A blue moon is the second full moon in any month. This blue moon was over the Big Island of Hawaii on New Year's Eve, December 31, 2009.

The blue moon was shining through a pair of Cook Pines (Araucaria columnaris) along the coast. Cook Pines always lean away from the ocean, so you can tell that the shoreline is to their left. Cook Pines are popular landscaping trees here in Hawaii. They are conifers (Division Coniferophyta) like pines, but they are not actually pines because they are in the Araucaria Family (Araucariaceae) instead of the Pine Family (Pinaceae).

Another popular landscaping tree and a wild-growing plant along the coast here is the Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera). These Coconut Palms were lit for a New Year's Eve party at a nearby oceanfront house.

Coconut Palms are "canoe plants", useful plants that were originally brought here to Hawaii by the ancient Polynesians. The large coconuts contain edible coconut milk and coconut meat, so these trees are both attractive and a source of food.