Alice in A'a land

Ah, the internet, it allows you to do so many things, like book a vacation suite sight unseen, or based upon the images they choose to show you.  You sometimes don’t know what you really got until you get there.  Now please understand, about 99 out of every 100 people or maybe even a higher percentage would think Waikoloa is a marvelous place.  If they brought you in blind folded you might never know what it is TPP is going on about.  There are resort accommodations here for thousands, and there are restaurants and shoppes, and two golf courses (2 more than the world needs) and a really fabulous beach (for real).  But the Phactors drove here, and that allowed us to see what this area is really like.  Part of the problem is that “natural” isn’t always what is preferred, which is certainly the case with this resort complex.

For those of you who are old enough this place resembles “The Village” where the secret agent man found himself “The Prisoner” continually wondering who is Number 1 (look it up).  The only thing missing is my striped blazer with a numbered badge.  Yes, we need a password to get in!  Here is the view from our flat’s patio, quite nice in a golf sort of way.  But TPP likes to explore and beyond yon hedgerow the view changes markedly, and so it looks for kilometers in all directions but the ocean. 

Nothing but A'a.  This place is actually a massive bulldozer and water transformation of a volcanic landscape all too common here on the Big Island.  As beautiful as it is, this resort complex is as natural as a Las Vegas' fountain or a Palm Springs' parking lot. The landscaping is all UTF (ubiquitous tropical flora); nothing is native.  This is the human ecological hubris, to look upon a lava flow and say,  “We can make this a paradise.” No idea where all the water (and soil) comes from in a chronically arid location like this?  And golf courses? Places like this offend my ecological  ethic, and generally staying here is uncomfortable and troubling, although dawn on the beach and brunch at the beach club after a whale watching cruise was quite wonderful.  The problem is that most people who fall into this rabbit hole never notice.