Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

Last night was pretty mellow on our actual street. What I mean by that is that no one did anything here on the street, except for some small fireworks. We missed the past years when the whole block has gotten together to do something...oh well.

Now don't think just because nothing was done outside our door, that we didn't get to see the celebrations. Oh, No! Fireworks are legal here, so they sell them just like they do for the 4th of July, everywhere...Costco, Foodland, Longs, the used furniture store in Wahiawa... for the big "Chinese style" roll of firecrackers, you have to have a permit. It's not a big deal to get a permit, I'm just not sure where you buy the actual firecrackers (probably Chinatown, you think?).

So since we got home Tuesday night, we'd heard random rockets, etc being shot off during the day. We live in a very country area, surrounded by local neighborhoods, so as the night wore on, we could hear more of these going off... All the paper you see in this photo is from the firecrackers exploding. These firecrackers are in rolls of 1000 and 5000, that you hang up high and light the lower end, step back and cover your ears. In Paalakai you can't drive down the street closer to midnight because the street is so full of the papers. Interesting fact: by saving a small amount of the red paper after the cleanup will bring you good luck.

I've seen many, many fireworks in my day, but NOTHING is like this. New Years Eve around here makes Disneyland fireworks look tame. At the stroke of midnight, as you turn around this is what you see from every direction...

We laid in bed and watched it, then went outside and stood in the street. Only one word "AMAZING".

The sound, the sights, the smell, nothing like New Year's Eve in Hawaii.