Aloha
For several years we have wanted to take a trip to Hawaii. About twelve years ago, Mary had a fall and shattered the top of the bone just below her knee. It was necessary to borrow bone from her hip and put a pin in the leg bone. She made a complete recovery, but since that time we have known that the days when we can take hikes are numbered. We resolved that we would try to do our walking in beautiful places. We decided to plan a trip to Hawaii before one or both of us have to use a cane to get around.
Thus we started planning in November. We scheduled a week with an Elderhostel featuring the birds of Hawaii, and we were delighted when our son, Robert and his wife Debra were able to join us. We planned the trip for March, the time when Heidelberg has their spring break.
After the long trip from Detroit to Los Angeles and on to Honolulu, we were surprised and delighted to be met at the baggage claim by Robert and Debra who welcomed us with fresh flower leis. They had rented a car and we found our hotel, the Pagoda, about 25 miles from the airport. Dinner and breakfast were in the Pagoda Restaurant that had a lovely Japanese garden.
The next morning we flew to Kauai, the northernmost island where we spent most of our time. Kauai was formed by volcano eruptions approximately 6 million years ago and is the oldest of the islands. It is called the Garden Island and truly there are many beautiful places to visit. We had rented a condo on the south shore, and every evening we watched the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. We soon noticed a bird on the lawn that looked like a cardinal but only its face was red, followed by a white ruff around its neck, and a grey body. It is called the Red-Crested Cardinal Every morning we awakened to coo-coo-coo-cooo of a bird we identified as a Zebra Dove, and the crowing of wild roosters.
The most beautiful site on Kauai is the lighthouse point at Kilauea, a National Wildlife Refuge. The surf splashes ten to twenty feet high on the cliffs that border the point. Red-tailed Tropicbirds with their 44 inch wingspans sail on updrafts. Hundreds of Red-footed Boobies nest on the hillside above the cliffs. Soaring above both of these birds and sometimes pursuing them is the Great Frigatebird with a wingspan of 90 inches. Monk seals sun themselves on the rocks and humpback whales were seen at a distance.
Another day’s trip was to Waimea Canyon, sometimes called the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. Geologists believe that this canyon was formed by a fault parallel to the western coast of Kauai. It is 3,000 feet to the narrow river at the bottom of this canyon and it is a mile across. After viewing the canyon and its waterfalls, we drove up the curvy road to the top of the mountain at 4,000 feet and Koke’e State Park. There a long hike took us to the wettest spot on earth, at the edge of the treacherous Alakai Swamp. Rainfall here averages 500 inches a year. The water flowing out of this swamp creates stunning waterfalls and rivers on Kauai.
One day after Robert and Debra left, it threatened to rain and we toured the Kauai Museum. There we saw displays of the formations of the islands and much information about the history of the islands. The Polynesians arrived about 200-300 A. D. When they arrived there were no rats, centipedes, reptiles or mosquitoes. The only mammals were bats and monk seals. The Polynesians introduced their food plants such as breadfruit, taro and bananas.
Captain Cook arrived in 1768. He was killed on the islands on his third trip. European settlers brought many changes to the islands. They introduced many new species of plants, many of which were invasive, supplanting native plants. They developed large sugarcane plantations. Rats and mosquitoes came aboard ships. The mongoose was introduced to kill rats. However the mongoose killed many native birds forcing many of them to survive only at high elevations. Kauai is fortunate that mongoose were never brought to its shores.
Many Japanese and Chinese were brought to Hawaii to work on the sugarcane plantations. The Kauai Museum featured a typical small worker’s house with sliding panels, sleeping mats and clothing.
Christian missionaries were welcomed to the islands in 1820. The Royal Family expressed their gratitude for the missionaries’ friendship with a Hawaiian prince, Tamoree, who had come to Yale to be educated. They gave Mercy and Samuel Whitney farmland and the labor of fifty Hawaiians to support their mission.
During the few days between the time Robert and Debra left and the Elderhostel began, we toured the National Botanical Garden and took the McBride self-guided tour. Unusual tropical plants and orchids as well as many palms and commercial plants like cocoa and ginger were there. Monarch butterflies hovered as we ate our lunch by a waterfall.
We went to a small United Church of Christ church on Sunday and were greeted with leis and many friendly handshakes. The church has a young Caucasian minister and an associate who ministers to the Tongans who have come to Hawaii from the Tongas Islands.
We must share some of Hawaiian culture with our readers. Their language is musical and easy to pronounce following a few simple rules. Their name for Caucasians is Houli, which can be translated “no breath”. It comes from their observation that when Caucasians meet, they shake hands at arms length distance from each other. When Hawaiians meet, they press their cheeks next to the other and hug. They share each other’s breath. Houlis don’t share each other’s breath.
The hula dance and dances with fire sticks and drums are encouraged in several Hawaiian cultural centers. One of the items high on our list was to attend a luau and we found the one at Smith’s Tropical Paradise was a gratifying presentation of Hawaiian culture and food. The ceremonies opened with the presentation of roasted pigs uncovered from a pit in the ground. A banquet with many kinds of Hawaiian food, including poi from the taro root, followed. After that a company of at least twenty dancers began with a fiery eruption of a volcano and the appearance of the volcano goddess, Pele. The hula dances were both graceful and energetic. The men’s dances were accompanied by drums. The program lasted until around 10:30.
Our Elderhostel experience was very satisfying. The ten other members of the group were experienced bird-watchers and our guide and his assistant took us to many different habitats and we, as a group, saw 73 different species of birds, more than any other group that year. We also traveled to Hawaii, the Big Island, to see many of the birds there. Thirty-four of the birds we saw were introduced to the islands. Eighteen species were endemic to those islands, and many are on the endangered lists.
The plane trip home was exhausting, but we would recommend a trip to Hawaii, especially Kauai, and certainly in that unpredictable month of March.
– Percy and Mary