Pa’ako Beach: Makena Cove, Maui

Posted on Saturday, Oct 29, 2011

Monday, July 4, 2011

Of all the beaches on the leeward side of Maui, this was our favorite. Often referred to as “Secret Beach”, Pa’ako Beach is a tiny little strip of sand along an equally small cove that has no signs and little parking. That doesn’t mean you should expect to have it to yourself.

Pa’ako’s diminutive size isn’t the only thing that separates it from other beaches in this area of Maui. It’s also the drop off into the water which, though not sudden, is quite steep. This results in some active surf—to the delight of a Certain Boy who never seems to tire of running away from it; and a Certain Dad who never tires of photographing said Boy running away from it.

In addition to the image gallery, there is also three minutes of video footage available in which The Mom finds herself in the water with The Boy, where she manages to get herself considerably wetter than she originally intended.

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

Shower Time: Nakalele Blowhole, Maui

Posted on Saturday, Oct 22, 2011

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Nakalele may be the best blowhole in all of Hawaii. It is definitely the most impressive one we encountered on our tour of the islands. The Tuesday evening we arrived at Nakalele it was nearly high tide. The swells were forceful enough to repeatedly send columns of water up through the blowhole and into the air where they were brilliantly illuminated by the sun. It was a gorgeous scene.

Lewis and I joined a small group watching upwind of the blowhole. After observing for a few minutes, Lewis decided that he would rather “experience” these eruptions from downwind. It was the first time I’d ever seen him volunteer to take a shower. The Boy proved to be a trend setter as it wasn’t long before about half the group was over there with him.

The one condition I gave Lewis before I let him go was to stay away from the blowhole itself. Falling into a blowhole is a death sentence. There’s no way to get out. Just four days after our visit, a 44 year old man discovered this for himself. He danced around at the edge of the Nakalele blowhole with the ocean at his back. A large wave came from behind and washed him into the blowhole. He was never seen again. His body was never recovered.

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

Heliconias—Nature’s Buffet: Ke’anae Arboretum, Maui

Posted on Saturday, Oct 15, 2011

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

It was in Costa Rica’s Carara National Park that I first encountered heliconias. Their bright red bracts and exotic form immediately captured my attention, as did the numerous hummingbirds that zipped in and out as they fed on heliconia nectar for breakfast. However, it wasn’t until this trip that I came to appreciate how many different critters rely on the heliconia for their meals.

These heliconias were growing in the unkept Ke’anea Arboretum, a quiet spot on the road to Hana that was mentioned in an earlier blog post. After capturing a few images of its beautiful form I was taken aback when an enormous earwig, seemingly constructed of black patent leather, emerged from one of the bracts as it searched for lunch. A second one appeared a short time later as if to prove this was no coincidence.

There are dozens of varieties of heliconias; in the following weeks I came to realize that almost all of them were great places to discover the assortment of little creatures that make their home in this rain forest environment. My favorite variety had bracts which opened upward, forming small cups. Both rainwater and small flying insects collected in these cups, a stew which the numerous geckos seemed to find irresistible—but that’s a topic for another blog post…

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

Two-Tiered Pools: Honolua, Maui

Posted on Saturday, Oct 8, 2011

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Oregon is blessed with some outstanding tide pools along its coast. I was curious to discover how similar Hawaiian tide pools would be to their Oregon counterparts. The answer? Not very. We saw no barnacles or mussels; no anemones, chitons, sea stars or kelp. Even the smell we had come to associate with the ocean was absent. For us the primary attraction of these beautiful green pools, juxtaposed against the sapphire blue ocean, was their warmth—and the view!

First time visitors to Hawaii are often surprised by how cool the ocean is here. Lewis would emerge from his snorkeling experiences with chattering teeth, his time in the water limited not by his curiosity but his tolerance for being cold. These shallow tide pools, surrounded by black lava and heated by the sun, provided a respite from the cool ocean temps.

There was decidedly less aquatic life in these pools compared to Oregon but there was life. There were tiny hermit crabs everywhere. They proved endlessly entertaining. There were small tropical fish as well, which Lewis spent hours trying to touch to no avail.

There were bigger crabs too—lots of them. My favorite ones had yellow neon strips down their legs, blue neon leg joints, orange eyes, a white neon stripe across the front of their face, and pink claws. I called them “racing crabs” because their colorful stripes. One of them emerged into the sun long enough for me to grab a shot of it beneath the water. The image does not do it justice; the crab’s colors are apparently out of gamut for computer monitors (and perhaps even the camera).

I’ve seen lots of crab parts on Oregon beaches but I don’t usually encounter live crabs there. Here we saw them all over the place. For having so many legs and other appendages to keep track of they seemed remarkably nimble and swift, not to mention paranoid. I guess you have to be when you are a creature as delicious as a crab. We could never get close to one, at least until I came across this red beauty. I spent five minutes sneaking up on it, amazed that it was standing its ground. Darla finally decided it must be dead. It wasn’t dead though; it was just an empty shell. It didn’t seem like it had been eaten. Had it molted? That was our guess. We went on to find a number of these empty red crab shells on the islands but never once saw a red crab. What we did see were lots of jet black ones skittering around on the black lava. We finally concluded that the red shells must be coming from the black crabs.

[Click on the featured image or any link to view the five-image gallery.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.

Bamboo Forest: Haleakala National Park, Maui

Posted on Saturday, Oct 1, 2011

Thursday, July 7, 2011

When most people think of Haleakala National Park, they think of a beautiful sunrise at the top of a dormant 10,000 foot volcano. There is, however, another less visited section of the park known as Kipahulu. It is on the windward side of the island twelve miles past Hana town. Kipahulu features one of the best hikes on Maui, the four mile Pipiwai Trail.

Despite being at the very top of our Maui “to do” list, we almost aborted our plans to take this hike due to the effects of the previous day’s bee attack. Neither Lewis nor I had slept well the night before and we both felt an overwhelming sense of malaise that made even walking out to the rental car seem like an insurmountable obstacle. When we finally arrived at Kipahulu, the two of us ended up languishing in the car for an hour while Darla explored the visitor center on her own. When she returned to the car, I decided we should at least try to do the hike. This turned out to be a good decision although we had our doubts at first; we thought we were going to die during the initial climb. After a long break at the Banyan tree featured in last week’s blog post, we eventually started to feel better. By the end of the hike Lewis and I were much improved. We were all glad we did it.

Although the Pipiwai Trail leads to an impressive waterfall, the best part of the hike was the bamboo forest one must hike through to reach it. I had never been in a bamboo forest before. It reminded me of being lost in the middle of a corn field—if the corn grew randomly instead of in planted rows, and if the corn was thicker, five times taller, and blocked out the sun. It was amazing. I was glad I had chosen to lug my tripod along. It would have been too dark to handhold the camera for any of the bamboo images.

After exiting the bamboo it was still a short walk to Waimoku Falls. There were two swiftly moving streams along the way that lacked an easy, dry way across, something that struck me as odd given the extensive boardwalk that had been built through the bamboo forest. Some people simply removed their shoes and waded through the water. This was the easiest solution but left them with wet, muddy feet on the other side. Others chose to cross the two streams with shoes on, hopping from questionable slippery rock to questionable slippery rock. This approach resulted in varying degrees of success; most shoes arrived on the other side wetter than when they started but with mud on the outside of their shoes, where it belonged. A walking stick or, in my case, a tripod came in very handy in this situation.

Our final destination, 400 foot high Waimoku Falls, was magnificent. The final image in this set does not begin to do it justice. The east side of Maui had been deluged with heavy rains overnight resulting in a massive flow of water over the falls and into the air. It was all I could do to get a shot off before my lens became covered with water drops. Still, one can get a sense of the scene.

[Click on a thumbnail to view the entire image.]

©2011 Timothy Linn. All Rights Reserved.