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Skriven 2014-12-03 05:38:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: things to do molokai 382
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Things to see:

Papohaku Beach and various similar on the west coast - most
of these beaches are just lava rocks, sometimes with a
sprinkling of sand to prevent you from cutting your feet if
you were foolish enough not to have footgear. The views,
though, are spectacular, each one, though they face mostly
westward to Oahu, slightly different. One could just sit
here and stare mesmerized at the waves all day, and I'm sure
that back in the day, scores of bedruggled young people must
have done just that.

Kapukahehu, also on the west, is a quite different kind of
beach. Pristine white sand as beautiful as I've ever seen,
and it's got to be a mile long, with a couple houses that
you can see but otherwise pristine. We went there one day
before school was out and had the place to ourselves for an
hour or two before the kids started coming in droves to
smoke and do whatever kids do. They left us alone, but
presently it seemed to be time to cede the battleground,
so we greeted them and left.
==
We didn't have the dosh or the buttstrength to take one of
the donkey tours down to Father Damien's leper colony (the
washed-out trails having been repaired and supposedly
reasonably safe even for elderly out-of-shape tourists) and
instead went up to Kalaupapa Overlook, a mile or two past
our place. It's worth the 50c worth of gas to get there,
and the views of the colony and the cliffs off to the east
(you can see some of them if you lean over and the angle
is right) are impressive. The breeze is nice, and when the
clouds blow over, that too has its appeal.

Halawa Valley might be the most beautiful place on earth.
It's at the end of the grandly named Route 450, which
changes from a well-engineered highway (now being widened,
it looks like, to 4 lanes in places) to a bumpyish track
that is wide enough for about 1 1/2 cars, as it wanders
through hippie havens and real estate agents' dreams, down
by the oceanside, up and down mountains and through abandoned
or at least neglected hillside farms. And then you head down
into the valley, and it is as though you'd landed on a
different planet. Despite there being dozens of other
solitude seekers around, you really do feel at the end of
the world. When it's time to go, hours later, you join the
end of a procession of cars, most of whose drivers are scared
out of their wits by the hairpin turns and unguardrailed
hundred foot drops and who couldn't drive their way out of a
paper bag in Des Moines anyway. And so back to real life and
the more civilized attractions.

Purdy's macadamia farm is an eccentric little place of the
sort I enjoy, some old guy who has coerced his descendants
and in-laws into sticking it to the man for as long as
possible, producing product that is so superior to Mauna Loa
and similar that I can't describe. The crisp is so much
crisper, the nuttiness more nutty, the oiliness richer. Plus
you get to try to shell your own, just to prove to yourself
how tough the job is (it's not, the shells are less hard than
Brazils, say). The inevitable result is that you buy a bunch
of bags of minimally-processed nuts or maximally processed
candies depending on your predilections. By the way, raw
ones, as with most nuts, are bland; likewise unsalted. Get
roasted salted and you'll be happy.

The old sugar mill and Molokai Museum, also just a couple
miles from what turned out to be a very centrally located
base, was substantially more interesting than descriptions
would have it. The mill itself is still in a semi-ruined
state, with some interpretive signs but mostly as it was
just after reclamation from the elements. The museum and its
video introduction to the island really should be your first
stop right out of the airport - it concisely explains a lot
about island history, especially relating to the colony
below, that you would otherwise spend a lot of time piecing
together from scattered sources.

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