The Schryver Family

Moanalua Gardens ... June 8, 2017

Our last day in Hawaii was Thursday, June 8.  Kristin didn't have to work and we didn't fly out until 10:15 PM so we spent the morning at Moanalua Gardens.  This facility is quite close to their home but Kris had never been there. 

The gardens are "supported by the Hitachi Group".  Hitachi is a Japanese corporation.  The area features many trees, plants and flowers.  The Monkey Pod Tree is featured, in particular one huge tree near the center of the gardens referred to as the Hitachi Tree.  A picture of this is the logo of the Hitachi Group.  These trees are interesting in that they are much broader than they are tall.  They grow to about 25 meters tall, or about 82 feet but can spread out 40 meters, over 130 feet.  The trunks are enormous, up to 7 meters, about 23 feet around.  Standing under them in the Hawaii sunshine is refreshing.  The temperature is several degrees cooler under it.  The leaves of these trees spread open at sunrise and close in the afternoon, providing additional shade.

Also located here is the summer cottage of King Kamehameha V, built in the 1850s.

The is a Koi pond here filled with fish, ducks and other birds.  One of us commented that the Koi look like carp.  As it turns out, they are a domesticated carp.  The gift shop sold pellets to feed the fish.  We soon noticed that a kingfisher was attracted to the areas where the pellets were thrown.  This guy was hungry!  While we were there, he dove in many times and caught at least three small ones.  After the appetizer course, he went after something bigger.  He caught one that was almost as big as he was.  When he put it down on the bridge to get a better bite on it, the fish managed to flop back into the pond.  He later caught a couple that weren't quite as large and swallowed them whole.  His dining habits were worse than some people we know!  We took quite a few pictures of him on sport, or burst, mode showing him diving in and getting back out with his dinner.


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