Category Archives: Photo Challenges

Kings’ Trail

kings trail ala loa

kings trail straightThe Kings’ Trail, is more properly known as the Ala Kahakai Trail (shoreline trail) or the Ala Loa Trail (long trail). The trail was created in the 1800s and stretched 175 miles from Upolu, at the northern tip of the island, down the west coast and up the south coast, to Kalapana in the southeast corner.

It passed through 220 ahupuaʽa, which were land divisions stretching from the ocean to the mountains. This meant that each ahupuaʽa contained the necessary resources to sustain its inhabitants.

These days, some sections of the trail are open for hiking, but others cross private land. The goal is to reopen as much of the trail as possible to public use. These photos are of parts of the trail passing down the Kohala coast. In many places the trail is ramrod straight to make passage easier, though the surface is often uneven.

Posted in response to this week’s Friendly Friday challenge on the theme of ‘Pathways.’ See more responses here.

kings trail

Yellow-billed cardinal on a rock

Yellow-billed Cardinal

Yellow-billed Cardinal on a rockThis week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Something Red.’ (See more offerings here.) I had a few bird photos that fell into that category, but I chose these yellow-billed cardinal photos for their name.

When I’m out on walks, I’ve run into people who ask me about the name of the little bird with the red head. No one has ever asked me about the name of the little bird with the yellow bill, but that’s the feature that gives them their name. I guess it’s because other cardinals have red heads so calling this one a red-headed cardinal would lead to confusion.

I thought this one, seen on the beach at Pololu, looked particularly dapper.

Hapuna resort decorations

Hapuna decorations

This is the lobby of the Westin Hapuna Beach Resort on the Kohala coast. Each of the Kohala resort hotels has a version of this look at this time of year.

To be honest, the tree decorations are a little over the top for my taste, not surprising considering I don’t have any decorations or a tree. However, these are minor details. Quibbling about festive decorations misses the point when there’s such a killer view, through the palm trees, over the white sand beach, to the blue Pacific.

Posted in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘Festive.’ See more offerings here.

Under the banyan trees

Hawi Banyan trees

I could have used this photo for last week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘In Your Town,’ but it also works for this week’s theme of ‘Traditions.’ (see more offerings here.)

These two giant banyan trees are half a block up from the main highway through downtown Hawi. Each Saturday, a farmers market is held on the grassy area beneath these trees. That event is part grocery shop, part social gathering.

The rest of the week, the location is the traditional meeting place for the area, particularly for people carpooling. If someone says to meet under the banyans, or at the banyans, the location is immediately understood.

Hawi

Downtown Hawi

Hawi shopsHawi is the northernmost town on the Big Island. Together with Kapa’au, two miles to the east, it’s the main population center in North Kohala. This area was a center of sugar production from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. Today, it’s geared towards tourism and agriculture.

Hawi’s population of around 1,000 is mostly located in areas above or below Akoni Pule Highway, which is the main road through town. The highway itself is where commercial activities are found, as seen in these photos.

In the top photo, the blue building houses the Bamboo Restaurant. This was the former home of K. Takata Store, the area’s main grocery store, which now occupies a newer building midway between Hawi and Kapaau. On the right of this photo is a vine climbing up a pole and along the power lines. I’m not sure what this vine is, but it’s everywhere, and periodically workers from the power or phone company pass through and hack at the lower reaches of it, killing off the higher parts engulfing the wires – at least until it (very quickly) grows back.

The Kohala Trade Center building is home to several smaller businesses and features the covered walkway at right which passes by the storefronts lining the street, but slightly below street level.

For its size, Hawi is quite a bustling place, popular with tourists and with a strong local community. But it’s also the kind of place where a person can ride a horse through town and not be considered unusual or out of place, and I like that quite a bit.

Posted in response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge on the theme of ‘In Your Town.’ See more responses here.

Kohala Trade Center Hawi

Waipi’o Valley

Waipio Valley

Waipio Hi'ilawe FallsThis week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Bucket List Images.’ (See more responses here.) Since I don’t have a bucket list that posed something of a problem for me, so I plumped for this image of Waipi’o Valley, since I might never see this view again.

Waipi’o is a valley on the northeastern slopes of Kohala Mountain. The valley is about one mile wide at the mouth and about six miles deep with walls that are around 2,000 feet high. It’s accessed by a steep, one-lane road that’s for four-wheel-drive vehicles only. On the left of the top photo, and in the second photo, is Hi’ilawe Falls which tumbles almost 1,500 feet into the valley.

Waipi’o means ‘curved water’ in Hawaiian and the valley is known as the “Valley of Kings.” It was the home of Hawaiian royalty until the 15th century and was a stronghold of King Kamehameha, who united the Hawaiian islands under one leader. In its heyday, the valley was home to somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 people.

Those numbers dropped over time, but the valley remained well-populated until 1946 when a magnitude 8.6 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands triggered a massive Pacific-wide tsunami with waves ranging from 45–130 ft. high. Waipi’o Valley was hit by this tsunami, and though no-one was killed, most of the structures in the valley were destroyed. Today, the population is around 50 residents, though many more visit on a daily basis.