Yesterday we wandered down the coast to the south tip of the island. It was hot, dry, windy, and beautiful.

On the way to the point, we stopped and got some pictures

Ryan got to do a tiny bit of off road driving in the area near the green sand beach.

Unfortunately, it was late enough in the day that the parking area to hike down to the beach was full; although given how annoyed I was by the wind pelting me with dust, that may have been the universe telling me to not try to do the 2.25 mile hike each way to the beach. So we opted to not do that.

On the drive back up from the point we stopped at a little farm. It was cooler and not windy, which went a long way toward soothing my nerves. We wandered around and saw some ducks and a few re-homed parrots. They were sampling their macadamia nuts, so we had some while there.

One of the interesting things about the farm was their aquaponic system. They have some tilapia in a tank. And since fish poop, they then send that water down a pipe to fertilize their plants in the greenhouse. There are a couple of “rivers” with rafts of seedlings using that water and then it’s pumped back over to the tank with the fish. There was a sign explaining how it works that Ryan took a picture of so we’ll be able to go back and read it later.

After that the day was mostly just driving. We continued on the road that goes around the island until the outskirts of Kona where we took a shortcut across the island back home.

There was one spot where we got to drive where the map said there wasn’t a road, but that was just a fun side note.

And then after surviving rush hour in Hilo, we were home for the day.