Today we went to explore the local beaches. We walked through the Kaluakoi Villas and down to the beach by the golf course. The surf was really rough and there were a lot of rocks on the beach so it was not good for swimming or even paddling. We sat and watched the waves for a while and then wandered back through the depressing Kaluakoi Villas that seem to have been left to rot for several months. When the owners of the Molokai Ranch closed down operations in March 2008 they also abandoned this condo rental resort and golf course so it is in a sorry state now. The locals campaigned against a large development proposed by the Singapore owners of the Ranch and they responded by closing the Ranch, the Lodge, the Maunaloa gas station and cinemas and throwing a lot of people onto welfare. It is tough to decide whether this opposition to development was the right thing to do - Molokai is very poor and rustic and there is a lot of unemployment.
In the afternoon we had to return to the airport to swap our rental car because the car we had booked was not available on our arrival yesterday. We missed our turn and ended up to the north of the airport driving along a road called Farrington Ave. This was an amazing coincidence since I had received an email that morning telling me that the parish priest in Dumfries, Fr Michael Farrington, had just passed away. I spoke with him in September last year when I was there to help Ray celebrate his 60th birthday. He was the older brother of a friend of mine at the Hollies Convent in Manchester - small world!
Later we drove down the coast from our condo to visit some other beaches and see if we could find one which would be good for swimming. Dixie Maru beach, named for a boat that was shipwrecked there, looked like the best bet and we will definitely return another day although the water seemed a little murky.
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