Away from Tern Island, still in Hawaii
We left Tern Island a week ago now...hard to believe. It was a bittersweet departure - the people we had to leave behind are excellent, and the albatross and storm-petrels won our hearts. But at the same time, we were heading to spend 3 weeks in Hawaii's main islands (Kauai for a week, then Hawaii for 2, the first 2 weeks with Josh's parents)), and then will be heading home to spend just over a month there, visiting all of our family and friends we've been away from for over a year at this point. So it was hard to be entirely upset about leaving, but still, it wasn't without some emotion.
We've now finished our time on Kauai as well, and arrived on Hawaii yesterday afternoon...
. Kauai was spectacular in every way possible. It's covered in high, pinnacled mountains with steep cliffs that plummet into the ocean. The ridges are razor-sharp. The vegetation manages to cling to it despite all that, and the island is completely lush and green, with its tropical, jungley huge vines coating many trees, with flowers and fruits like bananas and guavas (both introduced and invasive) in every place you look. There are non-invasive beauties too, like some of the yellow hibiscus that flowers all over the place. It's funny; we enjoyed this island paradise immensely, don't get me wrong! But everywhere we looked, we could see the ecological problems that most remote tropical islands, including Hawaii, are known for: mostly, introduced species.
We stayed on the North shore area, in a golfcourse community called Princeville, though not far at all from a very cute and not-too-touristy-but-full-of-surfers town called Hanalei. It had many gorgeous beaches backed by huge towering black volcanic cliffs and some excellent places to eat. Also, Hanalei is one of the very few places left in Hawaii where they still grow the ancient crop of Taro, a root vegetable that grows in wetlands that was brought over by the original Polynesians who came here. The taro (which is purple, and which we ate in a few forms while there) growers in Hanalei Valley are actually growing their crops in a national wildlife refuge, and are growing in a way that's sustainable and allows the wetland birds to inhabit their fields: the wetlands which were previously on the islands have been reduced to only about 3-5 percent of what used to be here, but the USFWS and the taro growers are reversing that a little bit and providing the wetland birds a place to live once again. Near the road out of Princeville is a lookout over the valley, which is backed by the ubiquitous mountains. In the golf course community, there were Nene geese! Endemic geese who had a very bad turn a little while ago when the mongooses were introduced and ate many eggs and chicks, but making a comeback, especially on Kauai, where the mongooses never made it. Also, there were our beloved Laysan Albatross!! Nesting on peoples front yards, the USFWS has put up little instructional signs telling people what the birds were, a bit about their life cycle, and to leave them and their ensuing chicks alone. Fantastic! We even had a few wanderers on the golf course behind our place, who we could see dancing and hear whinnying from far off. The day of our arrival, we were forced to delay before we went to our place (road was blocked), so we stopped at the nearby Kilaeuea Lighthouse...where we saw many, many red-footed boobies nesting on the distant hills and flying overhead, along with more LAALs (they have 35 nests there(!)) and several white-tailed tropicbirds soaring around. Good to see, especially just after leaving the island - a weaning process :)
We went on many hikes, though on reflection, it's hard to choose the best. One was the Na Pali coast hike, where we hiked 2 miles up and over many hills and into many valleys as we wound our way to a secluded (though popular!) beach. Unbelievable beauty throughout, with stunning view over the ocean and into the valleys. On the beach itself, a huge lava tube cave came out to the ocean. And there were 2 very small and skinny cats. Strange to see them on a remote beach, but there they were, evidence of the feral cat problem on all of the islands: the cats are one of the reasons the endemic forest birds of Hawaii are, for the most part, in steep decline. There was to be no swimming on the beach however: on the way down to the beach, there was a sign warning of unseen and dangerous currents. 83 people had died there as a result of it. Nonetheless, several people were playing in the huge and irregular waves. Crazy. Unfortunately, the path was also incredible muddy in parts (as it turned out to be almost everywhere on Kauai!), so Ted and Nancy only came with us for the first mile in, but they still got a chance to see some pretty incredible vistas!
Another excellent trip was to the Waimea Valley, which runs up the west side of the island. I'd noticed this huge, deep, red valley from Bob's plane as we flew over Kauai on our way back from Tern, so it was even better to see it from the ground. There was a road that lead all the way up the west side of the valley, through 2 state parks, so I guess this trip doesn't really count as a hike, but it was an all-day outing, with several very short 'hikes' to the lookout points. But it was beautiful with it's diversity of colours (reds, greys and every shade of green imaginable) and depth of the canyon itself. From one viewpoint, we saw several of the feral goats who have and are wreaking havoc on Hawaii's endemic plant species: 2 black ones and a brown one. They look exactly like ones you'd see on a farm, except they were on high-up ridges with no evidence of how they got up the almost vertical cliffs they must have climbed to get there! We wondered about the other problem mammals who have invaded: the pigs (who we never saw there) must stay in the valleys, keeping the goats up high. Dogs we wondered about: were they many feral packs? Yes. We had to inch our way past a pack the was standing in the middle of the road down, intimidatingly sniffing the cars as they passed. And the cats we'd seen evidence of at the Na Pali beach. Another of the viewpoints we stopped at overlooked a portion of the Na Pali coast which we weren't able to see from our first hike. It was so high up that the clouds were below us, and racing up the valley from the ocean, hitting the mountain we stood on, and dissipated almost at once. Turning around, we saw a slightly more gentle cliffy valley, along with the ocean in the distance. This trip also included a trip to the Waimea Waterfall, which actually isn't in the Waimea Valley, so I don't know why it's called that. It's one of the many tall, skinny waterfalls that grace this island, but also one of the few that you can get a fantastically close-up view of without hiking 4 or more miles on muddy slippery trails (bad for people with hurt knees) one way to see.
Another long-ish hike we took went up a powerline alongside the Hanalei River Valley, overlooking many of the fabled waterfalls gushing through the greenery. Several other much shorter events included short walks to many various beaches, all of which had the typical stunning views of the mountains, along with the turquoise surf (and the surfers) Hawaii's known for. Of course, I never remembered to bring my bathing suit, but it looked like so much fun! Here, that will change - I will go in the water! :) One of the non-beach shoreline visits we took was to the Queen's bath: a naked volcanic rock area exposed to the very high surf with a narrow gulch, resulting in huge splashes and rushing foamy waters meeting a stream that was falling over a 10-metre rock waterfall.
One last thing I must mention before I sign off (lunchtime is approaching!): the humpback whales. We saw them breeching and flailing their tails and pec fins and generally being interesting a number of times! From the Lighthouse NWR we saw them, and the interpreter told us that the behaviour and number of spouts we could see indicated that it was likely a Mom and her calf with many males vying for her interest. From there and from an overlook very close to our condo, we saw the calf slapping its tail repeatedly on the water, playing with its fins and skyhopping! And flying in to Hawaii, Ted saw 4 that we flew over approaching the airport: he could see the entire outline from above of each of them.
I'll try to post some photos soon!
We've now finished our time on Kauai as well, and arrived on Hawaii yesterday afternoon...
. Kauai was spectacular in every way possible. It's covered in high, pinnacled mountains with steep cliffs that plummet into the ocean. The ridges are razor-sharp. The vegetation manages to cling to it despite all that, and the island is completely lush and green, with its tropical, jungley huge vines coating many trees, with flowers and fruits like bananas and guavas (both introduced and invasive) in every place you look. There are non-invasive beauties too, like some of the yellow hibiscus that flowers all over the place. It's funny; we enjoyed this island paradise immensely, don't get me wrong! But everywhere we looked, we could see the ecological problems that most remote tropical islands, including Hawaii, are known for: mostly, introduced species.
We stayed on the North shore area, in a golfcourse community called Princeville, though not far at all from a very cute and not-too-touristy-but-full-of-surfers town called Hanalei. It had many gorgeous beaches backed by huge towering black volcanic cliffs and some excellent places to eat. Also, Hanalei is one of the very few places left in Hawaii where they still grow the ancient crop of Taro, a root vegetable that grows in wetlands that was brought over by the original Polynesians who came here. The taro (which is purple, and which we ate in a few forms while there) growers in Hanalei Valley are actually growing their crops in a national wildlife refuge, and are growing in a way that's sustainable and allows the wetland birds to inhabit their fields: the wetlands which were previously on the islands have been reduced to only about 3-5 percent of what used to be here, but the USFWS and the taro growers are reversing that a little bit and providing the wetland birds a place to live once again. Near the road out of Princeville is a lookout over the valley, which is backed by the ubiquitous mountains. In the golf course community, there were Nene geese! Endemic geese who had a very bad turn a little while ago when the mongooses were introduced and ate many eggs and chicks, but making a comeback, especially on Kauai, where the mongooses never made it. Also, there were our beloved Laysan Albatross!! Nesting on peoples front yards, the USFWS has put up little instructional signs telling people what the birds were, a bit about their life cycle, and to leave them and their ensuing chicks alone. Fantastic! We even had a few wanderers on the golf course behind our place, who we could see dancing and hear whinnying from far off. The day of our arrival, we were forced to delay before we went to our place (road was blocked), so we stopped at the nearby Kilaeuea Lighthouse...where we saw many, many red-footed boobies nesting on the distant hills and flying overhead, along with more LAALs (they have 35 nests there(!)) and several white-tailed tropicbirds soaring around. Good to see, especially just after leaving the island - a weaning process :)
We went on many hikes, though on reflection, it's hard to choose the best. One was the Na Pali coast hike, where we hiked 2 miles up and over many hills and into many valleys as we wound our way to a secluded (though popular!) beach. Unbelievable beauty throughout, with stunning view over the ocean and into the valleys. On the beach itself, a huge lava tube cave came out to the ocean. And there were 2 very small and skinny cats. Strange to see them on a remote beach, but there they were, evidence of the feral cat problem on all of the islands: the cats are one of the reasons the endemic forest birds of Hawaii are, for the most part, in steep decline. There was to be no swimming on the beach however: on the way down to the beach, there was a sign warning of unseen and dangerous currents. 83 people had died there as a result of it. Nonetheless, several people were playing in the huge and irregular waves. Crazy. Unfortunately, the path was also incredible muddy in parts (as it turned out to be almost everywhere on Kauai!), so Ted and Nancy only came with us for the first mile in, but they still got a chance to see some pretty incredible vistas!
Another excellent trip was to the Waimea Valley, which runs up the west side of the island. I'd noticed this huge, deep, red valley from Bob's plane as we flew over Kauai on our way back from Tern, so it was even better to see it from the ground. There was a road that lead all the way up the west side of the valley, through 2 state parks, so I guess this trip doesn't really count as a hike, but it was an all-day outing, with several very short 'hikes' to the lookout points. But it was beautiful with it's diversity of colours (reds, greys and every shade of green imaginable) and depth of the canyon itself. From one viewpoint, we saw several of the feral goats who have and are wreaking havoc on Hawaii's endemic plant species: 2 black ones and a brown one. They look exactly like ones you'd see on a farm, except they were on high-up ridges with no evidence of how they got up the almost vertical cliffs they must have climbed to get there! We wondered about the other problem mammals who have invaded: the pigs (who we never saw there) must stay in the valleys, keeping the goats up high. Dogs we wondered about: were they many feral packs? Yes. We had to inch our way past a pack the was standing in the middle of the road down, intimidatingly sniffing the cars as they passed. And the cats we'd seen evidence of at the Na Pali beach. Another of the viewpoints we stopped at overlooked a portion of the Na Pali coast which we weren't able to see from our first hike. It was so high up that the clouds were below us, and racing up the valley from the ocean, hitting the mountain we stood on, and dissipated almost at once. Turning around, we saw a slightly more gentle cliffy valley, along with the ocean in the distance. This trip also included a trip to the Waimea Waterfall, which actually isn't in the Waimea Valley, so I don't know why it's called that. It's one of the many tall, skinny waterfalls that grace this island, but also one of the few that you can get a fantastically close-up view of without hiking 4 or more miles on muddy slippery trails (bad for people with hurt knees) one way to see.
Another long-ish hike we took went up a powerline alongside the Hanalei River Valley, overlooking many of the fabled waterfalls gushing through the greenery. Several other much shorter events included short walks to many various beaches, all of which had the typical stunning views of the mountains, along with the turquoise surf (and the surfers) Hawaii's known for. Of course, I never remembered to bring my bathing suit, but it looked like so much fun! Here, that will change - I will go in the water! :) One of the non-beach shoreline visits we took was to the Queen's bath: a naked volcanic rock area exposed to the very high surf with a narrow gulch, resulting in huge splashes and rushing foamy waters meeting a stream that was falling over a 10-metre rock waterfall.
One last thing I must mention before I sign off (lunchtime is approaching!): the humpback whales. We saw them breeching and flailing their tails and pec fins and generally being interesting a number of times! From the Lighthouse NWR we saw them, and the interpreter told us that the behaviour and number of spouts we could see indicated that it was likely a Mom and her calf with many males vying for her interest. From there and from an overlook very close to our condo, we saw the calf slapping its tail repeatedly on the water, playing with its fins and skyhopping! And flying in to Hawaii, Ted saw 4 that we flew over approaching the airport: he could see the entire outline from above of each of them.
I'll try to post some photos soon!