Tag Archives: Kawaihae

Muddy waters

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Muddy waters, from flash flooding, advance into the blue Pacific Ocean

Sunday Stills Monthly Color Challenge is ‘Cobalt Blue.’ See more responses here.

I had a post all lined up, until I was called into work yesterday to do some clean up after flash floods swept through several places, including where I work. On the drive down, I came on this scene.

The cobalt blue waters of the Pacific were being overrun by muddy waters swept into the sea by flooding. I’ve never seen such a sharp line before and, as I watched, I could see it moving forward, to the north. On that coast, the current generally runs in that direction, and a swell from the south was probably helping it along too.

The muddy waters entered the sea down by Kawaihae and when I first saw them, they’d almost reached Lapakahi, a distance of around 12 miles. When I returned home, about three hours later, the brown water had moved up off Kapaa Park, another two and a half miles north.

It will take a day or two for the ocean to clear again, as the waters mingle or are eased away by offshore currents. In the meantime, Kawaihae is digging itself out from the copious amounts of mud left behind by the floodwaters.

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

Muddy waters, from flash flooding, advance into the blue Pacific Ocean

Not moving forward

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Cars wait on the road into Kawaihae Hawaii as a traffic accident is cleared

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Groups of Any Kind.’ See more responses here.

One day last week, late in the afternoon, the driver of a dump truck carrying asphalt, lost control of his vehicle on the road into Kawaihae. He careened across the road, into a guard rail, and overturned, spilling the asphalt onto the highway.

No one was hurt, but the highway was closed in both directions. This is the highway I take to go to and from work. I’d heard about the accident before I set off for home, but there were conflicting versions about whether one lane was closed or both.

Cars wait on the road into Kawaihae Hawaii as a traffic accident is cleared

It wasn’t long before I was in a line of backed up traffic, but even then it wasn’t clear whether the highway was closed or not, since a fair number of vehicles kept coming from the opposite direction. However, the longer I was in the line, the more clear it became that these vehicles were driven by people turning around and getting out of the jam. Some of these were likely people who were headed to Kawaihae for some reason that wasn’t urgent. Others were surely those who lived up where I do who figured it would be quicker to take the long way home. I’ve done that before (here) for a brush fire, and once stuck it out for an overturned semi (here).

This time, I decided to wait it out with my group of fellow delayed travelers. It was interesting to watch what people did. Some got out of their cars and chatted. Others took the exit to Spencer Beach Park for a more relaxing wait. Still others waited, gave up, and turned around to seek alternatives. A few cars did just that only a few minutes before a retrieval vehicle with the damaged dump truck aboard, passed by. Shortly thereafter, traffic started moving through from the other side of the holdup. Then it was our turn.

Cars wait on the road into Kawaihae Hawaii as a traffic accident is cleared

The backups were quickly cleared and I got home two hours after I left work. Had I turned around as soon as I saw the backup, I might have been home in 90 minutes. My normal commute is about 30 minutes. But I wasn’t too put out. Back home, I was still able to relax with a nice glass of wine. The dump truck driver, who caused the delay, probably wishes he’d done that too. He was arrested for suspicion of driving under the influence of an intoxicant!

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

The Numbers Game #18

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Strong winds create whitecaps in Kawaihae Harbor, Hawaii
Strong winds whip up whitecaps in Kawaihae harbor.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar of your computer and then post a selection of the photos that turn up. This week’s number is 139. Captions are on the photos.

You can see more responses here.

A Black-crowned Night Heron snaffles a Tilapia. Original post here.
A beekeeper removes a swarm of bees nesting in a wall
Bees and their honeycomb inside the wall of a house. Original story here.
A firehose of lava at Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii
The firehose of lava at Kilauea Volcano in 2017.
Hawaiian Stilts flying in Hawaii
Hawaiian Stilts in flight.
A pair of Northern Pintails on a pond in Hawaii
There’s always one who’s got to get your attention, as evidenced by these Northern Pintails.

Just warming up

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Lights at the port of Kawaihae, Hawaii

I drive past the port facility in Kawaihae all the time. Sometimes, in the early morning, I’m there when a second bank of lights are turned on. These lights start out red, but quickly warm up to their normal yellow.

This is a feature of low-pressure sodium lights, which I assumed these are. However, the manufacturer stopped making those lamps five years ago, so I’m not sure. Not that it would be unusual for Hawaii to several years behind the times!

Lights at the port of Kawaihae, Hawaii

Rainy days and Sundays …

Banana plants thrive in heavy tropical rain.
Rain lashes banana plants in Captain Cook.

… They go together in this week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme of ‘Rainy Days.’ See more responses here.

Kahili ginger in the rain in Kalopa park Hawaii
Kahili Gingers illuminate a wet day in Kalōpā Forest Reserve.

There’s plenty of rain on the Big Island. Most falls on the wet east side, but the dry west side can get its share too. Hilo, on the wet side, averages around 140 inches of rain a year, and just to the west of Hilo is an area that gets more than 200 inches a year. In contrast, Kawaihae, on the Kohala coast, gets around 10 inches of rain annually, though I suspect last year was one of its wetter ones.

Cloud and rain on Mauna Kea
The highway to the Mauna Kea visitor center awash with rain.

Where I live, on the northern end of the island, we get around 50 inches of rain a year, but being on the shoulder of Kohala Mountain, that figure can change quickly going a mile east or west, or a mile up the hill or down toward the ocean.

Rain falls in Hawi, Hawaii
Looking out the window as a passing shower dumps a load of rain.

Feather-legged Fly

A Feather-legged fly on a Tree Heliotrope in Hawaii
A Feather-legged fly on a Tree Heliotrope in Hawaii

I was photographing bees on a tree heliotrope in Kawaihae when I saw this fly. It’s a new one for me, so I was happy to get decent photos and to be able to identify it afterwards.

This is a Feather-legged Fly (Trichopoda pennipes). It’s one of those flies which lays its eggs on host bugs, such as leaf-footed bugs and stink bugs. On hatching, the larvae make for the bug’s interior and develop safely within. The end product is a new fly and a dead bug. Because some of the bugs it uses as hosts are crop pests, it’s considered a beneficial insect.

The bottom photo shows why it got its name!

A Feather-legged fly on a Tree Heliotrope in Hawaii