Hiking Team: Dave Miller, Rosie Miller
Date: March 11, 2025
Rosie’s favorite trail as it wound through seven acres of Kona botanical gardens overlooking Kealakekua Bay filled with tens of thousands of tropical flowers and plants. Saw many Hawaiian monarch butterflies at the butterfly garden and elsewhere I saw a mongoose slithering through the plants. We circled through the world’s first galaxy garden, an accurate walk-through model of the Milky Way where I got a closeup photo of a colorful gecko. We hiked past macadamia nut orchards, mango groves, a variety of fruit trees, various shrines and tried to find our way out of a red and black lava rock labyrinth. There were many unique trees like the Sausage Tree (Photo#4) and the Panama Flame Tree (Photo#5). Unique flowers include the Torch Ginger (Photo#6). I’m showing lots of flowers because there were so many beautiful ones, many I don’t even know their names.
