Hawaiian Paradise Park

 17 August 2021

First day in Hawaii, just south of Hilo in a residential area, visiting a dear friend. This was the view from my room at dawn - not a great "view" per se, because it's largely obscured by bushes, but the birdsong and the incredible lush foliage and flowers were so beautiful in my eyes in the moment.

There are sadly no sand beaches nearby, just rocky lava shelves from which I would be afraid to try and swim, but the ocean is absolutely incredible and I walked along the shore for hours.

The lava created so many different shapes and textures here. This reminds me of an elephant's skin.

A little spin around so you can see what was behind me and in front of me.

Testing the panorama feature. What do you think?

The ocean always has some love to give!

The scenery behind, the contrast between lava and lush is so striking.

By this time I had been in the sun for 2-3 hours, so I stepped into the forest to get some shade. At the edge of the lava it was alternating mangrove and pine forests.

Is this a baby coconut? So cute!

That part of the forest got too difficult to navigate, so I went back to the lava.

Tried again to find a shortcut through the forest. It dead ended on someone's private property, but along the way I saw this magnificent tree.

The mangrove forests were muddy and hard to navigate... as someone found out.

Backtracking the way I came, and I was tired but still couldn't stop taking pictures. Look at the pattern showing how the lava flowed.

And a closeup of the little flowering plants in the cracks.

Finally, I can see the place where I started from (the shady area at the top). Nice little 4 hour walk...

I also took far too many videos of the waves crashing against the rocks, but unfortunately, I hadn't figured out how to block the wind from blowing on the camera's microphone, so they look beautiful but sound dreadful.

Here are two videos which have a bit less wind noise.