Tag Archives: Upolu

The Numbers Game #114

A Black-crowned night heron on a mooring cleat in Hawaii
A Black-crowned Night Heron on a mooring cleat in Kawaihae Harbor, Hawaii

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 236. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

Opihi picker

An Opihi picker on the coast of Hawaii
An Opihi picker on the coast of Hawaii

I saw this man, down on the rocks below Upolu Airport, collecting Opihi. Opihi is the Hawaiian word for limpets, and they are a prized food for the locals. Gathering them though is not an easy task. For one thing, it takes place at the water line. Opihi pickers are guaranteed to get wet and have to take great care not to get washed out to sea. One or two seem to disappear every year.

The Opihi also have to be taken while they are feeding and relaxed. Otherwise they will be so firmly adhered to the rocks that no amount of prying will loosen them.

The Numbers Game #110

A bee forages through the blooms of a mock orange.
A bee on a Mock Orange flower.

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 232. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

All kinds of storms

A great frigatebird flying off Upolui, Hawaii

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Storm.’ See more responses here.

I’ve gone with a few different kinds of storms starting with a Great Frigatebird or ʻIwa, which is known in Hawaii as a storm bird as they are considered indicators of approaching storms. Below is a rain storm in North Kohala on the road to Upolu.

Rain falling at Hawi, Hawaii

The next two are scenes at Kawaihae port when the winds are whipping. A dirt storm above and a sand storm below.

Dirt blowing at Kawaihae, Hawaii
Sand blowing at Kawaihae, Hawaii

Touch and go

A U.S. military plane practicing touch-and-goes at Upolu, Hawaii

I don’t get down to Upolu as much as I used to, but recently I headed down that way and saw this large military aircraft looping around the airstrip. It was practicing touch and goes. I managed to get there in time to see it go around a couple of times before heading back to base in Oahu. I’m not sure what kind of plane this was, but clearly one of the large transport aircraft of the U.S. military.

A U.S. military plane practicing touch-and-goes at Upolu, Hawaii
A U.S. military plane practicing touch-and-goes at Upolu, Hawaii

The Numbers Game #104

Sea Monster
A sea monster lunging up? Actually, a Humpback Whale. The ‘lower jaw’ is a fin!

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 226. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.

The Numbers Game #101

It’s the time of year when big northwest swells start to hit the islands. This one is from a few years back.

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 223. Captions are on the photos. You can see more responses here.