Wednesday - Shopping, Astronomy, Geology

Up early for another pigout breakfast – then onto the bus and off to the Hilo Market to buy shirts (for Friday night), souvenirs and ukeles (they emptied one vendor out!). Also to try fresh coconuts (with a straw), apple-bananas (yum), smoothies, and Kona coffee.

We got in the bus and headed off to a small beach to do some marine biology. The waves were large so only the U of Hawaii student went out with Mr. Haley to collect specimens. We saw a number of different invertebrates such as urchins (don’t touch!! Or you need to pee on where they stung you), brittle sea stars (touch), and sea cucumbers (yum as shashimi but we put them back).

Back on the bus and off to the Imiloa Astronomy Centre. This is a brand new centre near the campus that is dedicated to trying to reconcile the differences between the native Hawaiians and all the large telescopes (13!) that reside on the top of Mauna Kea above 13000 feet. There were lots of interesting displays about astronomy and about native Hawaiin cosmologies. We were able to see the first 3D movie in a planetarium too – it was about space exploration.

Again, back on the bus. A quick stop at a chocolate shop (Hawaiian Candies) then back for a picnic out on Coconut Island right by our Hotel. Conconut island is now a little park but in earlier pre tsunami days there was a whole town nearby. Only large buildings that can survive a tsunami (such as our hotels) are now in this area.

And finally, off to the campus where we had a discussion of geology and geophysics. The kids got to see all kinds of rocks, minerals, and particularly Hawaiian lavas. As well, they got to try on a lava suit!

Back to the hotel to pack up for the morning – time to leave for Kona.