Hawaii Part 6 - Of Nuts, Tsunamis and Rainbows

After seeing the incredible new piece of land reclaimed from the sea, as it were, we drove to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Farm. Unfortunately we were running a bit short on time, and by now we were hungry and thirsty, so instead of peeping through glass windows to see some of the nuts being processed (there were no guides!), almost all of our small group simply headed straight into the shop to get a bite to eat and to buy some nuts. We only had about half an hour and the place was packed! This was not the kind of personal and fascinating experience we had so much enjoyed the day before, however, so I for one came away feeling rather disappointed. Later we found their nuts on sale all over the place in Maui, so we really did not benefit from this visit at all. It was interesting to see acre upon acre of trees full of the nuts though. This was a bigger, much more commercial enterprise altogether than the three farms we had seen the day before.  

We then drove along the coast through some of the small villages. This area has experienced massive tsunamis that have arisen from earthquakes that have occurred from as far away as Alaska, so a big warning system has been installed right along the coast and escape routes are marked out. The warning system is checked every month. Despite that danger, there still are many homes and other buildings, even churches, along the foreshore. I was amused to hear that in one church there is a huge plate glass window behind the altar, that looks out to sea. Someone has painted an image of Jesus on the glass, so as the congregation listens to the preacher, they see Jesus ‘walking on water’ towards them . . . 

After a while, we ended up at Rainbow Falls, a very picturesque ravine where water tumbles down into a pond below. At certain times of the day the sun is in such a position that it causes rainbows to dance across the water. Sadly, it was raining when we arrived, so most of my photos were spoiled with raindrops on the camera lens, and of course there were no rainbows to be seen. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful spot with lush vines hanging from giant stately trees - like a tropical paradise. It was a great end to a great day.  

The next day we travelled to another island altogether - Maui. It was utterly different, but we thoroughly enjoyed our time there too. I will tell you about that in the next couple of posts. 

All the photos below were taken at Rainbow Falls. The second last one has some rain spot damage. Unfortunately some of my best photos were too damaged to show.