Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [154]
Tourist Information
Oddly, Kona has no official tourist office. Flyer racks are ubiquitous along Ali′i Dr, and the tour booth at the Kailua Pier is usually staffed.
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DANGERS & ANNOYANCES
‘Tourist information’ or ‘discount activities’ storefronts along Ali′i Dr are most often fronts for aggressive salespeople looking to push condominium time-shares. Caveat emptor.
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SIGHTS
Kailua is a breezy waterfront tourist town. Its main attractions are the sparkling Pacific Ocean and tourism itself. Kailua holds a few historic buildings well worth seeing, but it’S only crowded because of its proximity to sunny beaches and watersports north and south.
Hulihe′e Palace
Hawai′i’S second governor, ‘John Adams’ Kuakini, built this simple two-story, lava-rock house as his private residence in 1838. After Kuakini’S death in 1844, it became the favorite vacation getaway for Hawaiian monarchs. In the mid-1880s, Hulihe′e Palace was thoroughly renovated by the well-traveled King David Kalakaua, who felt it needed more polish. He stuccoed the lava rock outside, plastered it inside, and added decorative ceilings, gold-leaf picture moldings and crystal chandeliers.
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A VOGGY DAY IN KONA TOWN
Living with an active volcano means a lifetime of secondhand smoke. The Big Island has always had to deal with vog (short for volcanic smog). However, since early 2008, when Kilauea changed its eruption pattern (Click here), vog has affected the island much more seriously. For some, living downwind has become unbearable, forcing them to leave the island. For farmers in affected areas it’S a bona fide disaster, with sometimes 90% of their crops wilting as if doused by gasoline.
Steady southwest trade winds typically blow vog away from Hilo and south around Mauna Loa. The mountain then becomes a windbreak allowing vog to gather thickly over Ka′u and South Kona, though Kailua-Kona also gets plenty. Rarer Kona winds blow vog the other way, and local winds around Hawai′i Volcanoes National Park can send blinding clouds over roadways, like you’re driving through a forest fire.
According to park rangers, Kilauea’S vog output has more than doubled, and air monitoring in Captain Cook and Pahala show double to quadruple the usual amounts of sulfur dioxide. South Kohala and the Hamakua Coast are rarely affected, and North Kohala never gets any. For daily monitoring and health advice, see http://hawaii.gov/gov/vog.
No one knows how long this will continue; it could easily be years. For visitors, short-term exposure is more a nuisance – perhaps, spoiling a sunny day – than a health concern, though if you have respiratory issues, stick to clearer parts of the island.
Then again, as Mark Twain once quipped upon visiting Kilauea, ‘The smell of sulphur is strong, but not unpleasant to a sinner.’
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Hard times befell the monarchy in the early 20th century, and the house was sold and the furnishings and artifacts were auctioned off by Prince Kuhio in 1914. Luckily, his wife and other royalty meticulously numbered each piece and recorded the names of bidders. In 1925, the Territory of Hawaii purchased the house to be a museum run by the Daughters of Hawai′i, a women’S group dedicated to the preservation of Hawaiian culture and language. This group tracked down the furnishings and royal memorabilia and persuaded many to donate pieces, such as a table inlaid with 25 kinds of native woods and several of Kamehameha the Great’S war spears.
Unfortunately, the building suffered major structural damage during an earthquake in 2006, and the museum (329-1877; www.daughtersofhawaii.org; 75-5718 Ali′i Dr) has since been closed for repairs and reconstruction. Check with the Daughters of Hawai′i for updates on its reopening.
Ahu′ena Heiau
After uniting the Hawaiian islands, Kame-hameha the Great established his kingdom’S royal court in Lahaina on Maui, but he continued to use Ahu′ena Heiau as his personal retreat