Tag Archives: Beaches

There goes my morning walk

Flash floods create a new pathway to the ocean at Pelekane Beach in Kawaihae, Hawaii

When I have time on my way to work, I like to stop in Kawaihae and go for an early morning walk. A favorite is to drive to Pelekane Beach and walk to Spencer Beach Park. Those days are gone! The flash floods from a few weeks back took care of that.

For starters, the road is still closed. I can see piles of dirt and debris through the locked access gates. But even if I could access the road, half of Pelekane Beach is gone too. The floods whooshed through the lagoon behind the beach and took a huge amount of sand with it. So now there’s no lagoon, half a beach, and a lot of trees in the bay.

It may be that the powers that be will bring in some sand to restore the former beach. That’s what’s happened at nearby Hapuna Beach, which also lost a section of its sand. In the meantime I will have to explore some new options.

The sun comes up and the sun goes down

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Sunrises and Sunsets.’ See more responses here.

Let’s start with a sunset for a change. While waiting to go snorkeling from the beach at Mauna Kea Resort, the sunset was lovely, in the sky, the water, and on the sand.

Sunrise over Kohala Mountain can be a cloud-shrouded disappointment, but other times it is a wonder to behold.

Tracks in the sand

I liked these crisp tracks in the sand at Pelekane Beach, clearly someone moving forward with authority.

Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

Moving forward sideways

A Pallid Ghost Crab on the sand in Hawaii — On the lookout.

I was walking the beach at Pelekane Bay one morning, when I realized there was a lot of movement on the sand. A bit of quiet observation revealed crabs everywhere. They skittered back and forth, but if I moved, they zipped back to the edge of their holes or disappeared into them.

I picked a spot where I could observe a good number of them and spent about 40 minutes there, kneeling in the sand, moving minimally, while the crabs went about their work. The ones in these photos are Pallid Ghost Crabs.

Posted for Becky’s Squares: Move Forward, Reconstruct, Renew, and/or are Burgeoning. See more responses here.

A quiet morning

People walk the beach at Anaehoomalu Bay as a tour boat gets ready to disembark passengers onto a smaller boat for ferrying ashore.

In balance

A woman walks on the beach at Kohanaiki Park in Hawaii

I saw this woman walking the beach at Kohanaiki and was impressed by her poise and balance. Not in a million years could I do that!

Ring-billed Gull

I was walking the beach at ʻAnaehoʻomalu Bay (often known as A Bay, for obvious reasons) when I noticed this bird walking in the same direction as me. I was idly wondering what kind of gull it was, when I suddenly realized, ‘it’s a gull.’

Unlike most places, a gull sighting in Hawaii is a rarity. I know people who’ve never seen one here. Gulls prefer shallow tidal areas and tropical islands don’t have those, so they’re not gull-friendly. But a few get blown in every year and some arrive as stowaways on ships

This one is a Ring-billed Gull, and it’s the second I’ve seen in my time here. The first, I saw catching a fish (here). I rather liked how this one was strutting its stuff on the beach.