We left Pu'uhonua O Honaunau in good spirits, and ambled up the coast towards Kialua. Dona wanted to do a little shopping -- she wanted a mu'umu'u and material to make a few things. We figured there would be shops everywhere, but we had difficulty finding one with what she wanted.
The first thing we found was this sign, which explained a lot of the United States' problems:
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Anyone dumb enough to agree with that sentiment ought to be banished to a reservation of like-minded people and left to fend for themselves with no help from the outside world where people make discoveries of things like vaccines, build things like cars and bicycles, and generally improve their way of life as a result of thinking.
We left that depressing look at America behind and continued on towards Kialua. Along the way we found some nice art and handcrafts. We ended up browsing around the shops in Kialua proper, probably what you would call "Tourist Trap Row," but we eventually found what we were looking for; plus, not unexpectedly, a bit more. While a fair number of the shops were what I can only call standard tourist souvenirs and trinkets, there were enough that had genuinely high quality, locally made items that we enjoyed our time browsing around.
We did have some self-imposed constraints on our time -- Dona wanted to make it to our camp on the north end in time to have dinner at a special restaurant in Hawi, a small town up there. So we headed out of town about 5pm. Even Kialua has a rush hour, and we ended up in it. It wasn't too much of an impediment, and after a half hour or so we were mostly alone again.
Wow! As soon as you leave Kialua you are into large, desert-type lava flows. Eventually we made it past the lava flows, and into the dry north end .
This page last updated on 2013-10-23.
