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Googling the Big Island
Posted at 04:25 PM
The size, the vastness, the oasis and danger of the Big Island come to life with a few clicks of the mouse. By Paul Honda I spent the first hour of my day 1) thanking God that my cold is finally getting better, and 2) poring over sites that had history and maps of the Big Island. It started with a visit to a site that had a long historical summary of Ka'u history. According to the site, the summary was written by students. Now that is cool. That led me to Google Maps, and I quickly was reminded that I am so, so behind the times. As usual. I'm not proud to say that technology has always seemed to be several steps ahead of me. I never touched a computer until joining the Ka Leo O Hawaii student newspaper back in the late 1980s. The PCs were basically (I think) Microtek. In other words, the screens were black and the words were in green. There were no CDs to be burned. Everything we wanted to read came out on a printer, and the paper had those perforated edges with the pukas on both sides. No complaints, though. That's how it was and I was paid a handsome $10 per story, occasionally cranking out three stories in one day. I liked to think of it as on-the-job experience, volunteer work with pretty good perks. I hear that they installed air-conditioning a few years back. Spoiled brats. Actually, I kid. The people I worked with back in the day were all great. One thing about working at a college paper in Hawaii — or even a high-school paper like The Bulldog — you get a mix of folks that you wouldn't otherwise meet. There aren't too many other experiences like it. Priceless. Skip ahead to the 1990s (wow, pretty soon it'll be the Year 2000!) and I'm still banging away on Microtek computers at my first full-time job on the Big Island. It wasn't until 1993 that the company moved house and installed these newfangled Apple computers. It was like Freddy Flintstone leaving his foot-powered sedan in favor of a Lamborghini. Though we didn't have Internet access in the office, it was a far cry from the cut-and-paste days. Imagine that: a sports editor actually editing his entire section without leaving his seat. It's no wonder I gained some weight there in the mid-'90s. It wasn't until 1995 or so that I actually bought myself a PC. Suddenly, e-mail was a gift from God. I don't know if I've written a personal letter since then, which is good and sad just the same. There's nothing exactly like a hand-written letter from family and friends. Getting one in the mail is like a tiny piece of Christmas. Then again, waiting three or four days to find out if your letter got there was never fun. Now, a fleeting thought can be text messaged instantly instead of taking 3-4 days to arrive. But even in the late '90s, with AOL being all the rage thanks to its IM service, who knew that one day we'd be able to send photos instantly, as well. And not a whole lot of people knew at that time, the world's biggest "library" of information — Google — was born. Today, in a nostalgic mode, I did some surfing on the web for info about my old "home" island, the Big island. Learned some things about Ka'u district that I hadn't known. Then I went to Google Maps and toured the island, recalling so many experiences in my work as a sportswriter. Lahuipuaa and Kaupulehu were places that had no significance to me until I covered the Senior Skins there. As far as I was concerned, one of those golf courses, Mauna Lani, was the actual name of the area. Or was it? I did some digging at the library and learned the names and some legendary origins. Pretty fascinating, especially with different theories about the legends. Did pigs (pua'a) really converge at Lahuipuaa back in the old, pre-contact days? My old Postal Tours took me to many towns around the island, with guidance from old bowling-alley pals Stan and Ron. They're both Big Island born and raised, and they actually stayed up through the night after we hung out (as usual) singing karaoke at the bowling alley. We were off and running at 6 a.m. for the two-day tour of 35 post offices. Of course, Stan (a chef) and Ron (mechanic) were dead tired and slept much of the way to the first stop. Places like Hawi and Kapaau were already familiar to me through my coverage of high school sports, but Ninole? Ookala was a funny one. One year, during a Postal Tour, I pulled in and found the plantation general store. (Many of the post offices are built right into the side of the store.) Nobody was around. In fact, the entire structure looked deserted. I peeked into the store. Dusty, dirty and locked up. The map on the wall read "1992". I almost gave up. It was disheartening to find Ookala (off the main road, as are most towns and key spots on the Big Island) only to see a ghost town. But before I left, I noticed an open window on the side of the building. Was this a post office? I got closer, and peeked inside. An older Filipino lady was reading a magazine. There was mail around the place. "Hello?" I said. The lady jumped up in shock. I almost gave her a heart attack. We started talking and she was the nicest lady you'd ever meet. See, even though the Ookala post office is only open from 9 to 11:45 a.m., hardly anyone stops in. I basically interrupted her quiet time. She stamped my big ol' postmark (cancellation) book, which is actually an artist's sketchbook (heavier, thicker paper), and I was off to the next post office. The smaller post offices gave me a very quaint and intimate feeling for towns around the Big Island. On one hand, it's sad that places like Ookala continue to shrink because the newer generation is lured away by jobs and opportunities in bigger towns. And yet, the simplicity and longevity of a tiny place is worth noting. There's history in them thar' hills because the people who remain gave their blood and sweat to make a living there. There are no big hotels and casinos, no 7-Elevens and truck stops. You blink and the town is long behind you. So, I kept clicking around on Google Maps for awhile, following the main highways of the Big Island. Then I noticed that "Satellite" is available. Satellite? One click and woila. My map turned into a geographical monument of beauty. This, I finally learned, is what we see on TV news. The Big Island cannot be fully enjoyed by a map reader without using this tool. The incredible terrain comes to life. Even lava flows are clearly evident now. Flows that came just short of Captain Cook, Honalo and so many other places are there for the eye to see. So is the flow from Hualalai (less than two centuries ago) that covered the land that includes the current Kona International Airport. All those miles I chugged in a series of beat-up old economy cars seem light years away, but far more earthy (no pun intended) thanks to Google Maps. Wonderment. This could get addicting. So many places I still haven't been to on the Big Island, but just seeing the satellite photos of where communities are and aren't is a trip. Hawaiian Ocean View Estates looks like a busy grid on a "Map", but very barren once you see how few homes are there even now. I'd love to transport myself to Kona (pick up some fresh coffee beans) and Punalu'u Bakeshop (fresh bread) without having to do the driving. I suppose I'm feeling nostalgic after visiting the Big Island recently on a work assignment (HIADA), but most of my time was spent in Hapuna. Gorgeous area with extremes — lava fields and crystalline beaches. That added to my litany of datelines. A dateline is the location you see at the very start of a news article. So let me try and recall the datelines I've written on the Big Island. Common: Less common: Of course, at West Hawaii Today, we never used Kailua-Kona and Keauhou as datelines since they were basically "in town." But it never failed to give me a bit of satisfaction to go someplace new and cover an event. Hopefully, there will be more places I can write from. Mauna Kea would be a cool start! Previous Article: Munarriz on leading edge Comments Post A Comment © Copyright 2003 HondaReport.com/Leahi.Net
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