Just a Pretty Picture

The I was driving back from the Hanapepe farmer’s market on Thursday, when I noticed the view into Hanapepe canyon was especially clear:

This is not the scenic viewpoint along the highway, but a spot a little further east. If you’re driving towards Hanapepe, pull off at a dirt road that starts right next to the sign that says “Scenic Viewpoint, 1000 feet,” and walk 200-300 feet west (towards the viewpoint and Hanapepe). At a break in the trees, you should see the canyon and the colorful bougainvilleas in the foreground.

Hanapepe canyon goes all the way up to the back side of the Wai’ale’ale plateau region, just below the Kawaikini summit. Hanapepe canyon drains the back side of the ridge south of Kawaikini, an area seldom seen from the east or west (Olokele canyon, a branch of the Waimea river watershed, drains the south-west side of Kawaikini). As a matter of fact, Kawaikini is visible from these highway viewpoints, although it is usually in the clouds, or behind the trees as in my photo above. But the whole canyon is private land, owned by the Gay and Robinson sugar plantation to provide the water for their fields—and therefore inaccessible.

To a hiker like me, views like this into a remote and inaccessible canyon are enticing. There are some great waterfalls up there that you can see on helicopter tours, including Manawaiopuna falls made famous by the movie Jurassic Park, but this is the closest you can get on land. Tantalizingly, the dirt road at the pulloff is the private road to access the canyon.

Secret of the Crystal Skulls

I’ve seen and read much more fiction and writing in general about Kauai recently, and about Kalalau specifically, so I’ve been wanting to blog about it. I don’t know if I just have a larger circle of aquaintances through which books and ideas can reach me, but it just seems that there are more people publishing about Kauai.

The first one I’ll present today is a screenplay for a movie to be called Secret of the Crystal Skulls, by Nadya Wynd, a Kauai resident. The plot unfolds on Kauai mostly, with the Na Pali coast as a backdrop and the Kalalau trail itself playing a major role.

From the screenplay synopsis:

A life-sized crystal skull with mysterious powers is being cared for by the Menehune, magical little people living on the island of Kauai. A diverse group of individuals is inexplicably drawn to the cave where the skull sits on an altar, magnificently reflecting light in all directions from a skylight above.

Mat, a jaded fifteen-year-old from the San Fernando Valley, is sent on an outward-bound hiking trip of the stunningly beautiful Na Pali Coast of Kauai, while his mother honeymoons with husband #3 at the Hyatt. […] Kilo, Mat’s Kahuna guide, introduces him to Huna (Hawaiian spirituality), and shows him an ancient fishpond purportedly constructed by the Menehune. Mat is intrigued, but the mood is broken by the arrival of his fellow hikers, preppies flashing their brand-name equipment, GPS locators, and attitude. They head out as Mat befriends Jill, an ecology-minded seventeen year-old who appreciates the beauty of Hawaii and its mythology. […]

[A] tropical storm becomes a hurricane, takes an abrupt turn, and heads directly for Kauai. The hurricane turns the teenagers’ hike into a life-threatening event until a rescue helicopter comes to their aide. Only able to carry five, Mat and Jill volunteer to wait with Kilo for the helicopter’s return. When Kilo is seriously injured, Mat and Jill must seek help from the Menehune.

I’m always on the lookout for stories about hiking on Kauai, and what could be better than a movie that shows how hiking and being in nature can lead to personal transformation. Granted, the characters are more transformed by their encounters with Menehune, depicted as hobbit-like people with supernatural powers, and with the crystal skulls. Yet it is the hiking and the mystical feelings of Kalalau that lead them to the Menehune, and better yet, it’s their attitude towards hiking and being in nature that makes them worthy of transformation.

Unfortunately, the script is not published yet, rather the author is looking for producers and financial backing. I heard about this screenplay because my wife is a web designer and she made the entire website for the author. So eventhough I’m helping her promote the website, the subject matter fits perfectly into the material I like to cover on this blog. As an insider of sorts, I got to read the script, and I think I can share non-critical tidbits such as the one above.

There are also some hiking and Kaua’i-related tidbits to glean on the website. First, the author has some personal anectdotes about living on Kauai, including about Hurricane Iniki in 1992, and a hurricane figures prominently in the story-line. She also talks about a flood in Anahola that killed 4 people in 1991. I had never heard of this, and I immediately thought of the Kaloko disaster. Apparently, flooding is much more deadly on Kauai than hurricanes–I suppose that there is much more warning and preparation in the case of a hurricane.

I also learned a lot about the Hawaii tax credit that the state grants to film productions. There used to be more filming on Kauai (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, etc.) but cheaper locations in the tropics such as Central America have taken much of the business. To remain competitive for Hollywood productions, Hawaii offers the tax incentive of up to 20% of production costs, which is significant.

Then, I found a contemporary song about Na Pali and Kalalau, at the bottom of this page. It’s not a Hawaiian tune, but it does have a nice melody and a pretty voice.

Last but not least, there is a neat photo gallery with some previously-unpublished images of the Na Pali coast and Kalalau. I know the photos are unpublished because I contributed most of them to the website myself, and they’re quite nice if I may say so.

I think it’s exciting that people are writing movies set on Kauai, where Kauai itself and its legends play a pivotal role. I also think it’s encouraging that everyday people on Kauai are becoming authors and sharing their vision of the island in a literary or visual way. If you’re interested in learning more around the Secret of the Crystal Skulls, follow the author’s blog about the various topics that are woven into the screen-play.

Christmas Break

This will probably be shorter than my unannounced breaks, but this time I won’t feel guilty about not posting. I’ll be spending the holidays with my family on the mainland and won’t be near a computer, hopefully. So Happy Holidays wherever you are and enjoy the following pictures of light displays on Kauai from this year and last.

First, some government buildings get lights, including the County Building that I never manage to photograph very well.

Inside the county building, there are Hawaiian themed Christmas displays crafted by a local woman.

Then, there’s a light parade in Lihue early in December, which I like to call “generators on parade,” but it is really fun for the children.

Finally, some people set up very nice lights on their house, from understated to over-the-top.

Underwater Camera

Here is my new Pentax WPi underwater digital camera. As far as I know, it is the first digital camera that doesn’t need a special waterproof case. I really wanted to buy this camera because there are so many fun things to do in the water on Kauai, from snorkeling to kayaking and hiking behind waterfalls (and swimming across rivers). Also, it sometimes rains on hikes and it convenient to not worry about the camera getting wet.

This photo is a mirror image that is rotated to show the camera better:

The camera does have some underwater limitations, it can only be immersed for 30 minutes up to 5 feet (1.5 m) deep. So it’s perfect for snorkeling, but can’t be used for diving. I took some underwater pictures yesterday afternoon, and the quality of the underwater photos is very good. They are not perfectly sharp, but it was hard to keep still in the waves. The results would be even better on a calmer day with brighter sun around noon.

The colors are slightly blue and green, as shown in the following raw image I took in full automatic mode. The images I posted were color corrected to look more natural. There is an underwater mode which I will try to see if it adjust the colors automatically.

Fenced In

This is another picture from last weekend’s fair, taken near the bleachers of the baseball field at Vidinha Stadium. I liked the way the mountains were still visible behind all three fences and how the bleachers and fences created repeated diamond and lozenge patterns. The closest fence isn’t as well centered as I would’ve liked, but Sonja was getting impatient while I was taking this.

The mountains are the peaks of Haupu Ridge, south of Lihue. They are visible from all over town and give it a tropical back-drop, but there are no trails there. The highest peak visible here is about 1700 feet (500 meters) tall.