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During our trip to the North Shore we stopped at the Audubon Botanical
Garden. They were pretty cool for botanical gardens, mostly because of
the waterfall and pool at the end. You could actually swim there, but
there were lots of signs warning against something –
lepto-something-rather (quote from movie Endless Summer: “Nobody knows
what it is, but you know you have it when your fingernails fall out!” -
which worried Nikki to no end). There is a large variety of plants from
other lands. The environments were also realistically replicated. When
we walked through the Lord Howe section, I actually thought I was on
Lord Howe. There was a large bit on the Piper Family, of which pepper
and Kava are family members. Kava is a very strong intoxicating drink
made from the roots of the Kava plant. Kava is mostly drunk in Fiji.
One of the most interesting trees that I saw was the Cannonball Tree.
The fruits grow directly from the trunk, and are so large that the
resemble cannonballs, hence the name. They are native to South America.
There was also a Hawaiian fishing shrine. The natives would build a
small shrine, then say some prayers, and go fishing. This was to
prevent him from sinking and to get him a lot of fish. When the
fishermen came back at the end of the day the would put their first fish
on the shrine to keep the god in good favour.
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