Kauai, Hawaii, 27 February to 2 March 2015
Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Ke’e Beach and coastline.
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Hanalei Bay.
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Waterfalls, Mount Wai’ale’ale.
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Waterfalls, Mount Wai’ale’ale.
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Waterfalls, Mount Wai’ale’ale.
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Forest, central east.
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Farmland, central east.
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Wailua Falls.
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(Some of these monochromes are converted from infrared).
Kauai, Hawaii, 27 February to 2 March 2015
This is the first of two posts showing monochrome conversions from Kauai. Each of these images appeared in previous posts in colour.
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Ke’e Beach.
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Ke’e Beach.
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Ke’e Beach.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Cave near Ke’e Beach.
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Ginger.
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Above Kalalau Valley.
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Waimea Canyon.
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Maha’ulepu Heritage Trail.
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Maha’ulepu Beach.
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Farming area near south coast.
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Waterfall near south coast.
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Waterfalls near south coast.
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Waimea Valley.
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Waimea Canyon.
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Waimea Canyon.
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Waterfall visible at Waimea Canyon Lookout.
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(Some of these monochromes are converted from infrared).
Kauai, Hawaii, 2 March 2015
Here we are in the remains of the largest Russian fort in Kauai. Russian fort you say? Yes, there’s an interesting story behind that.
Kauai had been supplying food to Russian ships in exchange for pelts from about 1806. In 1815 a Russian ship the Behring went aground in Waimea Bay and King Kaumuali‘i salvaged the cargo of seal pelts. The Russians then sent the German Georg Anton Schaffer to retrieve the pelts or obtain compensation. He first went to visit Kamehameha in Hawaii and Oahu for assistance but fell out of favour and instead went to Kauai. Then he saw an opportunity.
Kaumuali‘i had ceded Kauai to Kamehameha in 1810 to avoid a war he could not win. When Schaeffer arrived, Kaumuali’i accepted a Russian protectorate and Schaeffer persuaded him that with Russian assistance he could shake off Kamehameha and establish an empire over Oahu, Maui, Molokai and Lanai. Schaeffer and the Russians would get rights to the valuable sandalwood growing on Oahu and quite a bit of land including half of Oahu.
As a prelude to military operations, Schaeffer built three forts in Kauai including Fort Elizabeth, the largest one, at the mouth of the Waimea River. The bubble burst in 1816 when the fort was almost completed. Russian Lieutenant Otto von Kotzebue arrived, disowned Schaeffer and informed Kamehameha that Schaeffer did not have Russian support. Commercial advantage was one thing but having only recently ejected Napoleon, Russia did not want to start a war in the Pacific with England and France.
In 1817, American settlers persuaded Kaumuali‘i that Russia and the US were at war and that he was risking more than he realised. (There was of course no war). Consequently, Kaumuali‘i ejected Schaeffer and he fled the Hawaiian Islands.
Kaumuali‘i died in 1824 and the fort saw action a few months later when his son staged an unsuccessful rebellion against Kamehameha III. It was abandoned in 1853 and decommissioned in 1864. In 1862, the fort contained 60 flintlock muskets, 16 swords, 38 cannon, 6 “heavy guns” and 24 “little guns”.  Now there is only the base of the fort remaining. It is of an impressive size, though. It is an irregular shape about 90 metres by 140 (300 feet by 450) and was originally 6 metres high (20 feet).
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A view from the walls of the fort, looking towards Waimea Bay.
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The mouth of the Waimea River, from near the fort.
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You can see the distant offshore island, Ni’ihau more clearly in the infrared image, at the horizon on the left. This was purchased by Elizabeth Sinclair in 1864 and passed down to her Robinson descendents.
There is a native population with a main village on the coast facing away from Kauai. Essentially, they are not allowed to leave and others are not allowed to visit. Their primary language remains Hawaiian and they live largely without modern technology and paraphenalia. It is possible to briefly visit the island but not to meet the locals. It is also a seabird sanctuary and was reafforested by the Robinsons (who by the way are not Swiss).
The Robinson family also own over 50,000 acres on Kauai, mainly in the wild undeveloped part, and have a keen interest in conservation.
Kauai, Hawaii, 2 March 2015
This is the second post of infrared images taken from a helicopter over Kauai. They are of the return journey from the north of Kauai to the airport. The first few are in the settled area by the coast, then in the wild country around Mount Wai’ale’ale, and progressing through forested areas and farm lands. I won’t label most of them because I can’t add much to what I have just said.
We are looking at the Princeville Resort from over Hanalei Bay. The resort buildings near the coast are where I remarked in an earlier post that I could not access a beach mentioned in the guidebook because the resort had simply bought all the land and restricted visitor parking to practically zero.
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Hanalei Bay.
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Hanalei Bay.
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Hanalei Bay.
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The black dots are cattle.
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There’s more detail if you click on this image. There are two dead trucks (though you can probably only see one), a house and some bee hives.
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Wailua Falls.
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Kauai, Hawaii, 2 March 2015
The last post showed images from my ride over Kauai in a helicopter with the doors removed. So does this one, but this time in infrared. This is the first half of the journey, from the airport at the south east, along the south coast and inland, over the Waimea Canyon and along the Na Pali Coast.
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South Coast.
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South Coast.
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South Coast.
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South Coast.
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South Coast.
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Waimea Canyon (?).
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Waimea Canyon.
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Waimea Canyon.
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Waimea Canyon.
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Waimea Canyon.
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Waimea Canyon.
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Military observatory and tracking station, Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast (looking straight down).
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Kauai, Hawaii, 2 March 2015
These images are from a helicopter while flying over Kauai for about an hour. The doors were removed, potentially much better for photography. Because there were no doors I was wearing a fairly heavy coat. The pilot strapped me in but because of the coat I didn’t feel as though I was strapped in. That made it a touch eerie, feeling as though I was just perched there with nothing holding me on but logically I knew it was not the case and really it didn’t phase me at all. Fortunately, though, the pilot didn’t attempt any barrel rolls.
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This waterfall would be inland from the south coast and not at Waimea Canyon since there appears to be road access (whether private or public).
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Waterfalls in or close to Waimea Canyon.
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Waimea Canyon, looking back towards the coast, and the town of Waimea in the distance at the coast (only visible if you click on the image).
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Waimea Canyon.
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Waimea Canyon.
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Waterfall visible from Waimea Canyon Lookout, Waimea Canyon.
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I presumed this was an observatory. It took me a while to work out what it is. It’s a military observatory and tracking station.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast. Looking straight down.
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Na Pali Coast. There’s a huge arch here but I was on the wrong side of the helicopter and even though it pirouetted, I missed the opportunity for a more complete shot of the arch. But at least I did get this.
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Na Pali Coast, probably taken from above the arch referred to in the previous image.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Waterfall, Na Pali Coast.
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Na Pali Coast.
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Ke’e Beach and environs. You may remember we visited the day before.
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Waterfalls, Mount Wai’ale’ale.
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Waterfalls, Mount Wai’ale’ale.
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Wailua Falls.
If you click on the image you can see cars on the public access road, just to the left of the falls. The best views on the ground are probably from the farmer’s land rather than the public viewpoints (which are not that good). The farmer is ploughing a field at bottom right. To the right of the falls is a huge ridge of what looks like sand (fertiliser?). There are two trucks in front of that and what looks like a cherrypicker. Further down, an excavator is playing with some sand/ fertiliser.
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Kauai, Hawaii, 2 March 2015
Usually, I have separate posts for normal and infrared images. This post combines the two because there are not that many images and there is a better sequence when they are combined. If you are specially observant, you may be able to determine which are “normal” and which are infrared.
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We undertook the Maha’ulepu Heritage Trail because it was recommended by the agent when I was booking a helicopter flight.  One thing she said was that there were petroglyphs recently uncovered from under the sand at a house on Maha’ulepu Beach.
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The coast here is a mixture of sand dunes and sandstone which is lithified sand dunes.
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There is a heiau along here. At first I thought this was a wall of the heiau but it is just a stone wall for a golf course.
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This is actually the heiau, a flat expanse of rock that would originally have had a couple of wooden buildings on it.
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It is Heiau Ho’oulu i’a, which is a generic name equivalent to “fishing temple” because it is so old that no-one knows the original name.
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Up where the palms are is part of the golf course, which we shall walk on past.
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Past the golf course, we are getting closer to our destination.
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This beach is where we are heading for.
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Maybe the tide was too far in. No petroglyphs to be found but what a glorious tropical location for a house on the beach!
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And so we trudged back. There would have been more thing to see, possibly Hawaiian Monk Seals at the next point, but I had a helicopter to catch.
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Kauai, Hawaii, 1 March 2015
All the images in this post are of Waimea Canyon from viewpoints near the Waimea Canyon Road. This first image is a multi-image panorama.
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Both this and the first image are from the Waimea Canyon Lookout, the first you encounter going up the road.
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Now we have driven on and are at the Pu’u O Kila Lookout, at the end of the road, overlooking the Kalalau Valley. Down there is the end of the Kalalau Trail. This is a spectacular 18 kilometre (11 miles) walk that you enter from Ke’e Beach, as we did for a kilometre or two the previous day. If you do the full trail, you walk out again the same way. It can be quite dangerous especially after rain and people do die there, particularly in swollen creek crossings and precarious cliff tracks.
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Two more images of the hills overlooking the valley, which would be a ridge of (Mt) Kilohana, 4,000 feet high (1,220 metres).
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Back down to the Waimea Valley Lookout for the sunset, such as it was.
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The road along the ridges above the valley is narrow and winding and has what seemed to me an absurdly low speed limit of 25mph or 40kph. Mind you, the other thing I couldn’t understand was that all the rental cars have automatic transmission. On winding roads and on steep downhill inclines you have so much more control with a manual transmission and also you aren’t so reliant on the brakes.
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Kauai is the oldest island in the Hawaiian group and thus has had more time to erode. This was accentuated by rifts and collapse of the central volcano.
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In the centre of the island is the highest mountain in Kauai, the inactive shield volcano Waialeala. Its peak, Kawaikini, is at 5,200 feet or 1,600 metres. It is also a place of particularly high rainfall, averaging around 11.5 metres per year, another factor in the spectacularly eroded valleys.
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Waimea Canyon is also known as “the Grand Canyon of the Pacific”.
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The waterfall that you can see in the distance we will see a closer view of in a couple of posts time.
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Waimea means “red water”, in consequence of the red soil of the canyon.
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The many bare patches is no doubt a reference to a high level of erosion.
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Kauai, Hawaii, 1 March 2015
We weren’t able to go to the Limahuli Botanical Garden the previous day in the north but today we visited the McBryde Botanical Garden in the south.
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This is the Allerton Garden which adjoins the McBryde Garden on the seaward end of a valley. However the Allerton Garden is only accessible through a guided tour which takes four hours.
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So we opted for the McBryde Garden. The access for this is hourly shuttlebus which goes past the Allerton Garden.
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The National Tropical Botanic Gardens (which runs both McBryde and Allerton Gardens) is an independent charity that undertakes projects to save rare and endangered plants around the world.
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Now in McBryde Garden, we look through a hanging vine, I think under a tree.
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Hibiscus waimeae subsp. waimeae (a local variety – I photographed the label).
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I didn’t record this one, though.
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The central tree is introduced but I don’t remember the name.
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This is a hale halawai or meeting house. Planting of taro terraces is proceeding in a garden behind it under traditional and culturally important trees such as hala, kou and milo. Taro is one of the main traditional Hawaiian staple crops.
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I might take this cue to relate a little more of Hawaiian history. Kamehameha I banned the sale of land to foreigners but did not ban their presence. After all, he owed his military successes in large part to European firearms. After he died in 1819, his wife Keopuolani became regent for the young Kamehameha II. Within months and largely under her influence, the system of kapu was abolished, the power of the priests overthrown and temples destroyed. A rebellion followed but was crushed in a decisive battle. Missionaries arrived soon afterwards so Christianity became the new religion of the people and missionaries educated the children of the ali’i nui (high chiefs).
Kamahameha II died a few years later (of measles in London) and was succeeded by his younger brother who took the name Kamehameha III. He ruled for nearly thirty years and introduced constitutional monarchy under two constitutions. As part of his Westernising policies, he introduced private ownership of land in 1848. This was largely intended to distribute land to commoners but it was not well implemented and the result was large land holding by Europeans including the sons of Missionaries.
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Throughout the nineteenth century, the native Hawaiian population greatly diminished due to European diseases and most of the kings died quite young. By 1874, the Kamehameha dynasty had died out and Kalakaua succeeded to the throne. While talented and intelligent, he amassed huge debts, particularly to the white planters. In 1887, a group of planters enforced a “bayonet constitution” by gunpoint that removed most of the powers from the king and most of the voting rights from native Hawaiians.
He died in 1891 and was succeeded by his sister, the very capable Lili’uokalani. She tried to reinstate some of the monarchial powers and merely provoked a coup by some planters, illegally aided by an American Naval Captain and his troops. She had sufficient armed troops to put down the coup, but chose not to do so, relying on the US Government to overturn the situation. This had happened in 1843 when a coup by a British Captain was overturned five months later by the British Government.
In this case, US President Cleveland was sympathetic but no restitution occurred during his term. The succeeding President McKinlay had imperialistic ambitions and was not sympathetic. The coup plotters were never brought to heel and Hawaii was annexed in 1898. This may still rankle with native Hawaiians but by now there would not be a lot they could do about it.
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The history is similar to Tahiti in some ways. In Tahiti they were invaded first by Catholic missionaries (backed up by military threats if they expelled them) and then a French military invasion that they unsuccessfully resisted. As in Hawaii it was the British they wanted to associate with and receive protection from. In Easter Island, it was even worse. The population was wiped out by mass kidnappings as well as disease and when Chile took over they lost all their land and were all but enslaved for many years. Not a pretty thing, colonialism, even, as in the case of Hawaii, when practiced by a supposedly non-imperialist nation.
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Pink Plumeria (Frangipani).
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Kauai, Hawaii, 1 March 2015
We were staying in Kauai at a 5-acre tropical flower farm so I took some photos of the flowers before we left for the morning….
Orchid (variety unknown).
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Ginger plant (also next two images).
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Coffee beans.
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Queen Emma Lily – See Rebecca’s comment below
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Protea (as for next two).
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Cup of Gold, also known as Golden Chalice Vine, Hawaiian Lily – See Rebecca’s comment below
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Coffee beans.
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Pink flowering begonia.
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Murray Foote 