About Hawaii

Some general information
The absolutely neatest pictures are to be found at the UH School of Earth and Ocean Science Satellite Oceanography Lab. (At least in my opinion). Of all places, the Unversity of North Dakota has quite a collection of pictures of our volcanoes.

The usenet newsgroup alt.culture.hawaii has a FAQ now. In my opinion it is a bit Oahu-centric, but, well, that's where most of the people are.

We do have earthquakes here (some people doubt that). The US Geological Survey puts the information about them on the web as well as maps.

About The Big Island in general:
Some data published by the County of Hawaii:

The land area of the Big Island is approximately 4028 square miles, it is twice the size of the other islands combined. It is the second most populous county in the state, numbering 130500 in 1992. By judicial disctrict (1990 numbers) that is:
Puna: 20800
South Hilo: 44600
North Hilo: 1500
Hamakua: 5500
North Kohala: 4300
South Kohala: 9100
North Kona: 22300
South Kona: 7700
Kau: 4400

Its main industries are tourism, ranching, agriculture and astronomy.

It has the largest macadamia nut industry in the world, the largest orchid growing business in the world, the only major coffee industry in the United States, is the Major US ginger producer and has expanding export industries in papaya, tropical flowers, foliage and dryland taro. The Big Island produces more than 4/5 of the state's fruit production other than pineapple, including banana, guava, orange, tangerine, avocado (and not to forget passion fruit).

It also has the best astronomical site in the world (but the county didn't say that).

About Hilo:
Hilo is a nice little town on the east side of the Big Island of Hawaii. It is an about 1/2 - 3/4 hours flight away from Honolulu and it is completely different.
Some more county data: the average temperature in January/February is 71F, in August/September it is 76F. Average annual rainfall at Hilo Airport is 128" (not 200 as some people have you believe and it does NOT rain every day).

About Mauna Kea:
Mauna Kea isn't exactly for everybody. During the JCMT dedication it was said that 'at 14000 feet all you really want to do is sit in a pressure chamber'. If you feel like that, Mauna Kea isn't for you. That's one side of Mauna Kea. On the other hand it is the best astronomical site in the world, partly due to the fact that it is so high (a good part of the atmosphere is below the observatory). The IfA put together a good description, though mainly for tourists rather than for astronomers, including how to get there and the do's and don'ts as altitude sickness is concerned.

More information concerning altitude sickness can be found in the UH Institute for Astronomy's site

Travel Guides:

A travel guide, The "Big Island section of the Moon Travel Handbook" (I do not like it very much, it is books like this that perpetuate the notion that people here are backwards and cannot take care of themselves. "Where people still grow vegetables ..." - heck, the the vegies gotta come from somewhere, yes? It also lies in other things, like the last time I was in Kona it rained 5" in one day, it isn't that it never rains there. And: There is no Ali'i Drive in Hilo.)
Another book: "HotWired: Rough Guide - The Big Island" has some mistakes (I promise I will email them about them - some day) too, but no remarks like "where people still grow vegetables ..."

Food:

People may not know, but Hawaii is also about food. There's a lot of recipes to be found here.

Links to other information:

Hawaii's Labor Market at a Glance (but don't get too scared)
Bicycling on the Big Island
Sailing in Hilo
Sailing in Kona
Hula Halau in Hawaii
Lyman Muesuem in Hilo

back to CSO reference page

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