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| Kids climbing one of the largest Plumeria trees I've ever seen |
One of the things I love about hiking is seeing the beauty and splendor of God’s creation. Today we visited Koko head Crater Botanical Gardens and every plant was a marvel to behold. The different shapes, colors, sizes, and designs always amaze me. What is cool about this garden is it is all dry desert plants. We live on a tropical island but we can still see and appreciate cacti and strange looking plant life from Madagascar. It’s so interesting to so see these strange almost alien looking plants. I can see where Dr. Seuss got his inspiration from.
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| Dr. Suess looking tree |
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| It looks like there's a door in the tree |
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| The Gang posing in front of these cool cacti |
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| Trees from Madagascar |
Some of the trees have some serious thorns all over their trunks
and branches. The thorns are similar to cacti thorns but way more dangerous. If
you tried to hug one of these trees you would get seriously hurt. I guess in a
desert this is a way for the trees to survive and keep animals from eating them.
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| This looks like a normal tree but it's trunk and branches are covered in sharp thorns |
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| Close up of the thorns on the trunk of the tree |
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| My son enthralled by the thorny branches |
When people tell me that there is no God and that the world
and life was created by accident I can only shake my head. Look around at the
amazing plant and animal life. Every one
of these plants and animals is wonderful and deeply complex. Plants, animals,
humans, and our eco system are all interconnected. If you get rid of one, it wreaks
havoc with the design and things do not run smoothly.
If for some reason a
native plant or animal becomes extinct from the area, there is a chain reaction
that involves all the other animals and plants in the area. I saw this cool documentary about wolves and
how they used to live in Yellowstone National park and when they were hunted to
almost extinction there was a huge effect on the land and animals in the area.
When the wolves were re-introduced to the area the water and trees all started
coming back. This is a great example of how complex and wonderful this world is
and how much thought went into its design. Here is the video in case you want
to watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q
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| Cool looking cacti |
Another example is our bodies. The human body was designed
to be the perfect machine. We breath in air or oxygen (that comes from trees) that
goes into our lungs and somehow we subtract that oxygen from the air for our
body to use. Our heart then pumps blood that flows through veins in the body
delivering oxygen and other nutrients to different parts of our body. Then we
exhale carbon dioxide which trees use to live. Humans and trees are basically
coexisting, supporting one another. It is an amazing design and not something
that evolved by accident. There are too many intricacies for any of this to be
an accident and with all great designs there
must be a designer. Anyway, just some food for thought. With that I will leave you with some of the
pictures from our hike. Enjoy!
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| My husband and I |
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| Kids playing with the cactus |
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| Nike Commercial? |
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| One of the largest cactus I've ever seen |
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| Kids swinging from the tree |
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| Look at that view! |
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| The bark on this tree was similar to a guava or eucalyptus tree it was multi colored. |
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| Aloe Vera Flowers? |
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| Gnarly roots and branches |
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| On the trail |
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| To bad I couldn't capture the whole tree in all it's glory |
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| Family Photo |
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| Just around the bend on the way home |
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| That is some serious rock |
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| Checking out the surf |
