Grassy Expanses of Waikoloa & Waimea

Accomplishments:

Its been a long day, I'm beat, but I now have a PO box, and a local bank account. I had to use the school's address when opening both. I went to my school and met with the clinic supervisor. The place is small and cosy and is nestled in the heart of the hustling and bustling metropolis of 8,000 people. They have a Starbucks, excellent restaurants, several large grocery stores, and a Blockbuster. People can live here, but more on that later...

The quest for housing...

I really can't imagine staying at the Manago hotel in Cap'n Cook much longer. I may start rocking back and forward. If this place were any more primitive, I'd have to draw water from the well. I'm just glad they have electricity. Camping is fun, but not with suitcases and only for short periods of time. Hot nights with no air conditioning in a room with furniture made out of driftwood and a mattress that has seen the formation of the whole island chain over the centuries make this place an experience.

I was woken up by roosters at 4:30 this morning and was in the car driving north by 5. I drove around the whole island today, saving the northern peninsula for tomorrow. I must have landed in the worst weather week this island has every seen. The trade winds have been quiet, and the Goddess Pele has been fuming in anger at her sister the Snow Queen of Mauna Kea; casting her volcanic smog (or Vog) with her sulpherous fumes over the entirety of the Western coast.

Hot, muggy, damp, ugly, bleak and brown gray has been order of the day in both Kona and Hilo as well. While Kona has been shrouded in the mists of Mordor, Hilo has been beaten down by a storm system that has cast 80% of the island in the sequel to Steven King's Storm of The Century. Little was my permission asked to be an extra in this movie. I can't even see the ocean from the roads, nor the high peak of Mauna Loa from Mamalahoa Hwy, Hawaii's belt road.

Sickness, sneezing, and despair...

I have been thrown about by some kind of cold that I caught back on the east coast, or in the cauldron's of LAX's gas chambers where I stayed my first night of my journey. The vog has only been making my symptoms worse. I was kept away by running nose, itchy eyes and sneezing for most of the night. Hopefully it will clear up by tomorrow along with the weather :) They said the trade winds are about to change directions in the next few days and take Pele's fury with them.

Waikoloa (or Waikoblowa as the natives call it) and Waimea (where my school is) were ofcourse Vog-free :) Its called Waikoblowa because there is a constant wind pummeling the planes between the two vulcanos. Waikoloa rests at the mouth of their argument. They say that if the wind were to stop suddenly, the pastures full of leaning cows would probably all fall over.

My housing hunt will be centered in the north country, around Kamuela/Waimea, and the Hawi peninsula. I'm glad that the weather has conveniently eliminated 80% of the housing market for me. I suppose I shall have to thank Pele for the favor, but throwing in a ring of power or something.

Still, the parts of this great island which the weather did permit me to capture are close to the school and their grandeur hard to capture...





I have an appointment to see a house at 10am in Kamuela and several booking in progress.

I ought to be a proud owner of "Eddie" a 2002 Jeep Wrangler by Thursday if all pans out well. The name is inherited from Eddie's prior owners but may not need to change, depending on whether Eddie lives up to his name.