February 27

It rained quite hard a couple of times in the night and was cooler and windy in the morning with grey clouds. No turquoise and teal blue ocean 😥

I have not washed my hair since we were in our Airbnb and I’m not sure my surfer locks are working out, so I opted for a shower. The way that happens here is you put on your swim suit and stand under the open air public shower and soap up. It felt good.

On the way back I saw a long little creature that had a pointy nose and a pointy tail both glide across from one bush thicket to another. Consulting with Mike, he said he saw one too last night. We decided they are mongooses, which I never would have guessed except I read that they are here.

So there is a happy little ecosystem of feral cats, jungle fowl, and mongooses, at least. Who eats who? The cats and the chickens seem perfectly happy with each other. The black hen who had 9 chicks when we arrived still had 9 today. The cats seem very content. Maybe the campers feed them all?

This is our last night at Malaekahana camp and we have no reservations for the 28 and 29 so our job today is to find some place to stay for those two days. Our plan was to go down the south east coast where we have not been so we make breakfast based on having neither too much nor too little food at the end of our stay. Sadly, that time is getting close. I can’t believe it.

We went south on the coastal road which is only two lanes with very narrow shoulders and lots of traffic. Through a town called Lai’i, which seemed a little more organized in terms of parking lots (non-existent mostly, you park on the side of the road) and big stores. And no wonder: Brigham Young University has a campus here and a big temple similar to the one in Cardston was visible at the end of a grand palm tree lined boulevard. Those Mormons know how to get stuff lined up.

After that came the Polynesian Culture Center, a Disney theme park scale endeavour that covered 42 acres and cost $70 per each to enter. We passed on that but walked through the marketplace where you could buy lots of tourist junk made in China as most of it seems to be. I have a new pink sun hat and Mike is giving flip flops a try.

The guy in the ticket booth gave us some advice on where we might be able to camp so we headed south again but it looked to us like the place he suggested did not allow camping so we went on through areas of road construction and poorly maintained houses. One “house” right on the shore was an unmodified shipping container with a whirly vent on the roof. It all looked rather third-world ish.

Ahead of us was the urbanized east coast which we thought would have insane traffic like Honolulu. We turned in at Kualoa Ranch which had a large parking lot to consider our options. The parking is kind of an issue because this van we are driving is bigger than the average car.

Kualoa Ranch is where movies that need a jungle backdrop have been filmed: Jurassic Park and King Kong for eg. The mountains are just like they appear in the movies, ha ha. Today, all misty and remote and green. King Kong could be in there.

Anyway, we decided to go back to Mokule’ia camp on the North Shore where we were pretty sure we could get a reservation and it was peaceful. So we got that arranged, investigated the visitor center and left.

Quick stop at a store to get ice and food for the next couple of days (I bought a pineapple! It turned out to be the old kind that blisters your lips if you eat enough of it) on to home base. Saw another mongoose slinking along in the ditch.

We had thought of trying to get into the conservation area just up the road, but by then it was past 3 pm and there really is nothing wrong with just sitting on the beach, is there?
We were glad to be back in our spot. The sun had come out and it was warm. We were greeted by the two regular cats and a rooster or two.

Went for a wade in new water shoes bought at Kualoa Ranch. Unlike the North Shore beaches, this one has a fair amount of plastic debris. Apparently this corner of the island is where it collects. I picked up a couple of handfuls but it was hopeless so I gave up. We saw a turtle bobbing by, and later the guy who we think is a turtle poacher showed up.