and bamboo. Wild jasmine and ginger perfume the serenity of our stroll in one of Hawaii’s most secluded spots.

Another spectacular day, we check out the USA’s southernmost point. On route, Kamoa Wind Farm’s gigantic windmills tower above rolling emerald pastures filled with grazing cattle; scattered ohi’a trees bend to constant winds.

At the end of the road, spectacular windswept sea cliffs jut into the turbulent Pacific. Considered first landfall in the islands for seafaring Polynesian explorers, remains found in lava tube caverns riddling this area suggest settlements as early as 200AD.

And at an ancient Heiau platform near Ka’Lae light beacon, fishermen continue to leave branch coral, bamboo poles and fishhooks, gifts for the god of fishermen.

Below this rocky point, we watch fishing buddies balance sure-footedly on ‘suicide rock,’ casting for bait in seething surf, hoping they’ll later catch prized ahi or ulua. Other fishermen perch on craggy cliff tops; flimsy-looking platform hoists haul gear from boats anchored far below.

Near these wooden platforms, azure-blue seawaters surge up the sides of a puka in the lava…and gently recede. With meticulous timing, divers leap into this deep hole, ride through the lava tube into open ocean…climbing back up the cliff on rusty ladders…

Before leaving South Point, many trek more than 2-miles across a grassy plain…buffeted by vigorous headwinds…to an arduous trail down to Mahana Beach, aka Green Sand Beach and its unusual golden-green olivine sands.

Our last day, we rediscover ever-popular Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, brimming with highlights. With maps and hot tips supplied at the Visitor Centre, we start near the parking lot where a paved trail and boardwalks meander through pungent Sulphur Banks.

Billowing volcanic gasses seep from the ground, enshrouding treeless landscapes and depositing acid-yellow crystals on surrounding rocks. Returning atop the crater’s rim, countless steamy vents cloak purple-pink orchids and vegetation with a swirling, ghostly mystique.

Passing through 17-kilometers of rainforest and barren wilderness, Crater Rim Drive encircles Kilauea’s summit, the legendary home of the Fire Goddess. As they have for centuries, offerings to Pele line the immense caldera’s rim; rocks wrapped in ti leaves, leis and bananas appease her blistering wrath.

Crossing desolate black lava fields punctuated with vaporous wispy puffs, we teeter right on Halema’uma’u Crater’s edge; white-tailed tropicbirds float on thermals deep in the volcano’s heart. Although crusted over nowadays, during the 19th-century this boiling lava lake inspired Mark Twain’s declaration, “It’s like looking into the fiery pits of Hell!”

Devastation Trail later leads us through a fern and ohi’a forest destroyed in 1959 by Kilauea Iki’s eruption. And through luxuriant rainforest alive with birdlife at Thurston Lava Tube, we wind under a lava field in a mammoth cave 500-years-old.

Outside the Park, we detour into Kipuka Pu’alu where “Bird Island” has escaped centuries of eruptions and lava flows. A tranquil 30-minute walk teems with tropical birds thriving in the age-old forest.

Before leaving Ka’u, we toast roads less traveled with award-winning wines at Volcano Winery. Over Macadamia Nut Honey, Volcano Blush and Hawaiian Guava we conclude: there’s much more than first meets the eye in Ka’u, Hawaii.

About the author:

This week Traveling Tales welcomes Canadian freelance travel writer Chris Millikan who lives near Vancouver, on Canada;s West Coast.

About the photos:
1: Turtles on the Black Sand beach: Rick Millikan photo
2: The hoist at South Point: Rick Millikan photo
3: Sulphur Banks in Volcanos National Park: Chris Millikan photo

If You Go:
www.bakeshophawaii.com – Punalu’u Bake Shop
www.hawaii-bnb.com/bougvl.html – Bougainvillea B&B
www.bigisland.org – Havaii’s Big Island

West Maui has attracted holidaymakers for centuries. Even Hawaii’s legendary Kamehamehas recognized a good thing when they saw it. Staging extravagant luaus, they surfed and played on Kaanapali’s golden beaches for days. But, abandoning that laidback beach-life for a day, my husband and I joined other history buffs on a Historical Trail and Legends tour, alternately shuttling and walking into an alluring past. Meeting us under a thatched hale fronting Royal Lahaina Resort, two guides helped us visualize Ka’anapali’s bygone days. “Abundant mango orchards once flourished here and in immense gardens, villagers cultivated sweet potatoes and taro for Maui’s kings,” Keli’i grinned, “favoured staples to this day.”

Our shuttlebus then stopped beside the Eldorado’s golf course where rusty-brown pohaku stones rested behind a hedge. Miliani explained, “Uncovered during resort development, these artifacts reflect familiar legends: demigod Maui turned his la-a-a-z-y friend into that large stone, for example, to sleep permanently…a tough lesson for mocking hard work!”

Pointing northward to Kahekili Beach Park, she continued, “Warriors trained there…and Hawaiians launched their koa-wood canoes to visit Lanai.” Also nicknamed Airport Beach, old airstrip fragments remain off in the bushes. “The terminal’s Windsock Bar was well-known by travelers between 1960 and 1987 for great Bloody Marys,” Keli’i winked.

At Black Rock, popular with today’s snorkelers, we pictured ancient temples perching on top. “Still sacred in modern Hawaii, our souls leap into eternity from up there,” pointed Miliani. “And divers jump at sunset, just like Maui’s last great chief, known for cliff-diving.”

During the plantation era, a prosperous racetrack had stretched down the spectacular sandy oceanfront. And on the Black Rock’s other side, a mile-long pier off-loaded sugarcane and cattle to waiting ships.

Lush fairways along Ka’anapali’s Parkway covered an ancient battleground where royal half-brothers waged fierce war against each other to establish the island’s ruler.

“During battle that stream flowed with the blood of thousands of warriors, colouring foreshore waters red at Hanakao’o Point,” said Keli’i. And Miliani chimed in, “One legend says that to avoid sacrifice, Hina hid her son Maui up in the guardian owl’s secret cave at the stream’s source.”

Lahaina shimmered in the distance, our afternoon stop. Conquering Maui and marrying into its royal family, Kamehameha the Great designated this town first capital of a united Hawaii.

Hopping into our rental, we headed for Banyan Tree Park. Locals told us the magnificent tree planted in 1873 now shades almost an acre. Watching carvers finish canoes for the annual Festival of Canoes, I mused, “There’s always something cool going on here…festivals… markets… music…celebrations…”

Ducking through the rear door of the old Courthouse prominent on Wharf Street since1859, we wandered through the Heritage Museum and Art Gallery before picking up free historical guides at the Visitor’s Center there.

Toward the end of the harbour, we located the hauola stone, a sacred place for royal birthing and the floor of Kamehameha III’s brick palace, a royal residence until the 1850’s. He’d also commissioned the lighthouse nearby, initially a wooden tower with whale-oil lamps kept alight by Hawaiians for $20 a year.

The Pacific Fleet’s homeport from 1820 to 1860, hundreds of whaling ships anchored here, gritty grogshops lined streets…and Herman Melville rambled around town scribbling notes for Moby Dick. The Pioneer Inn dating to 1901 still posts strict turn-of-the-century regulations in its rooms.

Back at Banyan Park’s southwest corner, fort remnants from 1831 endure, originally built after raucous sailors lobbed cannonballs into town, disputing with missionaries over Hawaiian women visiting their ships. Demolished twenty years later, hand-cut coral blocks from its 20-foot-high walls built the jail standing at Prison and Waine’e Streets.

After peeking into the tiny spartan cells built for drunks and deserters, we found the first Christian graveyard; Waine’e Cemetery’s royal burial sites have been sacred to Hawaiians since 1823.

Nearby, Seamen’s Cemetery interred Melville’s cousin and several shipmates, among others. Further along, chiefs and commoners, captains and sailors, missionary’s children and elders lay in Waiola Churchyard.

Between Waine’e and Front Streets, Hawaiian Kings and powerful chiefs had lived in regal compounds on a tiny island in a freshwater pond. After removing sacred entombed remains, coral rubble filled in this 14-acre pond to install a ballpark in 1918. Friends of Moku’ula now work to restore former glory.

Nicknamed Venice of the Pacific, canoe channels once connected countless taro terraces in what is now Lahaina’s downtown.

Hawaii’s last monarch, Queen Liliokalani grew up in a grass house near Canal Street; today, the Episcopal Church there features a rare koa altar and beautiful Hawaiian Madonna. In Kamehameha Iki Park next-door, Kamehameha IIIs two-storied oceanfront palace stands unfinished…he’d preferred pili-grass beach-huts cooled by trade winds.

Spreading kukui-nut trees shade Lahaina’s oldest buildings on Front Street. Docents at Baldwin House related tales about its influential residents. “This dynamic mission and medical center was built of coral, stone and wood in 1834; most of these 19th-century furnishings were payment for services.

Doctor Dwight Baldwin had saved thousands of lives on Maui with the early use of smallpox vaccinations and vigilant quarantines.” When asked about their wealth, she added, “Their youngest son built irrigation flumes critical to the sugarcane industry’s success, creating a fortune.”

Down the block, two-storied Wo Hing Temple served Chinese sugarcane workers; now rare artifacts and altars showcase their island history. Surrounded by gigantic rusted woks and kitchen implements in the adjacent community cookhouse, we absorbed the romance of old Hawaii captured by Thomas Edison in his earliest movies.

Our exploration ended on Jodo Mission’s peaceful grounds. A five-tiered pagoda soars into cloudless blue skies and the largest Buddha outside Japan sits serenely against sweeping views of West Maui’s pastoral Mountains…ideal for contemplation of the fascinating history uncovered that day.

About the author:

Traveling Tales this week welcomes Canadian freelanace travel writer Chris Millikan who lives near Vancouver, on Canada;s West Coast.

Photos by Chris Millikan
1: Lahaina Wo Hing Temple.
2: Overview of old Lahaina.
3: Lahaina Jodo Mission.