Sunday
Removed the forms from the step I poured at the shower at Ahi and set up forms for the next one.
Removed / readjusted the forms from under the gazebo for the eight squares that I poured yesterday. Set up forms for pouring more squares.
Drove through town and down towards the ocean at Honuapo.
As I came around the edge of the cliff overlooking the ocean, Whittington Beach and pier, and the shore line towards Hilo my cell phone beeped. I have cell service. Have not had service since yesterday afternoon. Only have service because of the difference in area and getting signal from the towers on the hill.
Spent the afternoon down by the ocean. That peninsula that sticks out that you see in the picture is the location of Honuapo. In the 1800’s this entire area from the point to past the highway and halfway up the hill, used to be the developed village of Honuapo. In 1868, an enormous earthquake in the area preceeded a volcanic eruption from Mauna Loa with rapidly flowing lava and the accompanying tsunami that engulfed many coastal villages in the area, followed immediately by an enormous tsunami. Most of the remaining villagers relocated further inland to Naalehu and Pahala. In the ensuing decades, sugar cane cultivation in the hills above the old village became profitable – to the point of opening a mill at the site of the old village of Honuapo in 1881. A wooden pier had already been built on the site in the bay in 1883 to load the sugar onto ships. This wooden pier was replaced with concrete in 1910.
The harbor continued to operate until 1942 when they began trucking the sugar to the port at Hilo. In 1946 a hurricane destroyed the pier and many of the warehouses along the pier. In 1973, the mill at Honuapo was permanently closed, as sugar production on the mainland made shipping it from Hawaii less profitable. The concrete pilings of the pier still exist in the harbor.
The ruins of the sugar mill are still there on the left side of the highway up against the hillside.
TTFN
TropicalCastaway 