Hawaiʻi Island: Waipiʻo and Honokaʻa

My Hawaiian ʻohana (family) comes from Hawaiʻi island, some parts specifically from the valley of Waipiʻo, located on the Northeastern part of the island. There are still a few Hawaiian families that live in the valley today, but many left around the turn of the 20th century both due to its remoteness and because of a tsunami that destroyed many homes.

You need a 4-wheel drive to even get into the steep valley, so this was as far as we got. I had never been there before, so just getting the chance to see the valley from the overlook was very meaningful to me. 

Absolutely breathtaking! Note the black sand beach.

We also went to Honokaʻa, a town just south of the valley. This is also a place where my family lived for some time. One thing I love about Honokaʻa (and Hawaiʻi island in general) is that there is so much history still present, not yet razed by the urge for constant development. This means that so many of this once-bustling sugar town's buildings erected during its heyday are still there and very much a part of the little town's daily life.

My grandpa and his relatives probably went to the movies here at the Honokaʻa People's Theatre. It is still the town's theatre.

And did their banking here.

This was our last day on Hawaiʻi island, and our last excursion. As we headed south back to Hilo, we stopped off at Akaka Falls. Since it was rainy, we didn't do the walk down as the falls was a ways away but this photo gives an idea of just how large the falls really is!

And so we bid aloha to Hawaiʻi. That evening we were back on our way to Oʻahu, with many more adventures ahead of us!

Hawai'i Island: Kilauea Volcano

After our day in Kona, we headed for the eastern side of Hawaiʻi island, to the town of Hilo, where we stayed with some of my relatives just upcountry of the island's biggest town.

They have three lawn mowers:

This guy was very confused with what I was doing. Or maybe he thought I might give him dog treats. They love dog treats.

One of the excursions I planned for us from the start was to Kīlauea Volcano.

Unfortunately due to increased volcanic activity many parts of the park were closed off. At least we were able to make it to the viewing point for the Halemaumau crater. The crater is the home of the volcano goddess Pele and is an important cultural site.

It doesn't look like much here but down inside that crater, lava bubbles away. If you go at night you can see a reddish glow emanating from the depths of the crater. Too bad we missed that! 

We also explored an ancient lava tube that is now covered lush rainforest vegetation. 

A Hāpuʻu fern.

Winding our way down into the rainforest on our way to the tube.

 We made it! How cool is this giant lava tube?! Imagine it full of flowing molten lava.

I had to get a photo with it. As you might imagine, it's not too easy taking photos inside of a lava tube, so this was it for the day.

But our Hawaiʻi island adventures didn't stop there because the day after we were off to the northern parts of the island: Waimea, Hawaiʻi's paniolo (cowboy) country and to Waipiʻo, Kukuihaele, and Honokaʻa. Lots more photos to come in the next post!

Hawaiʻi Island: Kona

After a few short days of being back on my home island of Oʻahu, my boyfriend Nils and I hopped over to Hawaiʻi island. Hawaiʻi is the easternmost island that is largest in size but it is not the island that has the capital, Honolulu, or the tourist area of Waikīkī - that's Oʻahu.

So we headed to Honolulu Airport and took off for Kona, on the western side of Hawaiʻi island.

We drove south to Hōnaunau and visited the Puʻuhonua O Hōnaunau, a traditional place of refuge where people could escape to during times of war.

The Puʻuhonua has been well cared for and even includes reproduction of the kiʻi (please, not tiki) that would have surrounded the chief's house that was adjacent to the place of refuge.

A kiʻi of Kū, the god of war.

That's one of the wonderful things about the Kona side of Hawaiʻi - there is a great deal of our history still easily visible and accessible. 

We checked into our hotel in Kona. Kū was there too.

Afterwards we headed to the Kona Brewing Company and sampled some of their beer. 

Originally from Kona, the brand is doing well and is available throughout the United States. I've even spotted their popular Longboard beers at a restaurant at Malmö and found it on Systembolaget's website!

We even tried some varieties that are only available at the brewery. The Castaway IPA (available in stores) was a favorite of both of ours. I also liked their Lemongrass beer...I think it was a lager. Nils' favorite was the Lavaman Red Ale.

Yum! Happy as a clam. A beer-loving clam.

After that, we had a nice dinner with some family in Kona and then called it a day. After all, we had to get some rest as the next day we were headed to Hilo! 

On the road again...

Summer rewind

Hi all!

I hope you all are enjoying the summer. I know I have! It’s been a while since my last blog post as I was away on a wonderful, long vacation. Although I’m behind schedule, I’d sure like to share what I’ve been up to with all of you, so I hope you all won’t mind a little summer rewind over the course of the next few blog entries. 

I finally dug up my photos from the Malmö Vintage Expo back in May. I had an amazing time! It gave me the chance to catch up with some of my vintage friends and meet some new ones, too.

The expo was held at Amiralen in Malmö, and the venue was packed with sellers of vintage clothes, jewellery, housewares as well designers of vintage inspired fashions.

I went to with my friend Pia from Copenhagen who also brought along her friend Mia, the Danish hula hoop queen.

Copenhagen’s FN92 was well represented at the expo with beautiful vintage dresses, fascinators, and jewellery, per usual. I wasn’t able to find a dress from their assortment, but luckily owner Pauli has an amazing eye. He took a quick look at me and pulled a beautiful floral cotton dress with matching jacket off the rack, and it fit me perfectly. So obviously that dress came home with me. You’ll find photos of that dress farther along in this post!

I ran into Asta, another lovely gal from Denmark. As you can see, the Danes were clearly well represented.

Also at the expo were the girls from Vintagefabriken in Stockholm. I stopped by to chat and had to pick up their book on vintage hairstyling while I was there! Thank you Asta for the photo!

Emma Sundh from Vintagefabriken was in Hawaiʻi a while back so there was lots for us to talk about!

Got spotted by the expo photographer.

Pia and I working a victory pose after a successful day of vintage shopping. What a day! 
Thanks for the photo, Pia!

In June, I kicked off my summer vacation with the most important of Swedish holidays - Midsummer! Of course I celebrated the holiday with family out in the country in beautiful little Hallaröd. I really can’t get enough of that place. 

Wore my beautiful dress from FN92!

The maypole! Conveniently enough, there are no photos of us dancing Små Grodorna around it.

Love this beardo.

After midsommar, we packed our bags and headed home. To my home. 
Stay tuned for my next posts - we’re going to Hawaiʻi!