Day 24: Waimea

February 3, 2016

The Kohala hills - ranchland that looks so much like spots in Canada and mainland US

The Waimea Midweek Farmers' Market is held in the former main stables of the Parker Ranch. The stables now contain a museum run by the Paniolo Preservation Society, so by being attracted to the farmers' market we got the bonus of seeing the museum.

Just approaching the site a little outside of Waimea carried some interest, because you see not only the low green hills of Kohala, but also three of the major volcanoes, strung out in a row: Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai. My panarama shot does not really or at all show them, unfortunately.

You may be able to see the three mountains if you zoom in on this panarama. Hawaiian mountains are tall but not pointy.

The farmers' market was not huge, but it did have a nice selection of fruits and veggies, baked goods, juices, prepared foods, and crafts. One slightly unusual stall had a big supply of fresh lettuces. This was the most popular of all. Fruits are common here, but vegetables, especially cool climate ones, are the novelty.

Today our appreciation of the history and importance of ranching in this district took a big jump. It was surprising to see in the museum what was called the Paniolo (cowboy) Hall of Fame. This was a series of photos and write ups of up to 200 ranchers or Parker Ranch employees who were notable over the past 100 years. The 200 added up to a very impressive display, just in sheer numbers. Similarly, there was a display of Hawaiian saddles, which we understand have some unique design elements. But there were not just a few but dozens. Again, this was an indicator of the size and importance of ranching.

Wow, how can we pay $19 a plate for food at a market. That's $57 Canadian if we each get one.

Saddle details for anyone who understands this stuff

As it happened when we left the market/stable we stumbled upon the Parker Ranch headquarters. The headquarters is now located in what was previously the Parker family home, the one which followed the original cabin built by the founder. That original cabin is called Mana Hale (House of the Spirit) and the main house is called Puuopele. Mana Hale was moved to sit beside Puuopele by the last family member to control the ranch (Richard Smart). It came from about 7 miles away, and had to be disassembled and rebuilt to make the move. It was worth the effort, because the original house was made entirely from Koa, and is truly gorgeous.

Our guidebook had mentioned the Parker houses and talked about an $8 tour. But when we got to the end of the long driveway and walked into the building we found only one secretary. She explained that though this was headquarters people are welcome to walk around several rooms, using a self guided tour pamphlet, no fee. The pamphlet turned out to be very informative, and the walk most enjoyable. It was also sweet that we could just be there with family treasures and expensive treasures with no one worrying us, or about us, at all.

The pamphlet and the things in the house gave us a good understanding about the family and the ranch. We already knew that it had been founded by John Parker (1790-1868) and that he had gotten a major in in Hawaii by marrying into the royal family. From there, the family went through seven or eight generations, and it was interesting to follow who married who and what contributions (or not) various people made. The last family owner was one of the most interesting. He was Richard Smart. The owners' name changed from Parker to Smart merely because the last Parker was female and when she married a Smart, the name of the owners naturally switched to Smart.

Because his parents died very young, Richard Smart inherited when he was just two or three. At that point an administrator took over the major duties,and that man - Alfred Carter - was responsible for the major success of the ranch starting from the early 20th century. Having Carter must have been great for Richard Smart, because his great interest was in theatre, and he was actually a very big star on Broadway. He only returned to Hawaii in 1960, and we assume he took part in management. But before dying (1992) he put the ranch into the hands of a trust.

Whether owned by a family or a trust, the fact is that the grasslands up here are a tremendously valuable resource, and one that if well managed will always be here to produce food and guarantee the health and wealth of the population.

We also learned from Robert Ewing that the trust is working on a slightly different way to exploit the huge cattle/horse/leather and saddle culture here. That is to market real estate to horsey type people. Hmmm, maybe.

Now a boardroom, this was the dining room

The Parker Ranch was a training area for troops in WWII

The story of one division that trained here

At the Parker Centre, a sculpture of a 1908 world champion cowboy (Ikua Purdy).

One industry up here that is not related to cattle is the telescope sector. Because we came around first to Hilo and from there went up to Mauna Kea, we were not quite thinking about how close Waimea is to the mountain. Maybe by actual distance and by what the road connections are, Waimea is the logical "ground base" for the telescopes. So it makes sense that here we found the administrative offices of the Canada France telescope and also the Keck.

Keck has the largest telescopes up on the mountain. They are twins, each with 10 meter diameter. That actually makes them the largest telescopes in the world (for now). Keck has a small visitor centre here, with the advantage of on site docents. This actually was our first chance to listen to and ask questions of an actual person about the telescopes. When we were up on the mountain we could see the striking architecture of the telescope enclosures, but never realized just how big the buildings are and how much there is to them other than the enclosures. A floor plan we saw today shows that there is a large number of rooms and facilities, some below ground, up on the mountain. On the other hand, the actual astronomers generally are working on laptops right here in Waimea.

One of the niftiest features of the Keck scopes is that (like all large telescopes) it does not use what you might think of a classical glass lens. Rather, light is gathered and focused by 36 hexagonal reflective segments, that form a dish. This makes the whole thing easier to manufacture and manage, but most importantly each segment has its orientation controlled by servo motors underneath. So the exact shape of the dish is micro controllable. This is a blockbuster feature, because now they use a system called Adaptive Optics. With this, they fire a laser up 60 miles, projecting an image, and measure the atmospheric distortion they get in the image when viewed from the ground. Then with fast computers they continually reconfigure the shape of the dish. The result is clarity of images as good as the Hubble, which of course sits in space, above the pesky atmosphere.

The floor plan showing all the facilities at the Keck telescope on the mountain

The Keck telescopes - with the hard to see support building below

My camera flare exaggerates this, but the shot shows the advantage of adaptive optics

Even more adaptive optics advances are planned. Can you understand the list of what they will be able to achieve with this?

In the afternoon Robert kindly offered to tour guide us around a bit, and the consensus was that the most fun would be to go to the beach. Robert is a real old time beach guy, having been a sail maker, scuba diver, surfer, and sailor. The main beaches here are down on the north west coast, in the vicinity of Kawaihae. That is 20 km from here by the most direct route. Really that is nothing in a car, but mentally it's a world away for us, or at least it's a place we will not reach on the bikes for three or four days. So to zoom over in a few minutes was quite something.

Robert chose a beach a little south of Hapuna. But here is where the beach expertise comes in. Just the one little stretch contained a lot of variation in the height of the waves, in the presence of rocks both above the water and below, and in the presence of coral that would have fish to look at around it.

Dodie did her own beach analysis, which did not involve any breakdown into sub-beaches. Rather she stuck in one toe and delared the whole thing too chilly. So we set her up in a beach chair under a shady tree and set off with snorkel, mask, and fins to look for fish.Despite Robert's good effort to find a safe and interesting spot, it was not long before I started to get too tired. All this water is deep (over your head), you know!

Still, once back on the beach, I pointed to another section, where waves were crashing in, and said we should go try there. Robert agreed to go, but when we arrived he pointed out that real surf people first sit and analyse the wave patterns. So we sat, and analysed waves - for a long time. I got impatient and was just about to say "So let's go for it!" when a wave smashed a kid's head, maybe on the sand or on a boogie board. The kid came out crying, and the parents hustled him off. We sat longer. I was about to again say "Let's go for it!" when an old man (like my age?) washed up on the beach. Each time he tried to stand, a wave knocked him down. We ran forward to help him out, and Robert got a hand on him. I did not get a grip because of so much thrashing around. But another two or three people showed up, and the man was brought to his feet. People advised the man to go find a spot well up the beach and rest.

After that, Robert was able to easily lead me back to where Dodie was sitting, without having had to actually take me into the surf.

We had one more crack at it, though. This time I had a boogie board. I feel this made me look very surfer-ish, but in truth it was great as something to hang on to. I did see some yellow tang and a few other fish, but there were not really a lot of them. Robert said it was too rough out there for them. Too rough for the fish? Sheesh!

Tomorrow we will be back in our own particular natural element - hills and traffic, as we head over Kohala mountain and down to Hawi. But we really learned a lot about Waimea this time, and had the bonus of meeting Robert. Lot's of fun.

Heading down to the beaches on the Kohala side

The waves come in. The board rider is neither Steve nor Robert.

Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 779 km (484 miles)

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