South Point
March, 2012
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We left the nice black sand beach and turtles at Punaluu
and continued south.
Hawaii is the southernmost state in the United States of America,
and the Big Island is the southernmost island in the Hawaiian islands.
Since the road more or less went there,
we decided to go visit the southernmost point in the United States.
The ends of land masses are always impressive,
and even though Hawaii is just an island,
it's south end is still impressive.
There's nothing for a long ways east or west to interrupt the wind and waves.
Consequently, the land is almost constantly swept by winds,
and there is a never-ending succession of waves bashing the shore.
If you has any doubts about that,
all you need to do is look at the few trees that put up with it.
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On our way down,
we came upon an older, rusting and fallen in disrepair wind farm.
It was depressing,
these big monuments to failure of some kind.
I still wonder why they weren't maintained.
I did some research and this was the Kamaoa Wind Farm.
The facility consisted of 37 individual wind turbines,
each of which could produce 250 kilowatts of electricity.
It began operation in 1987 and generated up to 9.3 megawatts of electricity.
Apparently it was not cost-effective to keep them operating.
As we continued on,
we were delighted to see a newer wind farm nearer the south end,
and it was operating.
The new one has 14 turbines and generates up to 21 megawatts.
It is called the Pakini Nui.
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| Pakini Nui Wind Farm |
The road slowly deteriorated,
and was pretty full of potholes by the time we made it to the extreme south end.
There were a good number of people there,
considering it is the middle of nowhere.
When we arrived, the big attraction
was a blowhole which had noticeable surge going on,
and a couple of guys from eastern Europe who were jumping into it.
It looked a bit dicey, but doable...
But we still had miles to go before we made our camp for the night,
and while it was a warm day, it wasn't exactly hot.
I might have signed on, but I passed.
I'm not sure whether or not I regret it.
Dona was glad I didn't.
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| Blow Hole, waves out |
Blow Hole, waves in |
| Jumping into the Blow Hole |
The ocean was that gorgeous blue you associate with Hawaii,
even on this windswept coast.
There weren't too many waves,
as the wind direction was such that the land was sheltering the bay we were looking at.
You could see coral reefs from above,
and it made me think about diving.
So much to see and do,
so little time...
| Northwest Coast from South Point |
There are some green sand beaches on the south point,
but the road is pretty bad and probably required four wheel drive.
Someone else told us it was a 45 minute hike as well.
I'm not sure what the real story is,
but it was already evening and we had a ways to go.
Another thing to save for next time.
So we turned the buggy around and headed back up the road,
over the hump, and up the west coast to
Milolii.
