FINDING SIREN'S HOME:Hawaiian Odyssey Part 2

After such a wonderful time on Hawai'i Island, we were expecting O'ahu to be as great. It would have been, surely, if I just hadn't picked up that nasty bedfellow, Swine Flu. I was soooo sick. And I had so much I wanted to do.

Fortunately for me, I've got a great hubby. Sitting around in a condo suite with a sick wifey in the other room is not exactly his dream vacation. But he not only took great care of me, he helped me do my necessary research. He managed to pick up several brochures and books for me, but the most helpful thing he did was to drive me where I needed to go. Where I couldn't go, he'd go for me.

I needed to see inside Diamond Head crater, and its outside slopes, to figure out how a person would get to the top in the mid 1800's. That was something I could do without coming into contact with anyone, so on Wednesday after the doctor visit, we drove there.

Diamond Head http://www.hawaiistateparks.org/parks/oahu/index.cfm?park_id=15
is an extinct spatter cone, probably created in a single eruption. Its distinctive shape, higher on the southwest side, is an effect of the tradewinds, which blow from NE to SW, and blew the light cindery material of the eruption in that direction. (Low side of crater rim in left photo, high side in right photo.) The crater floor is very flat, and entrance today is through a tunnel built in 1910. But the cone isn't very high, 780 feet, and the outer slope is not too steep to climb. Even in 1851, accessing the crater from the low side wouldn't have been hard. But I can see from my visit that my original idea to have my heroine and hero climb outside the crater on the south side is very workable. It's obvious to me the ancient Hawai'ians would have found the crest a useful place to watch the sea.

On the way, we drove along the South Shore, past Waikiki and by Hawaii Kai. In the 19th Century, this beach was a swampy area of fish and duck ponds. Islanders often grew taro away from the ocean. When the Ala Wai Canal was built in 1922, it drained the run-off from the high windward mountains and allowed Waikiki Beach to form.

The village where my Islanders might have lived , where my hero was washed ashore, could have been in this area, but I have been imagining them at Hanauma Bay.



So we went by Hanauma Bay. If you go to Hawai'i, you must see this beautiful place if you see no other. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanauma_Bay Everyone loves this place, too much. So in the 1990's steps had to be taken to limit the number of people who visit. I saw it first in 1995, and bought food for the fish. To my surprise, a large blue and yellow fish (could have been one of several species, maybe a parrot fish) immediately leaped from the water and grabbed my packet of food just as I was opening it. He got the whole thing, and was gone- that quick.


This time I could only stand at the cliff and take a few pictures. And wish for more. We drove along past Koko Head, but that was all I could do.

My fever was finally gone on Friday, and I felt a lot better. The doctor said I didn't have to isolate myself anymore, but I sure didn't have a lot of strength. I decided to skip the Bishop Museum- at least I'd been there before. But I had to see the Mission Houses Museum. It's one of the best places to get an idea what life was like for the Americans and Europeans who began to populate the Islands in the 19th Century.

The coral stone house in the foreground has a faux finish to remind the missionaries of the brick houses they left behind. In the background is a later house built in New England style. By this time they were beginning to understand the Islands, and knew how to get a good cross breeze from the tradewinds.

There's a display room that has some wonderful dioramas showing the misson houses and church being built, with some native houses, the dirt roads, and people in the business of being people. And the wonderful mid-century engraving of Honolulu and its harbor were exactly what I needed.

That's also where I got the lovely quilted pillow top for my grand prize winner, Martha E. I'd been really disappointed in Hilo Market, finding almost nothing of interest, and very little that was actually Hawai'ian. I saw other pieces of Hawai'ian quilting, and they were very nice, but the stitching lacked the qualty of true Hawai'ian work, which often sells for thousands of dollars in a full size quilt.

At the Mission Houses Museum, a local group of quilters, many of them reknowned for their handwork, gathers weekly to quilt and enjoy each others' company. When I saw their work, I was so impressed! The quality is truly the superb needlework I've seen in the finest of quilts, and their patterns are the true Hawai'ian style.

One more place to visit. Waimea Falls Botanical Park http://www.hawaiiweb.com/html/waimea_valley_adventure_park.html

on the far northern shore of O'ahu. But going from south to north is not really a very big deal for the island isn't all that big. I've been there before, but it is always worth another trip. The park features many tropical gardens and some revivalist archaeological sites. Quite honestly, for my time period, there isn't much to help me there. But it's a very refreshing and lovely place to vist, and in the few hours we had left, it was very enjoyable.

I don't know if you can see this little fellow or not, but he's a very endangered little mudhen. He's in the lower center and is gray with red on his bill. This is an enlargement so it's not very clear.

So we missed Iolani Palace, The Bishop Museum, the luau, and Polynesian Cultural Center. And there was the trip up the Windward Side to find an odd little place lodged in my memory from 1995. But I'll just have to draw from what I see in my mind for that. I was going to re-make t anyway. After all, it is a fantasy I'm writing. Some things must come from the imagination.

I'll have to change a few details, but mostly I'm happy with my story the way I planned it. And Siren has a home, where she is known as Namaka-o-Kaha'i, and lives with her hero, John Wall, in Haipo's village on the shore of Hanauma Bay.

And thanks again to our mostly perplexed Hero Jeff, who saved the trip as well as the wife.

SIREN and the Hawaiian Research Odyssey

Only a few weeks late, but I'm finally going to tell you about my Most Beautiful Place on Earth, and the story that made the research necessary. Of course you know I will do anything for research, and it's only coincidental that the place I have to research happens to be the one place I'd rather go than anywhere else. Really. Honest.


All right, not quite. But it is true that my knowledge of Hawaii helped to form the story. Nothing in this story is possible, of course. But it's still my job to persuade you the story is real. You won't need to know everything I know, but if I don't know it, I won't present my story authentically. And so there I was, marveling at the sea as it crashes ashore at the black sand beach at Punalu'u. The sea really is a different color here, a deeper, more dramatic, purer blue because of the black sand beneath it. (That's a sea turtle. The sign says to leave her alone- she's resting. She's had a long journey.)

SIREN is a novella, a historical fantasy romance of the seas, taking place mostly under the sea, but the last third takes place on O'ahu. It's the story of an ordinary man who fell into the Siren's embrace and found himself beneath the sea as Siren's lover. In my story, when Siren comes ashore to rejoin her lover, John Wall, the Islanders call her Namaka-o-Kaha'i, the older sister of Pele. They say when Pele and Namaka-o-Kaha'i were feuding, Pele threw burning lava at her and set her hair afire. And Siren's long fiery red hair proves it because her hair is still burning. But John Wall is just a man, and nothing that has happened to him is possible. He doesn't understand Siren, or sea goddesses, how he could have lived beneath the sea without breathing, or how he got from the Coast of Africa to the middle of the Pacific. He only knows he loves Siren obsessively.

Before I left I was still toying with the idea of setting it on The Big Island. Everything could fit there. But it was Pele I found everywhere on the Big Island.

This is her home, Halema'uma'u Crater, on Kilauea. It's immense. It's really a crater within a giant 8-shaped crater, with the smaller Kilauea Iki at the far end. Several years ago we hiked across the floor of Kilauea Iki, a long, hot and steamy hike with nearly vertical descent and ascent back out of the crater. You can see some nearly vertical crater walls above. Below, you can see part of the bigger crater from a different viewpoint.


The crater is hazy here. All that steam is loaded with sulfur dioxide. I didn't realize how active the volcano would be while we were there, and I under-estimated how nasty the fumes could be.

We drove down the Chain of Craters road, which drops from the almost chilly height of over 4,000 feet to sea level in only a few miles, over a high cliff where the volcanic rock drop-faulted over a thousand feet. The hardened lava looks ropy and sinuous from the air, but up close the thick flows are chaotic jumbles. Forests of tree ferns and ohi'a lehua at the summit, but a massive swath of death and chaos below. Here is where the road ends, cut off by a large lava flow. In the distance, maybe you can see the point formed by the new lawa flows.

http://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/upload/entire_park_final.pdf
This is a link to a terrific map of the park and the Chain of Craters Road.

We drove to the other side of the road, where people often walk in at night to view the glowing lava. We did the walk across the old flows to the sea, about a mile, we guessed. Not a smart thing to do in sandals. The black sand is like a very coarse grit, and it gets into open shoes and makes for painful walking. We were disappointed because we couldn't see much, but it was becoming obvious the sulfur dioxide was not good for my lungs so we didn't make the night walk.


Instead, we enjoyed the incredible full moon from the lava block hot tub. I've been to this condo three times, and it's the hot tub that's really unforgettable. But it's so quiet, so peaceful- only the crashing waves can be heard at night.









On our return to Kona to fly out to Honolulu, we stopped once again at our favorite restaurant, Coffee Shack which sits on the cliff high above Kealakekua Bay, where Captain Cook was killed in 1779. We're almost 2,000 feet up, and on the steep slope below is a coffee plantation, where the most wonderful coffee in the world grows.



A couple of geckos vied for right of way on the lanai railing. I watched for awhile, and the poor fellow on the right always gave in and slid over the railing to let the others pass.

I'm always so sad to leave the Big Island because I love it so much. But as we flew out of Kona, and I looked down at the haze of grit, steam and gases the trade winds had blown in from Kilauea, I knew this was not the place for my story. This is Pele's home. The land echoes with her power. Pele the Creator of Land, Pele the Eater of Land.

No, my Siren/Namaka-o-Kaha'i belongs somewhere else. And that will be O'ahu. I'll tell you all about it , and why, next time.

Oh, and I'll tell you about the great prizes I found, too. Including the one I'm keeping.

Coming Back!

I'm finally on the mend! Thanks, all of you for your patience.

I'm planning a post for tomorrow, Thursday July 2, so you can know Hawai'i is still my most beautiful place on earth, even if it does harbor nasty H1N1 viruses. I'm going through my photos now, and I have to say I have major regrets for all the wonderful things I missed. But I didn't miss everything.

Delle

Taking a Break

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to take a break from all major responsibilities for at least another week. We had a wonderful time on the Big Island, but just as we landed in Honolulu I started to get sick. Tuesday is a blur of fever, aches and pains and coughing. Wednesday, the doctor diagnosed Influenza Type A and did further tests for Swine Flu, which he said was all over the Islands. I haven't received the results yet, but the doctor was pretty sure that's what I have. I'm surprised he let me fly home Friday night, with proper precautions.

Today I'm only mildly better than I was last Friday, and the cough has turned to bronchitis. I am under so much medication that my brain is not functioning in any useful intellectual capacity. That means I'm not writing or doing anything except sleeping.

I did get several good research books, though, and did get the chance to go to several places that will be in my SIREN story, even though I only saw them from the car. I think I've got some great photos to show you. And I'll try to get those up next week.

Thanks all of you for hanging in there with me. And I'll be praying that none of you get this nasty little bedfellow.

Feeling Swine

Hi! This is Delle's son posting.

Seems mom's picked up swine flu and doesn't have access to update. They're going to let her fly back tomorrow morning though. So she'll be updating again tomorrow.

Cheers!

YOU SHOULD SEE ME NOW!

View from where I'm sitting right now. Pacific and black sand beach in the background.



Giant avocado tree from the balcony restaurant Coffee Shack, overlooking Kealakekua Bay.


View from the lanai of our condo.
black sand beach now. More later!

Delle

HAWAIIAN JOURNAL

6/4 4:10pm PDT: Sitting in Portland International Airport, waiting. We're over-packed of course. We have very different ideas of what to bring, which makes for too much stuff. Hubbies are strange creatures who pack light then want wifey to put just one piece in the other carry-on. I am also responsible for all the communal stuff, like the grocery items we don't want to buy for the condo (salt, pepper, dish detergent, laundry detergent, etc. ) It all goes on the tally of wife's stuff". Hah, I think just his shoes take up a third of the big bag. And that's just one pair. All the same I'm glad he agreed to bring his fleece jacket. That means we can go into the higher altitudes of Mauna Loa if we want.

I wont get another chance to post until tomorrow. By that time we will have flown to Honolulu, then to Kona on the Big Island, where we'll spend the night, then drive to Ponalu'u on the South Coast, where we'll stay for three days. That's when the good stuff starts!