Our first visit to beautiful Hawaii to cheer Luke on in his very first Ironman World Championships will be always be imprinted in our minds because of it's very dramatic welcome! or ALOHA!!!
The day before we arrived on the Big Island, October 6th, 2006, 7.07am a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck, followed 7 minutes later by another quake magnitude 6.0! These quakes caused huge devastation and of course mayhem and panic in Kailua-Kona! - full to the brim with athletes and tourists at the time! We received a frantic phone call from Luke informing us of the event, even before it hit the news at home!! He was at the water's edge in the Bay near the Pier, about to do a training swim when he felt the earth move!!! An unnerving experience that all the athletes, visitors and locals won't forget .
We nervously arrived the following day, expecting their could be aftershocks, and witnessed the damage nature had inflicted! Our hearts went out to the locals!
Due to Nature's wrath that day, one of the historic buildings that was badly damaged was St Michael the Archangel Catholic Church. On engineer's reports it unfortunately had to be closed a year after the earthquake and finally taken down in January 2010. With hundreds of parishioners it was decided to continue church services on the church grounds and so "The Church in the Tent" was born and all church activities are still held in the "tent" to this day, and it will continue to be that way for the next few years.
Many fund raising activities have been held in order to build the newly planned church to be erected on the site and we were lucky enough today, along with other visitors and tourists in Kona, to join with the locals and contribute to the fund raising at the St Michael's Feast Day.
It was great to experience a local event and it was a hive of activity and enjoyment with a Country Stall, games, food, a Beer Garden and BBQ, entertainment and a massive Silent Auction.
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| The history of the Church and the fundraising campaign |
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| The Coral Grotto of Out Lady of Lourdes remains standing in the Church grounds. It is visited by thousands of tourists and parishioners each year. The grotto has become a place for prayer and meditation. |
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| The Community Hall in the centre of Kona on Alii Drive was the hub of the Feast Day Fundraiser |
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| The Country Store had an enticing array of homemade goods - the cakes, chutneys and jams looked delicious! Yum - pineapple jam!!! |
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| Great local entertainment while people enjoyed bidding for the Silent Auction and sampled all the delectable food that was on offer from 21 different nations. |
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| Local businesses and people were very generous in their donations for the auction - there were hundreds of items to bid for! |
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| The international food that was available was provided by locals and parishioners from those countries who now call the Big Island Hawaii home - 21 different nationalities live in tiny Kona! |
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| So many nice international dishes to sample!!! It was a wonderful feast!!! The Okinawan doughnuts, Andagi, were sensational!!! All About Andagi (fried doughnuts) from Okinawa |
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| The nations flags were proudly flying! |
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| The community hall, Hale Halawai, was packed with people savouring the delectables and waiting for the Auction. |
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| Very enticing auction items! |
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| Lots of people bidding! |
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| A Charola |
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| The Mexican community of Kona, children and adults, entertained us with their "colourful" dances and music. |
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| Beautiful! |
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| The kids were characters - did a fantastic job! |
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| Outside the Community Hall in the park, lots of "game' action was taking place! The kids were having a ball!!! and some adults who dared to pit their skill against the kids!!! lol |
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| Get the ping pong ball into the container with the colour that gets the highest reward!!! Harder than it looks and sounds!!! |
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| Hoop-la with a difference! Which soft drink bottle can I hoop! Type and colour again decides on your reward!!! |
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| The kids were loving the fishing!!! And they were very skilled, landing a reward each time!! |
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| The fish sitting on the other side taking the line! lol A quick peg of a reward to the fishing line, a tug and voila - the kids caught their fish!!! or reward!!! Great fun and excitement!!! |
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| Now this fishing was a test of skill - very difficult! Lots lined up for this challenge! :)
What a successful fundraiser for St Michael's!!!! Enjoyed by all!!!!
We really appreciated being part of the community and joining in on this wonderful event that displayed the community spirit of these beautiful people of Hawaii! We'll look forward to seeing the lovely new church standing proudly in the grounds on Alii Drive that holds so much history and many stories!
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Today's Magic Moments:
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| Watching the locals having a successful fish from the seawall! They call this style of fishing "jigging". |
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