Kauai, the Garden Island

Kilauea Point Wildlife Refuge (discussion following Kalalau lookout)

We flew to our last destination, Kauai on January 25 arriving at the Lihue Airport. We were immediately greated by the feral chickens running everywhere. The jungle fowl were originally introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians over 1000 years ago. They have thrived on Kauai due to the absence of the mongoose. which was introduced to control the rats and mice. The chickens are found on the other islands, but in much smaller numbers.

Feral chicken (jungle fowl)

The first day we travelled along the north shore pssing through the Town of Hanalei. Hanalei was made famous in Peter, Paul, and Mary's song "Puff the Magic Dragon". This is one of the most beautiful regions on the island. Taro is a major crop grown in valley (picture below). It is grown as the food source for the starchy food, poi. This region is where most of the movie "South Pacific" was filmed in the late 1950s.

Hanalei taro fields

We then proceeded to the end of the road at Haena Pt. (photo below). This area is a favorite of the tourists. The winter surf is high and the view to the west of the Na Pali coast is magnificient. The Na Pali cliffs are as high as 2000 ft, second to those on the Island of Molokai.

Na Pali coast from Haena Point

The next day we headed south through the Town of Waimea, the landing site of Captain James Cook. We drove north to Kokee State park. This road climbs to an elevation of approximately 4000 ft. with great viewpoints of Waimea Canyon along the way (photo below). Mark Twain called it the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific". It is the largest Canyon in the Pacific at 3500 feet deep. Tropic birds were seen flying around the Canyon.

Waimea Canyon

We stopped to eat at Kokee State park and were entertained by a large population of chickens. This popultion is considered the only wild population in the Hawaiian Islands. We drove to the end of the road at the Kalalau Valley outlook. The southern outlook (piccture below) was out of the clouds. This is a magnificent view of the largest valley along the Na Pali coast. The upper viewpoint was in the clouds.

Kalalau Valley at the Na Pali coast

On our last day we revisited Kilauaea Point, home of the Kilauaea lighthouse and National Wildloife Refuge (first picture). This site is a great viewpoint for whales and seabirds. Birds seen here were Red-footed Boobies, white tropic birds, and the Laysan albatros. On the first day we had to cut short our visit due to closing time of 4:00pm, but we were able to view three of four humpback whales breaching offshore. These whales would literally "stand" straight out of the water, with at least 1/3 of their body out of the water, before falling over. On our second trip a Fish & Wildlife volunteer showed us through his telescope, the extremely rare monk seal basking on the rocks.

On Kauai we finally saw the Nene, Yea Yea! These rare birds were first seen at the Hanalei Valley and then at Kilauea Point (picture below)

Hawaiian rare goose, the Nene

Along the shore south of Lihue we visited the Spouting Horn at Poipu Beach. At this time of year the waves were causing the spouts to be quite large. We also watched a whale offshore going through quite a performance. We counted it slapping its tail 32 times in a row!

Poipu Beach Spouting Horn

On next stop was a cruise up the Wailua River to the Fern Grotto (photo below). This is an old lava tube with a large overhang with "Boston ferns". This is a favorite site for weddings. The Wailua River was the site where Harrison Ford jumped onto the float plane in "Raiders of the Lost Ark". The Fern Grotto was also the site where the "large ball" rolled though the forest in "Raiders"

Fern Grotto

We visited two waterfalls in the Wailua area. The first was Opaekaa Falls at 151 ft. (first picture below) and then Wailua Falls at 173 ft. (second picture below). Wailua Falls was a location in the T.V. show Fantasy Island.

Opakaeaa Falls

Wailua Falls

We flew home the evening of January 23 with a direct flight to Los Angeles, then on to Albany via Chicago. We had a great time on the trip. It was especially nice to spend two weeks with Barre's cousin, Jeff Hall and his wife Linda. Linda added a number of birds to her life list and also took many photographs. We were amazed at the great weather throughout the trip, with wonderful sunny days and only a few brief showers that did not interfere with our plans. The temperature was constantly in the high 70's to low 80's F with cooler weather at the higher elevations on Mt. Haleakala and at Volcanoes National Park. Each of the Islands is entirely different. Oahu is noted for growing pineapple, surfing on the North Shore, Waikiki, and Pearl Harbor. Maui has Mt. Haleakala, the Hana Road, historic Lahaina, and sugarcane. The Big Island, the youngest island, has two active volcanoes, Mouna Loa and Kilauea, snowcapped Mauna Kea, extensive lava flows, and South Point. Kauai is noted for Taro growing, the Na Pali coast, Waimea Canyon, Mt. Waialeale (wettest place on earth), and Kilauea Point. Of the four islands visited, Kauai was the favorite for all of us. Our 50th state is fabulous and friendly!

Hawaii (Big Island)

We flew from Kalalui, Maui to Kailua-Kona, the Big Island, on January 21and stayed at the Royal Kona Hotel at Kona. Arriving at 3 pm. we relaxed and visited local shops after dinner. The next day we drove around the north and west cost of the Island. Our first stop was Puukohola Heiau National Hisorical Site. This is the site of the Great Temple of King Kamehameha. There was a microphone ca. 1/4 mile offshore recording live whale calls, which as very interesting listening to the animals. Following lunch in Hawi we took the Kohala Mountain Road through lush range land as seen below.



Along the Kohala Mountain Road one enjoys beautful views of Mauna Kea. This is considered the tallest Mountain in the world from base to summit. Most of it is underwater. The elevation above sea level is 13796 ft. During the winter the top is often snow-covered. The summit houses many observatories.

Waimea Village and Mauna Kea.

We visited the town of Waimea, home of the Parker Ranch. We attempted to locate the
Parker Ranch Museum, and found out that the museum is now closed (the travel book info. was wrong). The Parker Ranch today consists of about 150,000 acres. It is still one of the largest ranches in the country. The Ranch was founded in the early 1800's by John Palmer Parker from Newton, MA. The Ranch is now in a Trust, and money from the Ranch now helps to support education and the local hospital in Waimea, also founded by a member of the Parker family. Horseback riding and tours of the Ranch are available for tourists.

Basking Green Sea Turtle

Leaving Waimea we headed back to the coast and Anaehoomalu Bay with hopes of seeing sea turtles. We spotted three Green Sea Turtles along the beach, two basking, as seen above and one swimming in the shallows along the shore.

Surf at Kona Hotel

The surf was still running high at the beginning of our stay in Kona, as seen above from the hotel grounds. The next day we drove south to Volcanoes National Park. Our first stop was at South Point (picture below), the southernmost point in the United States. This site is characterized by crashing waves into the large sea cliffs (photo below).

South Point

Lunch break was at the Pahala Bakery, the southern-most Bakery in the U.S.! Then it was off to the Punaluu Black Sand Beach with the hope of seeing more turtles. Four more green turtles were observed at the beach.

Punaluu Black Sand Beach

We spent the afternoon at Volcanoes National Park. There are presently two active areas in the Park. We did not visit the East Rift Zone where lava is flowing. There is no good area to observe the flowing lava because it is all on private land. We did see the smoke from the crater of Halema'uma'u within the Kilauea Caldera. Smoke from this vent can be see in the left side of the photo below.

Halema'uma'u Vent at Kilauea Caldera, Mauna Loa in distance

We went to the observatory museum along the southwest side of the Kilauea Caldera to view the smoke, steam, and glow from Halema'uma'u (above). Mauna Loa is observed from the Crater as well as from almost everywhere in the Park. Mauna Loa is the largest shield volcano in the world with its huge mass. It is 13680 ft. tall and had a small area of snow on the top. Cousin Linda was actively birding throuhout the trip and was constantly looking for the rare Hawaiian goose, the Nene. This and Haleakala on Maui are two places they commonly occur. We had no luck,"no, no Nene". At dusk we saw the glow from the crater (below).

Glow from Halema'uma'u Crater

We had a two hour drive back home to Kona arriving at 9:30pm. The next morning we headed to the northeast and eastern portion of the island. We first drove to the view point at Waipio Valley. The road to the valley floor is extremely steep and only 4-wheel drive vehicles were permitted.

Waipio Valley

This afternoon, we visited Akaka Falls State Park. This park is on the wet Windward side of the Island, just north of Hilo. Two waterfalls occur within the Park-Kahuna Falls (100 ft.) and Akaka Falls (442 ft.). The vegetation is the park consists of large bamboo, strangler figs, gingers, and tropical rhododendrons.

Akaka Falls

Our last night we met Andrea Lysy, a former student of Barre's from Mass. College. She is presently working in a government lab for the USDA. We enjoyed learning more about living in Hilo, the largest town on the island. We had a very pleasant visit over dinner in Hilo and drove to "home" in Kona over the mountain road of Mauna Kea.

We spent the last day on the Big Island travelling just south of Kona visiting the Harbor of Refuge, Pu'uhonnua O Honaunau. This is where warriors were absolved of their law breaking and returned to society. This is one of the most sacred areas in Hawaii.

We are now off to our fourth island, Kauai.

Oahu photos

Here are photos of our stay in Oahu. I will continue the blog of the Hawaii (Big Island) and Kauaii in subsequent blogs. We were unable to get free wi-fi at most locations so all of the photos and remaining blogs are being entered from home.

Greenhouse and snowstorm the day we left, Jan 13 (22 inches)

King Kamehameha stautue at Judiciary Building, Honolulu

This builiding is used as the police headquaters on the new Hawaii Five-O.

Cast of Hawaii Five-O at filming of episode that may be aired Jan. 31. This is next to the Judiciary Building.

Punch Bowl National Cemetary of the Pacific. Burials here are from WWII, Korea, and VietNam.

Arizona War Memorial at Pearl Harbor National Historical Park

North Shore of Oahu between Waimea Bay and Sunset Beach. Rough surf of storm and natural high swells. Waves on outer reef ca. 20-30 ft.

Tahitian dancers on river performanace at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Byodo-in Temple, Valley of the Temples, western Oahu. A number of Magnum P.I. segments were filmed here.

Aloha from Maui

Lahaina Giant Banyan Tree

Greetings from Maui. We spent two days, three nights on the Island of Maui in the town of Lahaina. We stayed at a very nice condominium complex just a block from downtown. Lahaina is an historical town originally settled by New England whalers. The above Banyon tree is huge and covers most of a town block. At night Mynah birds by the hundreds flock to it to roost.

Mountains along road to Lahaina

Taro Fields at Kaena along Hana Road
We drove the 36 mile stretch of winding road to Hana. This has over 600 curves and 57 one-laned bridges. It takes about two hours to drive this road. One of the view points is the Taro fields at Kaena along the road. Much has changed around Hana with many new homes. The Hana Ranch is still active. We continued another 8 miles along a narrower, curvy road to the Kipahulu section of Haleakala National Park. A new visitor center was found at Oheo Gulch (Seven Sacred Pools). The stream was low, so the pools were shallow, but swimmers were enjoying some of the deeper pools. We went on to find Charles Lindberg's Grave, but the road has been changed and we missed it.

Hookipa Beach
We stooped along the north shore of Maui at Hookipa Beach to observe the surfers. The tides were running high along the north shore. On the north shore of Oahu they were having waves of 20-30 ft. This beach is known for windsurfing.

Haleakala Mt. in distance
The highlight of Thursday was the trip up Mt. Haleakala (10,023 ft). We drove up the road to the top of the mountain. The road is well maintained by the National Park Service.

Haleakala Caldera
The top of the mounatin was very cold and windy, but the weather was mostly clear with excellent views into the huge, colorful caldera. The cauldera is over 20 miles in length. In the 1960s it was used a a training area for the moon astronauts. We obseved the beautiful, endemic Silversword plants. The endanged Hawaiian goose, the Nene was not seen, since they are nesting at this time of year.

The weather continued to be great with temperatures in the high 70's to around 80 with little or no rain. We are now off to Hawaii, the Big Island for three days and four nights.

Aloha from Oahu

We apologize that there are no photos. Barre left the transfer cable at home. Photos will follow when we get home. We left North Adams Jan 12 staying at a motel in Albany and catching the plane early Thursday morning. The day we travelled to Albany we had a 22 inch snowstorm. Our first flight was delayed an hour, but this did not affect the flight from Chicago to Honolulu.

The first day we toured downtown Honolulu seeing some of the famous buildings of Honolulu. These included the Iolani Palace (only palace on U.S. soil), the Judiciary Building (new Hawaii
5-O police headquarters) We even saw them filming a segment of Hawaii 5-O to be aired in two weeks.

Saturday we headed up to the north shore of Oahu. We visited the Waimea Park and falls. This is a botanical garden that goes back into the base of the western mountains along the north shore. We then travelled up along the north shore and the famous surfing beaches. This was a beautiful day and the beaches were busy with sunbathers and surfers. The waves were about 10 ft. high. We stopped at the Banzai Pipeline and Sunset Beavh, two of the famous surfing beaches. We then headed around the northern tip of Oahu to the town of Laie and the Polynesian Cultural Center. The center represents the major Polynesian Island Cultures of the Pacific: Figi, Samoa, Maori (NewZealand), Tonga, Tahiti, and Hawaii. The park is set up as villages of these main island cultures. Here we learned about their music and dance. We went to the villages of Samoa (fire starting by rubbing two sticks together, opening a coconut, and climbing palm tree barefooted), Tahiti (dance, where visiters participated) and Tonga (visitor participation with beating of drums). That night we saw the major two hour production of song and dance of all the island cultures. The fire twirlers of Samoa were outstanding.

Today, Sunday we visited the National Cemetary of the Pacific (Punchbowl) where many of the military of WW II, Korean War, and the Vietnam War are buried. We then went to Pearl Harbor for the very emotional experience of visiting the Arizona War Memorial. There is a half-hour movie on the history of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This is followed by a trip out into the harbor to the War Memorial. Oil is still leaking from the Battleship Arizona. They predict that this will continue for another 50 years. The memorial in the harbor is over the sunken Arizonia, The list of over 2000 servicemen killed in the bombing attack on the Arizona are listed on the wall at one end of the Memorial. After visiting Pearl Harbor we again visited the North Shore to see the 15-30 ft predicted waves. The surf was extremely violent. The surf was high and a weather front was also moving through. We were told that waves could easily reach 50 ft or higher in the next few days. We will have to see what the north shore of Maui is like Tuesday or Wednesday. This evening it rained for the first time. Daytime temperatures have been in the high 70's to 80 degrees F.

Tomorrow we will visit the southeast corner of Oahu. More to come from Maui.

Barre & Marion