Day 13: Hilo: Panaewa Rainforest Zoo and Mauna Loa Macadamia Factory

November 29, 2014

This is only day 13 in Hawaii, but as we came by the farmers' market this morning we sniffed "All they seem to have is tons of tropical fruits". "Ah, I said, I seem to remember a vendor at the other end with some kind of bread product, let's go look at that". So we went to the other end of the block, and indeed, the last vendor had some sort of bread products. I drew a little nearer for a peek, but got accosted by a security type person. "You can't take your bike in there", he said, "there is a bike rack at the other end of the block". "And what happens when the bike is stolen?", I retorted. "Not my responsibility", was the reply.

Now, we don't want to be whiners, don't want to wonder what the response would be to a shopping cart, or wheelchair, don't want to point out that the bike was not even within the market area, but we can't help comparing to markets we visited in England, in France, and in Germany. There is was "Try some of this pate" and "Hello, where are you from?" and so forth. To us this was just one more example of the supreme indifference, ranging to mild hostility, of Hawaii towards cycle touring.

So we said "No Sale" to the bread products and proceeded along Kamehameha Street and south again, down Hwy 11. All along these streets is a continuous flow of traffic. It is not high speed, but it sure is continuous. "Where are all these people going?", we wondered. Going to work was not a good candidate, since there seems to be a distinct lack of economic activity going on. Besides, this is Saturday. As we passed Walmart, and the Prince Kuhio shopping centre, we did get a partial answer, as you can see from this photo:

At least part of all the traffic must have been heading for Walmart

All last night it had pelted rain, and we are getting the idea that this is part of the pattern: heavy rain at night, a break in the morning, moderate rain in the afternoon, then heavy rain in the night again. In short, this is the (start of) the rainy season. We had two objectives for the day - the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo, and the Moana Loa macadamia nut factory. Since the zoo is an outdoor activity, we headed there first, hoping to beat the rain. As it happens, the rain had not read our analysis, and it started up by about 10 a.m. notwithstanding. Oh well, we have raincoats!

We have come to look on the county government as rather inept, and many of the things around here as "scuzzy", so the Panaewa zoo park was a pleasant surprise. The grounds are immaculately landscaped, and feature a wealth of both native and imported plants. Walking around was a real joy, with or without any animals. As it happened, there were not really a lot of animals to look at. The cages in use are made of heavy wire, and you are often kept back from even this barrier. Within, there is often a heavy growth of plants, making it hard to spot any residents. The zoo's prize attraction, a white tiger, died in January, and they are still working on getting some cubs. Still, we liked it a lot. Plus, the gift shop had packaged ice cream treats. Dodie got rebuked for starting to eat (or at least open) hers within the shop. We could accuse the Americans from this of being too hung up on rules, but we later found that the actually pleasant salesperson was from Ontario!

We made our way in the rain further South on 11. This is getting to be a habit, and actually it is great. The road ascends, about 500 feet by the hwy 130 turnoff, but the climb is very very gradual. When the time comes to go back down, though, you can build up quite a bit of speed and almost never pedal.

The road to the Moana Loa factory is a turn off of 11, and it proceeds 5 km through the macadamia orchard. A sign indicates that the trees cover 2500 acres and that there are 250,000 trees in total.

The factory has a "self guided" tour, which amounts only to being able to walk by windows and look in at the equipment. Nothing was in operation today, so there was little to see. The other half of the thing is a sales floor for the various varieties of roasted and usually chocolate covered nuts. These things are not cheap, with a typical 8 oz bag costing a little over $5. What you get is not so many macadamias and a lot of Hershey's quality chocolate. Interestingly, the chocolate quality of the nuts being sold by Hilo Hattie seemed superior.

A constantly changing line of tour buses is parked beside the sales floor, and each disgorges a line of customers. They grab bulk packs from the shelves, pay up, and dutifully shuffle off again. Normally we are tolerant of tourist throngs, but somehow these bugged me. We took off, having made only a small purchase. We know this stuff is cheaper at Walmart, and probably at Costco in Seattle.

Walmart indeed was our next stop. We found there not only the thousands of parked cars, but throngs of people outside, waiting for busses. A lot of these were queued to be transported back to two cruise ships that are in port. We learned that they have been 70 days out of San Diego, having circles around the Pacific with stop in Japan and the Phillipines. This is the first landfall they are making back in the USA, so therefore it is imperative to trek up to Walmart! There sure is no shopping in downtown Hilo, one remarked. We would at least concur with that.

I had a seat with the throng, while Dodie went in to find hot chocolate powder. A lady beside me had a look at our bikes and said she had bought a folding electric bike, in Hilo. It was only one of two that they had, she said, and cost $1400. She fired up a photo of it for me, on her cell phone. This was interesting news, since last night I was looking at BionX retrofit kits, and just the kit seemed to have a minimum price of $1800. Not that we are at all ready to go electric anyway, but $1800 definitely removes any temptation to play with it.

Now back at Wild Ginger, we are plotting tomorrow's agenda. There is still a bit to see in this area, and we are thinking about the Rainbow Falls area, Overall, we do have too many days here, resulting from having cancelled our Puna plans. It will be Tuesday before we make our "assault" on the Hamakua Coast, to the north.

The Rainforest Zoo turned out to be really beautiful

One of the few creatures we actually saw clearly

This is from a photo of the zoo white tiger - who died in January

Part of a mural at the zoo, it portrays Hilo bay. The rest of the mural to the left (off screen) shows the volcano and the Kalapana lava flow.

More jungly bits - in the zoo parking lot!

Herd of tour buses at the Macadamia nut factory

Piles of product, with some customers in the background. It's actually cheaper at Walmart!

Interesting fungus on a fallen log by the road.

Cruise tourists prepare to leave Walmart. Next stop, Honolulu.

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 398 km (247 miles)

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