Beach at Tunnels

Thursday, Feb 19th, 2009 by Andy | 2 Comments
Filed under: Beaches, Flora

Here are some photos of the beach near Tunnels, from last year. Actually, I’m not quite sure what this place is called. It’s about half-way between the area marked Kepuhi Point and Ha’ena Point on the map. I’ve often heard of Kepuhi beach as the Hawaiian name for Tunnels, but the big horseshoe reef that I think of as Tunnels surrounds Ha’ena point.

Anyways, it’s one long continuous beach, and whatever the name or the location, it’s gorgeous.


I just like the colors on this one. Absolutely no Photoshopping, honest.


And I think this pohuehue (beach morning glory) was at Anini, but still worthy. I’ve always liked the pohuehue, you don’t think of flowers at the beach, but there it is, mauve and bright green, sparkling in the early sunlight.


My attraction might also have to do with something that happened the first year we lived on Kaua’i. At that time we were attending Unity of Kauai church, and they welcomed a Hawaiian practitioner who shared her music, hula, prayers, and beliefs. One Sunday, in an effort to teach us about the Hawaiian connection to the land through their medicine plants, she brought in a basket of plant names and had us each pick one. And I got pohuehue to learn about and have a special connection with.

If you’re interested, Unity services are now held at Caffé Coco in Wailua, across from the Kintaro restaurant. See the Unity of Kaua’i website (with music) for times and details. I also like their logo, with the pretty purple mountains representing Kaua’i.

Stop the Helicopter Landings

Saturday, Feb 14th, 2009 by Andy | 4 Comments
Filed under: Helicopters, Waterfalls

Back when the Robinsons applied for a helicopter landing permit, I argued against it saying it would just lead to more companies wanting to do the same. Well, it’s happening.

Last Tuesday, the Kaua’i Planning Commission held a public hearing [PDF] on the application for:

Use Permit U-2008-3, Special Permit SP-2008-2 and Class IV Zoning Permit Z-IV-2008-5 to permit a helicopter tour landing area for visitation and viewing of the Manawaiopuna Falls in Koula Valley, Kauai, further identified as Tax Map Key 1-8-001:001 = Island Helicopters Kauai, Inc. [Hearing continued from 1/27/09.]

Manawaiopuna is the large and beautiful waterfall on a tributary of the Hanapepe river, made famous as a backdrop at the beginning of the Jurassic Park movie (stills 1 and 2). Because it is already popular during helicopter tours, there are lots of aerial photos of it on flickr.com if you search for Jurassic Park waterfall. Here’s a better one from the ground.

ManawaiopunaFalls_1
Source: used by permission

Notice how small the person is in this image. I would estimate the entire waterfall to be around 150 feet (50 meters) high. ManawaiopunaFalls_2
Source: used by permission

One reason to oppose the landings is that nobody knows the impact on the ecosystem. Kaua’i is home to several endangered birds, and I can’t believe that regualar helicopter landings make for a good habitat. Then there’s the issue of pollution, mainly of having facilities by these remote streams. One would hope they use porta-potties or composting toilets, but I’m not sure what was mentioned as part of the permit.

Worse, this is just going to spur the competition. There are 5-6 helicopter companies operating regularly, each is going to want their own waterfall. Actually, I’m not sure which would be worse, each going to the same waterfall or all spread out. That 6 times as many landings, 6 times as many people washing sunscreen off into pristine mountain streams.

Safari Helicopters are the ones landing on the Robinson property, and they liked to emphasize their unique opportunity:
SafariHelicopterLanding
Source: safarihelicopters.com		 “Safari is the first and only legally authorized company to provide a remote landing on the island of Kauai since all helicopters were banned from landing anywhere over 25 years ago. Any other company that purports to do a remote landing on a regular basis is doing so on an illegal basis.”
Which lays the blame for starting this whole landing nonsense on Inter-Island Helicopters and their illegal landings at Puu Ka Ele waterfall inland of Kilauea (among others). If you call them up and ask if they’re permitted, they will say they had helped in a rescue some time back and have been given special permission to land on the private property. This is still illegal. Helicopter landing is a commercial activity and that requires a county permit for private land or a state permit for public land. InterIslandIllegalLanding_1
Source: buxtrosion on flickr.com
InterIslandIllegalLanding_2
Source: rlonas on flickr.com		 Please don’t particiapate in illegal activity, it’s not cool.

If you oppose this too, you can still submit your testimony to the Planning commission up until February 17, 2009. I hope the postmark date counts, because all I can find is their postal address: Kaua’i Planning Commission, 4444 Rice Street, Lihue, HI 96766. Include the relevant case numbers above.

I think what irks me about the whole thing is not just the invasion of helicopters in the backcountry, it’s the idea of paying to access the natural beauty of Kaua’i. There is a historical system of large landowners in Hawai’i, and as long as they stick to growing sugar or pineapple (and not converting the land to housing development), it doesn’t really bother me. But to water their fields, they bought up the valleys of the interior and channeled the water out in ditches (which is also a bit troubling, even murky I might say, given that water rights are separate from the land in Hawaii).

Granted this preserved the valleys in a way, and even if it did shut off access to lots of backcountry scenery, there was little or no privileged access. But now, places that would be worthy of a state parks are being opened up to the priveleged few who can afford $200-300 for 45 minutes of flying and 30 minutes of sitting by a beautiful waterfall. On top of that we get more noise over our trails, forests and neighborhoods, as well as unknown impacts on the wildlife.

I really wonder how and why they stopped all helicopter landings 25 years ago, but I hope they can do it again.

A Blog After My Own Heart

Friday, Feb 6th, 2009 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: Blogging, Photography

I have to admit I’m a bit jealous. Somebody just tipped me off to another blog about Kauai, and it turns out to be mostly about the beaches, trails and nature in general. In other words, what I would be writing about if I could be there. It’s called:

Masthead of the Hawaii Photo Bank blog

Despite the title and various claims on the website, it’s all about Kauai for now. And not only are there all the classic tourist places, what caught my eye were the off-trail places such as Hihimanu, the rope-assisted vertical scramble above Hanalei.

My only gripe is that the format is short and the photos are small. There really isn’t much detail about Hihimanu, although that could be on purpose, but I would’ve liked a photo of the ropes and the mud. Or maybe that’s just because I want to know about trail conditions.

The Kauai Trailblazer is heavily and exclusively promoted on the site, which makes me think it must be written by the authors, Jerry and Janine Sprout. It wouldn’t surprise me if they are publishing their photos and notes from all the excursions they did to write the book. Since they have books for the other islands, I suppose they’ll get around to those as well. Which reminds me, I should write my overall positive review of their guide book, it’s positive overall (and I flog it on my bookstore as well).

Actually, this website somewhat alleviates one gripe I have about their book being all in black and white, which just doesn’t convey a true sense of the place, or any place in the tropics.

Fortunately, the write-ups on the blog do go beyond touristy descriptions and plain trail write-ups. I imagine the authors are also on-island regularly, because they do have some “live” coverage of events. Since I like mud and local conditions, I appreciated their recent post about the road to Polihale being closed:


Source: hawaiiphotobank.blogspot.com

On top of that, they live up to their subtitle and post daily, another reason for me to be jealous. And so they’ve earned a spot on my blogroll in the right-hand column.

Working on the Farm

Saturday, Jan 31st, 2009 by Andy | 5 Comments
Filed under: Kauai Style

I received another good question by email recently:

I am a 23 year old Californian trying to move to the island. I had met a friend that had a brother of the same age that had just moved to the island and was working on a farm, that fed him and gave him a place to stay as long as he worked 3 hours a day. If he wanted to make any money he could work more than the mandatory 3 hours. Don’t know what kind of farm but I figure three hours of hellish work is alot better than 8 hours of boring work. I was given his phone number but it seems his phone is disconnected. So I was wondering if you had ever heard of anything like this or similar to it. Was actually trying to move to costa rica before I heard this but now I am very interested in Kauai. Thanks for all the help you can give.

Here’s what I know: a good number of young people of alternative lifestyles (aka “hippies”) live and work on the organic farms of the North Shore. More specifically, these farms are located in the region between Moloa’a and Kilauea, or actually starting at the smoothie stand at Koolau Rd on the way to Moloa’a. I’ve heard they do work trade for food and lodging, but I’ve never known the specifics, though I have heard the lodging is often just a tent on a platform out of the mud.

Googling “kauai organic farm” led me to two websites where you can find contact information. I suppose you could write and ask if they offer work-trade arrangements or know anyone who does.

But then I found a link to WWOOF Hawaii: “Willing Workers on Organic Farms” (the fact that they have to specify “willing” makes me wonder what they are trying to differentiate themselves from). On their page of listings for Kaua’i, they have a dozen listings such as “We are busy and can use good help. For ten hours labour per week we offer a shady camp spot with a water source.” Sounds like what you’re asking for. They also have this advice:

Kauai is a very beautiful island and “attracts” MANY young alternative people. Many young people find their own “scene” here. Recommend going to Kapaa [hostels] first …

It was very difficult accessing info on the organic farm scene here. Many young people have “found” work/trade exchanges on farms here, yet these farms are reluctant to become WWOOF hosts. There seems to be a real problem with accommodations for volunteers here, yet the island is full of young people. If you are “attracted” to go to Kauai – it offers some spectacular hiking possibilities and beaches – be prepared for a different scene.

I suppose what they are saying is that it can be somewhat of an irregular situation, I assume because there are some rules being bent, which doesn’t surprise me about Kaua’i. It seems like they only charge $20 to get their booklet, so that’s not too expensive for some more contacts. But it also sounds like they suggest just to go there, ask around, and meet some people who can hook you up. It’s a small island and that’s how the “scene” works.

But one last thing I’ve heard: a friend there said the “hippies” seem to be leaving Kaua’i now. With the economy down, and restaurants closing, there may not be as much demand for produce, and hence less opportunities on the farm. Then again, you might just find some other gig.

Ships Named Kauai

Friday, Jan 23rd, 2009 by Andy | Leave a Comment
Filed under: History

I never understood the tradition of naming ships after geographic places, or people for that matter. I guess they ran out of cool names like Endurance and Resolution.

So I never thought there might be boats named after Kaua’i, but I’ve heard of two recently. Neither are really famous, and both are or were associated with local shipping companies, as you might expect.

The first is the 720-foot container ship SS (steamship) Kauai, built in 1980, modified in 1994, and operated by Matson Navigation between Hawai’i, Seattle, and Oakland. In one article, SS Kauai got caught in a bad storm off of Washington state and had to be rescued by a tug boat. Because the internet has everything, here are some photos. They’re taken from some website unknown-to-me that gave me a security warning, so I took the liberty of copying them and republishing the best of them here.



Source: bridgedeck.org


Source: A photographer named “goldfish”

On the open ocean, on a calm day


Source: A photographer named “goldfish”

I guess this is what our container had to go through sometimes


Source: A photographer named “goldfish”		 I hope she displays her name proudly
Superstructure and ship bell
Source: A photographer named “goldfish”


Source: A photographer named “goldfish”

Sadly, I doubt the SS Kauai ever gets to see Kaua’i. I think Matson transboards the containers to smaller barges for the neighbor islands. I guess Nawiliwili harbor couldn’t even berth her.

After the island names had all been taken in the fleet, it seems that Matson has turned to other names. Thus there is a SS Lihue, and their roll-on/roll-off car transport barge (ro-ro in the jargon) is called Wai’ale’ale (7,700 tons, hull #252 finished in Sept 1991 by the Bollinger Gretna shipyard of Harvey, Louisianna). I probably shouldn’t look for one, but I just don’t see the connection.

The other Kauai namesake is a much older steamship Kauai that sunk in shallow water in Mahukona port (more like a landing pier) on the north-west coast of the Big Island. A Big Island blog called A Darker View (the author is an astrophotographer) has an article about it, with this great picture and map goodness. What’s interesting is that it is accessible to snorkelers because it’s only 15-20 feet down, with a huge propeller to see.



Source: darkerview.com

According to the International Handbook of Underwater Archaeology, “the wooden-hulled ship went onto the reef [in 1913] while carrying railroad parts and bags of sugar between the islands.”[source] That book has a whole chapter about Hawaiian wrecks, for example the iron-hulled SS Maui lies on a “lava reef” a few miles south on the Kona coast. There might also be a cannon offshore of Waimea on Kauai, from a Russian ship bound for the Russian Fort there.

Which reminds me, I do know of a few potential wrecks near Kauai, but I’ll save that for another post.

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