Our Hilo Weekend Includes Akaka Falls and the Pacific Tsunami Museum - Friday-Saturday, March 15-16, 2024

Friday, March 15: In yesterday's blog, I said we would do the Walua Road Volksmarch this morning, but we'll reschedule after the Hilo marathon weekend. This morning, I slept in and Bob worked. 

Club Wyndham which owns the Kona Coast Resort had left a message for us that they wanted to do a "resort update" for owners. Bob scheduled a time for us to meet with them. 

We thought it would be a hard sell by Club Wyndham to get us to buy more weeks. It ended up being a four-hour-long slog, with Club Wyndham wanting us to sell our deeded Shell Vacation Club weeks to them in exchange for gobs of Wyndham points for an ungodly amount of $$. That was a waste of an afternoon we could have been doing something fun! The upshot: We are not doing that!

I got good photos of geckos on the balcony. At any given time, two to seven geckos were either on the table or the railing. You can tell where my interest was directed. LOL.

The geckos were drinking water off the table.

A view of Keahou-Kona and the Pacific Ocean.

This gecko was right next to me!

Late afternoon, we packed for a weekend in Hilo. Bob is running the Hilo Marathon on Sunday morning.

Saturday, March 16: We left Keahou at 9 am and drove around the north side of the Big Island, through Waimea. There was fog and rain along the Hamakua Coast (west-central side of the island). 

Akaka Falls State Park was our first stop. The $10 per car parking lot was full, but we parked alongside the entry road for no fee. The per-person fee to go into the park and hike to the falls was $5. 

Normally, there is a 0.4-mile loop trail to see Kahuna and Akaka Falls on the Kolekole Stream, but one end was closed, making this a 0.7-mile out and back. The informational signs at the beginning of the trail were worth reading. Akaka Falls at 442' is the highest free-falling waterfall in Hawaii. Kahuna Falls is a cascading, 300' waterfall.

Five-inch-long gobies live in Kolekole Stream. They swim 2.5 miles upstream and then, using a suction disc and pectoral fins, climb the 442' water-slickened sides of the waterfall to lay eggs. Native shrimp also climb this waterfall. Can you imagine these little critters going upstream against this thundering waterfall?

Walking through the rainforest is like going back in time. Giant banyan trees, tall, thick bamboo, and luscious flowers beckon. You get drawn into an enveloping, humid, cool environment. The coolness feels good on your skin as you traverse long staircases.

Bengal trumpet/white sky vine
(Thunbergia grandiflora 'Alba').

 Kolekole Stream.

Bob goes up one of many staircases.

Look at how tall this bamboo is!

The azaleas are blooming.

Kahuna Falls is  barely visible 
through the vegetation!

Old World Forked Fern (Dicranopteris linearis).

.

Philodendron.

Bob is in front of Akaka Falls.

I'm in front of Akaka Falls.

Oh, the stairs! We got some 
exercise today!

Akaka Falls.

After finishing the hike, we drove to Hilo. Our hotel room wasn't ready so we opted to have lunch at Ken's House of Pancakes. This restaurant is a local and long-lived favorite. They are well-known for their breakfasts, but they are open 24/7 so you can eat whatever whenever you want. We both had teriyaki chicken.

Ken's news and kudos.

When we finished lunch at Ken's, our hotel called to let us know our room was ready. We went to our lodging, checked in, and took our luggage to the room.

Bob had to pick up his marathon packet before 5 pm, so that was our next stop. We had good photo ops at the finish location as few people were there. Bob said about 100 people signed up for the marathon-length race.

The day before the Hilo Marathon.

The finish line is set up for tomorrow.

This pretty banner was just going up.

In all our visits to the Big Island over the years, we never visited the Pacific Tsunami Museum in Hilo. Living on small islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean can be terrifying if a tsunami is headed your way. Hilo, in particular, has felt the brunt of numerous large, destructive walls of water! We had two hours until the museum closed so we made the most of it.

What is a tsunami? Tsunami is Japanese for "harbor wave." Formerly, tsunamis were called tidal waves; however, tsunamis are not caused by the tides, nor are they single-wave events. A tsunami is a series of waves caused by a massive displacement of water most often caused by an undersea disturbance (earthquake, landslide, or volcanic activity).

The museum covers the difference between local tsunamis and distant tsunamis. Local tsunamis cause the most devastation to property and lives lost, mainly because they strike so quickly. People do not have time to get away.

A mural in old town Hilo across the street
from the Pacific Tsunami Museum.

The Art Deco First Hawaiian Bank was
transformed into the Pacific Tsunami Museum.

Artwork in front of the museum.

Bob in front of the old First Hawaiian
Bank, now transformed into the 
Pacific Tsunami Museum.

The 1960 Chilean earthquake
tsunami stopped clocks in Hilo.

We learned that tsunamis are generated in three different ways:

1. Earthquakes: An undersea earthquake may produce a tsunami when a large amount of water is displaced by the movement of the tectonic plates. In the Pacific Ocean, earthquakes generate 83% of tsunamis.
2. Landslides: Tsunamis may be produced by land sliding into the ocean from above sea level or by landslides occurring completely underwater. So-called surprise tsunamis are those generated by landslides caused by small earthquakes that may not alert emergency managers to tsunami danger. A massive slope failure may produce a tsunami with greater local runup than a tsunami generated by an earthquake. 
3. Volcanic activity: Volcanic activity can generate local tsunamis through:
   * an undersea explosion
   * production of pyroclastic flows, dense clouds of heated gases and debris  which displace ocean water, and
   * rapid collapse of an undersea caldera, or mouth of a volcano.

In addition, there are ocean-wide tsunamis (tele-tsunamis) originating from locations such as Alaska, Japan, or Chile.

Take action immediately and move to higher ground if you notice nature's tsunami signs:

• An earthquake: swaying buildings and trees or trembling ground
• Water suddenly surging inland
• An unusually low or receding waterline
• Eerie silence along a coast instead of the usual sound of surf
• Sucking, hissing, bubbling, and boiling may be heard as rocks, pebbles, and water are drawn out to sea
• Unusual bubbles in the water
• Exposed seafloor for hundreds of feet

The museum is divided into rooms, each room covering a different tsunami. One of the first rooms starts out with a history of Hilo. 

Hilo's early history.

Specific earthquakes covered include:

• April 1, 1868: A massive earthquake struck the Ka'u District of the Big Island. That triggered landslides from Ka'u to Hilo. This was followed by a deadly tsunami along the southeastern coast of Hawaii. The villages of Punalu'u, Ninole, and Honuapo were completely annihilated.
• August 14, 1868: An earthquake in Chile sent another tsunami to the Big Island but no lives were lost.
• May 9-10, 1877: A major earthquake occurred near the coast of South America on May 9. The first tsunami waves reached Hilo at 5 am on May 10 and caused a great disaster. Water washed up into nearly all the stores in the front of town. At Waiakea, the damage was frightful. Every house within 100' of the water was swept away.
• November 11, 1922: An earthquake in Chile sent 7' waves surging into Hilo.
• February 23, 1923: An earthquake in the Aleutian Islands produced tsunami waves that struck Hilo, rising to more than 20' at Waiakea.
• April 1, 1946, the April Fool's Day Disaster: An 8.6 magnitude earthquake shook the Aleutian Islands of Alaska when the ocean floor moved violently as one of Earth's plates pushed beneath another. When people in Hawaii were warned of the tsunami they thought it was an April Fool's joke. The earthquake generated deadly tsunami waves that reached Kauai at 5:55 am approximately five hours after the earthquake. The tsunami moved down the island chain smashing into Hawaii just before 7 am. One of the areas hit hardest was Laupahoehoe Point where teachers and children were washed out to sea. 24 students and school faculty lost their lives. The waves continued to the California coast. Seventeen hours after the tsunami was generated and 9,000 miles from its source, the tsunami flooded fishing boats along the Chilean coast of South America. The Hawaiian Islands suffered the greatest loss of life and devastation to property.
• November 5, 1952: Tsunami from Russia. A 9.0 submarine earthquake rocked the ocean floor off the southeastern coast of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula. As the tsunami waves spread across the North Pacific at speeds more than 500 mph, a tsunami warning was declared throughout the Territory of Hawaii, and authorities sounded the alarm. The warning system that had been implemented in 1948 was successful in preventing loss of life.
• March 9, 1957, tsunami from the Aleutians: At 4:22 am, the fishing village of Unalaska was struck by the powerful shocks of a magnitude 8.6 earthquake. Another tsunami was heading across the Pacific Ocean. It hit Kauai like a giant flood just before 9 am. At 9:19 am, the waves hit Hilo, five hours after the earthquake, at a speed of 500 mph.
• May 22, 1960, tsunami generated by a 9.5 magnitude earthquake in Chile: Hilo experienced the most extensive damage in the Hawaiian Islands. The business district along Kamehameha Avenue and the low-lying residential areas of Waiakea and Shinmachi were wiped off the map. Nearly all the damage was done by the third wave. As it surged into Hilo, it wrenched 22-ton boulders from the 10-foot-high bayfront seawall and carried them 600 feet inland. Many lives were lost even after warnings and evacuation efforts by public officials.
• March 27, 1964, The great Alaskan earthquake and tsunami, the largest earthquake ever reported in the northern hemisphere: The colossal 9.2 magnitude earthquake generated a tsunami that traveled across the entire Pacific. There was a large exhibit on this.

Many more tsunamis are covered in this museum, including Fukushima (the great East Japan earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster) on Friday, March 11, 2011.

I was fascinated that there are also lake tsunamis. Most of the lake tsunamis are caused by large landslides.

There were multiple stories of heroism and people's personal experiences, some written, and some in video form. I will include photos with stories.

A quilt in memory of those who lost
their lives at Laupahoehoe Point.

The old Kress store in old town Hilo.

Richardson Park in Hilo, Hawaii.

Richardson Park in Hilo, Hawaii.

Richardson Park in Hilo, Hawaii.

Richardson Park in Hilo, Hawaii.

Pacific Golden Plover.

We have done enough sightseeing today and it's time for dinner. Bob wanted a good dinner to fuel his body for the marathon tomorrow. We went to Coconut Grill in Hilo. Bob had teriyaki chicken, white rice, and a garden salad. He said it was good. I ordered chopped steak (supposedly rib eye) with brown rice (not fully cooked), a Caesar salad, and a triple chocolate brownie for dessert. My chopped steak was awful. I could not identify the meat as rib eye which is normally my favorite steak. I had little bits and pieces filled with fat and gristle. Ptooey! The "meat" was way overcooked. The best part of my meal was dessert.

The decor in Coconut Grill was very nice. I loved the paintings they had on display. Here is information about the artist.

The art at Coconut Grill in Hilo. 

It was time for Bob to get some sleep. He'll start the marathon at 5 am (one hour early). 

I stayed up late to edit my photos for the past two days, and catch up on email and Facebook. Good night all.