This photo makes it look like someone has placed this delicate shade on a beach. In fact, I found it in 10 feet of water in an area that is often buffeted by large swells, making it’s perfect appearance all the more unlikely. How or why the shade got there is unknown, but for me, that adds to the mystery of the scene.
I used to live in the same town as Jim Whittaker, the first American to reach the summit of Mount Everest. He duly published an autobiography titled, ‘A Life on the Edge.’ As someone who lives close to the flat center surrounded by fluffy pillows, I use that phrase as a punchline for many things.
“I think I might have another cookie.” “Ooo, life on the edge.”
“I bought new shorts that are a slightly different tan shade than my previous pair.” “Life on the edge.”
You get the idea, which has nothing to do with anything really except that, on this day, the cattle in these photos really were living life on the edge.
On a recent swim, the water was churned up with lots of particles floating about and poor visibility. But I was taken with how the sun sent swirling shafts of light down toward deeper water.
At the end of Highway 270, on the northern tip of the island, is Pololu Valley. There’s a trail down to the beach there and, at the other end of the beach, another trail leading up to a bench that overlooks Honokāne Nui valley.
Not far beyond the bench, the trail was destroyed by an earthquake in 2006. It’s still possible to descend to the valley, but the trail goes straight down a steep slope and ropes are in place to make this possible. There are no guarantees that these ropes are in good condition and the slope certainly isn’t. If you do descend this section, the trail passes through varied vegetation and ultimately leads down to a rocky beach at the mouth of Honokāne Nui valley.
Beyond Honokāne Nui, there’s another trail that continues over the next hill and down into Honokāne Iki valley. That valley opens up to this beautiful little bay, which is quite protected and, at low tide, has a nice sandy beach. Be aware though that this is private land and in use on a regular basis.
Toward the end of a hike along the coast, I came across this turtle feeding in a shallow tidal area. There was good grazing to be had, but the problem was that the ledge was continually swept by incoming waves.
The turtle would swim in and access the ledge from the shore side (on the right in the top photo). Then he lumped forward to where the good grazing was and buried his head in it.
Waves would surge in and sluice over him (below). Sometimes, the receding wave had enough oomph that it would wash the turtle over the front edge of the ledge. Then he’d swim around and start over again.
A small fishing boat works the blue waters off the Kohala coast.
Honokohau Harbor, just north of Kailua Kona, is the main small boat harbor on the west side of the Big Island. In addition to private pleasure craft, a lot of charter boats operate out of the harbor, taking guests out to fish, snorkel, dive, and whale watch.
While it looks placid in this photo, once outside this harbor entrance, boaters are in the Pacific Ocean and conditions can change dramatically in a very short time.
The winds were blowing here last week, 30+ mph on a consistent basis. But one afternoon the winds picked up even more and triggered dirt storms off the hills above Kawaihae.
The wind whistled down the slope from Kohala Mountain and dry dirt was gathered up, whirled around, and blasted down the slope toward the ocean. This happened for an hour or so. Sometimes, white sand from the beach in Kawaihae harbor was similarly stirred up.
The unfortunate aspect of this display was that it visibly demonstrated the problems with erosion when the ground is dry. If it’s not the wind, then any rainfall washes the soil down gullies and into the ocean. All this dirt being deposited in the relatively shallow waters off the coast degrades the water quality and can have a seriously adverse effect on corals in the area.
Graham's Island 