Unlike my koi, I am able to fly away from the subzero Minnesota temperatures. However, the koi are never really far away from my thoughts and when my husband and I travel, we find a lot of koi.  At the Hilton Waikaloa on the Big Island of Hawaii, there was a pleasant koi pond encircling the Japanese restaurant. The koi here seemed longer and thinner.  They also go into a mini feeding frenzy over graham cracker crumbs.

On Oahu, we visited the Byodo-In Temple in Kaneohe  (www.byodo-in.com) which is surrounded by a large pond and moat.  The koi immediately begin to swim towards anyone standing still at the edge of the water. The koi at this pond are plentiful but not particularly pretty in my opinion. They’re quite greedy.

By happenstance we were in Waikiki during the Aloha Koi Show (www.alohakoi.org).  There were some beautiful koi but I was surprised that the show was not really that large.  I would have thought in an area that has such a dense Asian population, there would be more koi aficionados. It really makes me appreciate the upper Midwest koi breeders and clubs.

We stopped over for a short visit in Southern California to visit my sister. She happens to have a house that just begs for a koi pond and I am sure she would be a natural koi keeper.  Tony (my husband) has offered to go dig a pond for her if she wants. We went to a local koi store, Eastern Koi and Waterscapes (www.pacificwaterscapes.com) and saw some very nice koi. There was a beautiful tancho (all white with a red spot on its head) and a huge, 51 cm yamabuki ogon (yellow).  I saw a few ochiba shigure (gray with orange markings) that I really liked. As soon as my pond warms up, I’ll be heading out to Koi Acres in Scandia to find one!