Lava Land Part 14: Aloha Kapoho, Aloha Puna

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids"
Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers

We spent many a Father's Day out in Kapoho Bay.

It’s been a week since since my last post, a week of action.  We finally caught a break in the form of a dear friend we hadn’t seen for two years dropping back into our lives and finding us a two week vacation rental near the ocean in Keaukaha.  It is a place where we can live on our own again until the next chapter of our lives begins.

I am still on the computer and phone most of the day, but at least now, in between calls to rental agencies, our insurance agent and friends and relatives, we take long healing walks and swims.   Our dog Luna has stopped shaking, having nightmares and over the past days has even resumed her daytime naps. 

My husband's "office".

For some days after we moved our small pile of possessions here, I avoided watching lava videos and updates, but a few days ago our family was offered a free lava excursion by Kalapana Cultural Tours, Ikaika Marzo’s outfit.  At the beginning of the three and a half hour boat ride, he set the tone by reverently announcing that some aboard the boat had lost their homes to the lava.  It was a cold, rainy, bumpy ride that began at 3:30 a.m.  We saw the Kapoho lighthouse, for us the only recognizable remaining landmark of the area.  The boat was encompassed in a sulfphury steam that reminded me of the sulphur baths on Israel’s Dead Sea where I had lived a happy year on a kibbutz in my twenties.  One of the deck hands,  Kainoa Hauanio, a Hawaii County Lifeguard who had recently lost his home in Leilani, showed us where Champagne Pond had been.  It was incomprehensible thinking of the many hours (thousands) I had spent snorkeling and enjoying its beauty with family and friends.  We climbed to the top deck of the boat to get a better view.  It was not a healing experience, but it was an affirmation.

We weren’t able to see the lava river they are now calling the Kapoho river.  Maybe a helicopter ride will be my next step.

Our Pond

My appetite is returning and I have even found my hairbrush, although my husband noticed yesterday that we are grayer than we were before the lava came.  I have pledged to stop feeling so scared about all of this change because it is the only way forward, at least that is what my husband keeps telling me.  My friend Lorn who has lately been volunteering at ‘The Hub’ said, “Someday this will be a story you will tell to your grandkids.”  I am looking forward to looking back on this.  Aloha Kapoho, Aloha Puna. Happy Father's Day!

By Jill Steele

Author "Blood on the Orchids" 

A Love Letter to Kapoho & Puna
Owner Hawaiian Magic Tropical Flowers