Wild Places and Open Spaces

September 19th – October 4th 2006

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During our 10 ½ hr flight on Hawaiian Airlines – which is an excellent outfit I must add; free food, beverages (including beer and wine), and excellent service from very friendly staff – we were able to reflect on our 16 days on the ‘Big Island’ – which is what the island of Hawaii is referred as.

In almost every aspect it was a lesson and very different from what our preconceived notions were; geophysically it looked different than we thought, geologically it is quite simple, and the island has nearly every ecological zone! Finally, biologically we were most surprised of all!

Upon arriving in Hawaii the first thing we noted was how very big and urban Honolulu was – definitely not our cup of tea. Oh well, we didn’t have much time to bother looking around anyway so we figured we’d check in with Aloha airlines for our flight to Kona. Low and behold, there was a plane leaving right away and it had room for us so we had zero wait time!

Arriving early in Kona we’d have to wait for our bags that would come on the next flight. This would however, give us time to get our rental car sorted out. People have always told us that Hawaii is very expensive but we never found it to be. For example: our rental car – $40.00 per day including taxes and insurance, groceries – cheaper than Canada in most departments, fuel around 0.90 Canadian/litre, camping ranged from free in the National Parks to $20.00 a night for an ‘A’ frame cabin on one of the premier beaches (click here for Hapuna Beach info) on the island. We also stayed at a bizarre hostel/farm place one night where we were informed that all the dogs had mange and to stay away from the attacking billy goat. We set our tent up under a tin roof beside an old couch and car seat and spent the night talking to a free spirited 50 year old man who was fresh off a commune on the mainland. We never did find much of a crop growing other than the tomatoes around the toilet – our guess is that there was some herb growing somewhere, we just weren’t sure where. Writing about it won’t do it justice, so just take our word for it – it was really interesting. So, needless to say we found our visit to Hawaii to be very financially reasonable and laughable at times.

The next thing we soon noted in Hawaii was its people. We felt in general the Polynesians seemed rather not friendly – not unfriendly either, but rather emotionally detatched. Almost as though we never existed. Curious indeed. Perhaps they’re bitter about being displaced from all the prime real estate by rich Americans?

Flying over the islands it was amazing how lush and rugged the islands looked. However, some islands are literally as flat as a pancake. Upon closer inspection we noted the big island was only lush in certain areas and ironically the best beaches were located on the lee side of the island that was mostly desert! The entire windward side of the island including the three monsterous mountains were extremely wet, cool, tropical rainforests. We visited these areas, but we saw enough rain when we were in Alaska so our visit to the rainy areas was short lived. We also visited some of the high elevations – we drove up 9200ft to the Mauna Kea observatory visitor station – but generally they were quite cool and often wetter. To give you an example, we spent four days in Volcanoes National Park (click here for info)– where we were fortunate to see the lava flow awaken into a violent eruption – and at sea level it would be around 85ºF and at 4000ft it would be around 65ºF! Needless to say we spent most of our time at lower elevations.

Strangely looking at the two big mountains of the island, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa which are both huge mountains rising to well over 13,000ft, they appeared much lower due to their massive volumes. They cover so much area, and in the summer lack a snow top so they just look like big hills. Anyhow, they are giant volcanoes that affect all the weather on the island and are one of the best locations in the world for the worlds observatories.

Because of the mountainous terrain, Hawaii brags to possess nearly every ecological biome on earth. That would lead one to believe the island would be very diverse in its flora and fauna, which couldn’t be farther from the truth! When the Polynesians arrived on the islands there was actually almost nothing terrestrial available to survive on! They brought their own taro, fruit and pigs. Westerners brought the rest of the introduced flowers and fruit trees that have wreaked havoc on Hawaii’s endemic species. Practically everything on Hawaii today is a non-native introduced species. This really came as a shock to us as we always envisioned Hawaii as a lush island group with beautiful flowers, a plethora of fruit and plenty of pretty birds.

There actually was an impressive bird population when westerners arrived on the islands. Unfortunately of the 71 endemic birds of Hawaii, 30 species are endangered, and even worse, 25 are extinct!

The birds now most common by far are all non native; the house sparrow, Java Finch, Myna, Kalij Pheasant…fortunately of the endemic species left on the island we were lucky enough to spot several endangered ones not found anywhere else in the world which was a good feeling. Particularly of not was the Hawaiian goose (Ne Ne), a crimson Hawaiian honey creeper (I’iwi), a Hawaiian hawk (Io) and the Hawaiian owl (Pueo).

The loss of so many birds is kind of complex and varied. The ever present ‘loss of habitat’ and displacement by introduced species. Rats brought over in early trading ships have eaten their fair share of bird eggs and to try to rid the island of rats we – in our infinite wisdom – introduced the mongoose. Mongoose would eat rats because they’ll eat nearly anything. The only trouble is their paths rarely cross as the mongoose is diurnal and the rats are mostly nocturnal, so in essence we introduced a species which also adds to the declining bird population. Probably the best animal on the island to control rats is the huge ferral cat population, but I think anyone raised watching Sylvester and Tweety knows the problem with that scenario! The most complex problem is partly due to a Polynesian introduction which proved to be a catalyst for a western introduction which worked together to spell disaster for our avian friends.

The Polynesians introduced pigs to the island which seems unrelated to any bird issue, that is until the mosquito was introduced. The mosquito is a carrier of many diseases, particularly an avian disease the endemic species of Hawaii have no tolerance of. Hawaii is a volcanic island with little soil. Volcanic rock is very porous and doesn’t hold water very easily. The shape of Hawaii is conical so it sheds its water very well. There were no mammals to dig up vegetation and that is where pigs proved to be a big problem! Pigs love to dig up roots to eat and every time they do this it leaves a hole where standing water can accumulate after a rain which in turn has helped the mosquito population to boom. That boom spread diseases throughout the bird population on the island and has caused the decline in endemic populations. Human intervention so often proves deadly for some plant or animal, and that’s all I’m going to say about that!

One last bubble to be burst for us was the clarity of air. When we landed in Kona we kind of expected clear skies. After all it’s in the middle of the Pacific with very little industry and the place chosen for the observatories. What we saw was what looked to be brown smog. But, we later learned that due to volcanic emissions called “vog” – composed of sulphur, dioxide gas and a mixture of aerosol particles – sometimes the island is plagued by low visibility! Who’d of thunk it!

I don’t want to make Hawaii sound like all doom and gloom, because it isn’t. It’s just a lot less utopian than we envisioned! We did meet a wonderful man who lives off the land in Hawaii and it is a utopia for him – he forages for his food and lives under a tarp on a lava field. He spends no more than $40/month. He spent many years living in a monastery and lives by the teachings of Budda. We spoke at length with him – the tone of his voice alone carried such peace and love – trying to become more enlightened, and grasp how he became at such peace with life and with himself. His insight, along with others that we meet along our way, will undoubtedly add to our own quest for peace and answers.

On a less gloomier note, here are a couple of interesting things we learned in Hawaii. With only 5 vowels and 8 consonants in the alphabet, all words look and sound too similar to us to tell the difference.

Coffee and macadamia nuts are the biggest cash crops of the big island. We thought about buying some of the famous Kona Joe Coffee, until we realized it cost $45.00 per pound!

Mauna Loa @ 13,677ft is the biggest volcano in the world. It emits huge amounts of lava, who’s rock makes up the entire island of a chain extending north and west all the way to Kamchatka, essentially the distance of Florida to Alaska!

Finally on the positive side and why we loved Hawaii the most: beautiful beaches, warm crystal clear waters and a huge healthy array of tropical fishes and an excellent population of sea turtles.

All said and done we’ll probably never return to Hawaii as it’s a little too busy for us, we’re happy to have had the opportunity to visit and would advise anyone interested to visit soon because it will only get busier!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 at 11:29 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.