HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Seeing Hawaii When You Aren’t Here October 6, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel, Updates , 2commentsHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Seeing Hawaii When You Aren’t Here
People have a tendency to see what they want to see. And if you want to be in Hawaii, don’t be surprised if more and more things start you thinking of Hawaii.
I don’t mean the ads and articles in travel magazines. Whether you’re a longtime subscriber (to what I heard a frequent-flier call “travel-porn”), or just back-date browsing in a waiting-room, those articles and ads are deliberately intended, designed, tweaked and polished for the purpose of making you think about coming here.
I also don’t mean “Hawaii 5-0,” or “Lost,” either. Nor the mystique of “tiki” that has likely propelled a million visitors into the Pacific. Ever since Trader Vic’s first opened, thousands of bamboo-torches have lit up back-yard bars. And upscale establishments with superficially thatched roofs (like the Tonga Room in San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel) have been popular for decades.
No, not those things. It’s little things I mean. You’ve just seen a mai-tai on a passing tray, and suddenly you think of the first mai-tai you had on your first visit to Hawaii. There’s a palm-tree on the breast-pocket of someone’s sport-shirt, and you remember looking up under a real one, to see if the nuts might fall. (Actually, in Hawaii’s public parks, coconuts are removed so they don’t.) Your menu has a less-familiar Hawaiian word, like “haupia,” and because you know that means there’s coconut in it, you start wondering what an airline ticket costs now. Maybe it takes only hearing or reading the word “coconut” . . . ?
There’s a wonderful feature in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s online edition called “The Search for Signs of Hawaiian Life.” People send in digital photos from all over the world — pictures of mainly (and literally) SIGNS: for restaurants, shops and other businesses that somehow echo things Hawaiian. There isn’t much surf on the Adriatic coast, but here’s a picture that a friend took, just outside of Dubrovnik, in Croatia. Makes you want to hang ten, doesn’t it?
Incidentally, in light of my recent blog asking if you are ready to live here, a new book may be a cautionary tale. It’s called “Off the Grid Without a Paddle,” by Lynne Farr, who moved to the Big Island with her husband before they had really checked the place out.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Are You Ready to Live Here? September 16, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel , 3commentsHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Are You Ready to Live Here?
Many people dream of living in Hawaii. Take a few vacations here - maybe even just one - and the idea will certainly cross your mind. But whether you do move here, or just keep dreaming about it, is up to you, because living in Hawaii, full-time, is not for everybody.
In my last blog, I talked about relocating your pets. Now I want to talk about relocating yourself. I can help you do it. But I want you to come with your eyes open. If you are serious about living here, full-time, there are some aspects of life here that you should keep in mind.
The Climate. People who move to Alaska are people who trulyenjoy wintertime. If you move to Hawaii, your favorite season had better be summer, because unless you live more than 2,000 feet above sea level, you’re going to be hot most the time.
And probably wet, too. You may not want to live on the rainy, windward side of the Big Island, but with the exception of our desert-like leeward shoreline, this island is also very humid. Granted, we don’t have a wet-blanket humidity, like Florida or the Gulf Coast, but there’s always moisture in the air, and you should be prepared to deal with mold and mildew.
The Cost. If the reason you like summertime is because you can beat the heat with air-conditioning, remember that electricity on the Big Island already costs nearly 40 cents a kilowatt-hour, and is sure to go higher. Although there are now State income-tax incentives to install solar hot-water systems, many homes here still have electric water-heaters and ranges. Add in what your hair-dryer or your power-tools will consume, and you can expect your monthly electric bill to be gigantic.
Stroll through a local supermarket; most necessities are more expensive here than on the Mainland. And as the price of oil climbed, this past year, fuel-surcharges raised the cost of shipping. And the price of airline tickets. Getting you here also costs more, now, than ever before.
The Isolation. This is something you may not be able to plan for. Hawaii is a very big island, as islands go. But it’s no continent. There are only so many places to drive and things to do, here. How many trips will you really take to the beach, the volcano, or the summit of Mauna Kea? You’re going to spend a lot of time at home, staring out your window at the ocean or the tropical foliage; and believe it or not, you could get bored. You might contract what local folks call “rock fever,” and yearn to get the heck away!
The People. Unlike everywhere else in the U.S., it’s perfectly acceptable, in Hawaii, to talk about race. Nearly everyone here has a multi-cultural background. The various ethnicities of beauty-pageant contestants are proudly and publicly announced. A dinner guest may turn to another and say, “You look Polynesian - are you part-Hawaiian?” (On the Mainland you would never hear: “You’re rather dark - is someone in your family Black?”)
Local people - strangers, even - may ask about your ethnic background. If you are Caucasian, it’s not enough to shrug and say you are a haole - they can see that! You must be prepared to elaborate (”My mother is a German Jew and my father is Polish,” or whatever.) And you will hear plenty of ethnic jokes based on stereotypes; they’re rarely cruel, but they are popular, and you’ll have to take them in stride, especially if it’s your ethnicity that’s being laughed at.
In a multi-cultural environment, too, not everyone will speak English well. You’ll have to get used to hearing “Pidgin”, especially among youngsters. And you must be prepared to slow down, when talking with shopkeepers, service people, and even government officials.
I don’t want discourage you. But living full-time in Hawaii is more complex than it may appear to be when you’re here on vacation. The reality is: some people who move to Hawaii . . . move back.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Bringing Fido and Felix to Hawaii September 10, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel, Resources , 2commentsHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Bringing Fido and Felix to Hawaii
“What about my dog and cat?” a friend asked. “Can they move to Hawaii with me, too?”
These Islands are unique in many ways, but one is that there has never has been a case of rabies here. Since Territorial days, in 1912, the authorities have actively discouraged people from bringing carnivorous mammals here, on the remote chance that they might be infected. And until 2003, this was enforced by a four-month quarantine for all arriving pets (except guide-dogs for the blind). If an animal showed no signs of rabies after 120 days in a Honolulu facility (housed and fed there at the owners’ expense, of course), then it could be released. Owners could visit their pets every day, but that was inconvenient unless they lived nearby, or at least on Oahu.
But most people are unwilling to leave Fido or Felix behind, even with a trusted friend or neighbor. So, what does bringing them here involve? Read the State’s rules-and-regs, and the answers to frequently-asked-questions for all the details. But the basic requirements are that a pet must have had at least two previous rabies vaccinations. A blood sample must be submitted for evaluation, to ensure that it’s free of rabies. And the pet must have an identifying “microchip” to link it with its blood sample.
This means you can forget about bringing a new puppy or kitten. After even the minimum number of shots and checkups that they need to qualify for admission, a dog or cat will be almost a full year old.
There are now quarantine stations on Kauai and the Big Island, and a “five-days-or-less” quarantine option, based on veterinary certification. But still, arriving pets may first have to spend about two days in the Honolulu facility - it’s the only port of entry - to ensure that they meet all the medical requirements.
What about bringing in other animals? Well, wolves and dingos are prohibited, but mainly what Hawaii absolutely does not want here are snakes. Recently, a few brown tree-snakes have hitchhiked here on military transports from Guam, but - fortunately - they have been captured before they could escape and go wild. While they might (might) put a dent in the coqui frog population, they would more likely wipe out the last ground-nesting native birds, and pose a threat to local people, who have never before needed to watch out for snakes in the wild. This proscription is thought to have been instigated by missionaries in the 19th century, who didn’t want the biblical tempter hanging around. But even back then, it was understood that snakes would drastically upset what we, nowadays, call the “fragile ecosystem” of Hawaii.
So, don’t complain about the lengthy quarantine period. It keeps us all safe. And it has also had the (fully intended) consequence of encouraging local adoption. The Islands are teeming with feral cats and dogs who have run away, or who have been deliberately abandoned. Shelters operated by the local Humane Societies, and the various private animal shelters, all offer free or very low-cost spay/neuter services; they do not allow any animal to be adopted without having first been sterilized. And wherever you go, you’ll see bulletin-boards and classified-ad pages offering free cats and dogs. But there are still more potential pets here than there are potential owners.
Anyone who is contemplating a move to Hawaii ought to give serious thought to acquiring their pets here.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Is Hawaii Still a Nation? September 8, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel , 1 comment so farHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Is Hawaii Still a Nation?
Something happened in the 1890s, that has not yet been fully resolved. Last month, while most people in Hawaii were celebrating the 49th anniversary of Statehood, political activists briefly took control of Iolani Palace, in Honolulu, claiming it as the seat of a native Hawaiian government that had been illegally overthrown.
Was it illegal? After King Kalakaua died, his sister Liliuokalani became queen. She wanted to change some laws regarding land ownership, and extend the voting franchise to ordinary Hawaiians who did not own property: actions which would have undercut the disproportionally large influence that a few haole merchants had gained under her brother’s (admittedly sometimes careless) reign. So in 1893, a committee of Honolulu merchants persuaded a U.S. Marine commander to lead a company of armed men from their ship in the harbor, to surround Iolani Palace, while the merchants went inside and formally deposed Liliuokalani.
Furious, Liliuokalani sailed to Washington DC, and persuaded both President Grover Cleveland and many U.S. senators that her overthrow was illegal and should be nullified. But the merchants had allies in the Senate too, and considerable influence in the American economy, regarding the sugar trade. Within a few months, there was a brief armed putsch in Hawaii, which failed to restore Liliuokalani to the throne. Brought up on charges, she was convicted of knowing about the insurrection but failing to report it, and sentenced to house-arrest.
In Washington, despite five years of lobbying and debate, the Senate could not resolve the issue of her sovereignty; and in 1898, President William McKinley - an advocate of American’s “manifest destiny” to grow ever westward - annexed Hawaii.
Whether the queen was a victim or a tyrant, and whether annexation was a blessing or a curse, is still debated today. To make her case in Washington, Liliuokalani wrote her autobiography, Hawaii’s Story (Mutual Publications, facsimile edition, 1990); and many subsequent books have followed her lead and taken her side.
The annexationists’ case is especially well made by Thurston Twigg-Smith, grandson of one of the merchant committee’s leaders, in Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the Facts Matter? (Goodale Publishing, 1998).
Feature films have never covered the drama, but The Trial of Liliuokalani is a provocative stage play - first mounted in Hawaii, in the 1970s - that playwright Maurice Zimring based on court transcripts.
A bill has now been introduced to the U.S. Senate, by Hawaii Senator Dan Akaka, that would grant native Hawaiians much the same status under law as Native American Indians have today, including the right to form a quasi-governmental organization. It has plenty of opponents, who claim it would create a race-based division of the citizenry; and the “Akaka bill” was tabled in the last congressional session. But Hawaii’s Republican governor favors the bill; and passing it is now a plank in the U.S. Democratic Party’s election platform.
It’s possible, therefore, that when the 50th anniversary of Statehood rolls around, next August, the nature of the day’s events may be rather different than they have ever been before.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - The Great Outdoor Circle August 11, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Updates , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
The Great Outdoor Circle
In my last blog I mentioned Hawaii’s billboard laws in passing. But they deserve a blog of their own . . . and a round of applause.
They may be unique in the United States in that they forbid the erection of billboards, not just in some places but everywhere in the Islands. And the idea of banning billboards didn’t come from “green” politicians in the 1990s, nor from hippies in the 1960s. The movers-and-shakers who successfully lobbied the government to ban billboards were women - housewives, mainly - and they did it more than 80 years ago!
They were members of a club called The Outdoor Circle, that had been formed in 1912 with the goal of keeping Hawaii green and beautiful. Some were descended from Hawaiian royalty, but many were the (mostly haole) wives of Hawaii’s mostly haole) richest and most politically influential men. Like “women’s clubs” elsewhere, the Outdoor Circle had gotten trees planted along streets and avenues. But for the women of Hawaii, that was not enough.
Despite the revenues that billboard advertising would generate, and the likelihood that billboards would draw customers to their enterprises, the businessmen of Hawaii agreed with their women-folk that, to preserve the Islands’ unique beauty, they would support laws forbidding large outdoor advertisements and severely limiting other kinds of signage.
The first of these laws was passed in 1927, and more were added as new technologies, such as neon lighting, became available. Additional laws were enacted in 1948 to prohibit aerial advertising, such as sky-writing and the towing of banners by aircraft.
Today, there are no billboards even in the densest commercial or industrial zones; and strict regulations limit the size of signs on a building that proclaim what businesses are inside. The Outdoor Circle has also taken a stand against “Admobile” trucks that don’t haul anything except a rotating set of billboard-size ads on their flanks.
Laws covering other fields comply with the billboard laws here, too. There are size limits on electioneering signs for candidates and issues; and as I noted in my last blog, after an election has been held, those signs have to come down. Under real estate law, the “For Sale” sign in front of a house or property must be removed after escrow closes.
The Outdoor Circle’s current mission statement is: “To protect Hawaii’s scenic environment by advocating for the planting and protection of trees, burying of utility lines, promoting recycling, and fighting for a billboard-free Hawaii, among other issues.” The Big Island branch of the Outdoor Circle is headquartered in Waimea.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND: Battling Those Weed Trees June 25, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel, Updates , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Battling Those Weed Trees
A few months ago, I wrote about a tree that was brought here from Brazil
and that has gone terribly wild. It’s officially psidium cattleianum, but commonly called “strawberry guava”or waiawi (”vy-vee”), and it’s extraordinarily invasive: seeds from the fruit sprout easily wherever they fall, and are spread by birds and pigs; if the tree is cut down, it quickly regenerates from stumps and fallen branches, ultimately forming a dense thicket in which nothing else grows.
Researchers estimate that waiawi is now entrenched in more than 800,000 acres on the Big Island, and though its range may ultimately be limited by drier microclimates and higher alititudes, it is still in-filling where it’s already established, especially in Hamakua and Puna, where it squeezes out practically everything else, especially native and endemic species. It also draws fruit-flies, expanding their range, which frustrates efforts to cultivate more desireable fruit.
To fight this weed tree, the Hawaii Dept. of Land and Natural Resources, the Hawaii Dept. of Agrictulture, and the Forest Service of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture propose to introduce a Brazilian insect called tectococcus ovatus,which severely weakens - but doesn’t kill - waiawi. It tunnels into the leaves, forcing the tree to make “galls” that contain the pest, instead of making new leaves. This is expected to slow the spread of waiwai, allowing people more time to cut thickets down and keep them down. The insect has no wings, and can move to adjacent trees only on the breeze; moreover, tests prove that it can live only on strawberry guava and on no other plant; so the release of this biological control agent is considered very safe.
Waiawi does have some practical uses. The fresh fruit, being in the guava family, are easily made into tasty jams and jellies; the wood, like other fruit-woods, makes an excellent smoke for curing meat and fish; and the trunks - if thick and straight enough - can turned into hardwood poles. So there is a small vocal contingent here, mainly in Puna, that objects to introducing tectococcus, in the name of “saving” the waiawi.
But, the USDA counters this misguided effort by pointing out that, if anyone actually wants to cultivate waiawi, or keep wild stands from being infected, they can do what farmers do for any other orchard crop: i.e., protect it with ordinary (preferably organic) insecticidal spray.
There is another invasive weed tree here that was introduced about the same time as waiawi; but it is currently being decimated without human intervention. The rose-apple (syzygium jambos), though not quite as aggressive as waiawi, tends to spread out more, and to form dark “tree-tunnel” arches over back-country roads. The fruit is rather dry: its “rose” being more of a scent than a flavor.
But rose apple trees are being attacked by a “rust fungus” disease that kills new growth and thereby starves the tree of energy. In a couple of years, many stands of rose apple will be bare and dead - and likely will be overtaken by waiawi, which is often found in the same areas.
There is a small but real danger that this rust could spread to other trees in the same (myrtle) family. The worst-case scenario would be a jump to native ohia. So Hawaii forest managers are urging the state to restrict new imports of nursery trees and other plant material that can harbor the rust. For more information about the rust,
click here.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - The First Fruits of Summer June 18, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
The First Fruits of Summer
Subtropical Hawaii does have seasons; and in the late Spring and early Summer, two of our best fruits come ripe: lychee, from China, and mango from the Indian subcontinent.
Anyone who patronized Chinese restaurants in bygone days may remember eating sweet, dried “litchi nuts,” which are to fresh lychee as raisins are to grapes, or prunes to plums. Lychee are almost never found in the wild: they’re raised in orchards of distinctive small trees with wavy, light-green leaves, that require nurturing to produce quality fruits in quantity.
Ripe lychee are about the size of golf balls, with red, rough-textured skin that you peel off by hand. The translucent white fruit tastes like an especially juicy grape. At about twenty to the pound, you can expect to pay three dollars for a pound of lychee. The original Chinese varieties had large seeds; but twentieth-century agronomists developed varieties with small, “shriveled” seeds, that enable each fruit to have more meat; so you may see those labeled “small seed,” in farmers’ market stalls, and they may be priced a bit higher. Like cherries, canned lychee retain almost all of the fresh fruit’s flavor; so if you can’t get to Hawaii during lychee season, buy a can from the “Asian” section of Mainland supermarkets.
Around this time of year, too, local farmers offer a related fruit called longon. Smaller than lychee, and with a stiff, brown skin, the fruit is much sweeter, though in a cloying sort of way; some people construe it as being rather more aromatic than flavorful. Later in the year, another relative, called rambutan, will come ripe: it has a “hairy” skin, and a taste similar to lychee though not as juicy. Rambutan also has a longer season and a longer shelf-life, so it has become extremely popular in local orchards.
The smallest mangoes are the so-called “common” variety, and they are easily spotted from the roadside. The tree is long-lived and enormous: 80 feet or higher, with 30-foot spreads, dark leaves tinged with red, and an abundance of small fruit that depend from long stems. Saplings can sprout from fallen fruit, but in general, wherever you see a mature tree now, there is or was a settlement there.
Mangoes are related - believe it or not - to poison ivy and poison oak. If you have never eaten one before, you’ll quickly discover if you are hyper-sensitive or allergic to them: you may develop a swarm of (harmless) red welts around your lips that local folks call “mango mouth.” With most people, however, this does not happen.
Common mangoes can and do ripen into sweet, juicy delights, but a few varieties have a taste reminiscent of turpentine. The trees being so big, common mangoes are also hard to pick - you need a long pole with a net or basket on the end - and may well have been stung by fruit-flies before you can even get to them. So, many are picked before they’re ripe and turned into chutney, or prepared as savory treats: local recipes for “green” mango famously include marinating the slices in soy sauce (shoyu).
It’s the cultivated mangoes that are the most consistently sweet, and while there are, technically, hundreds of varieties, they fall into just a few general categories that you’ll find in local farmers’ markets right now.
Closest to “common” in size and taste, with the same greenish skin color, are the slightly elongated “cigar” mangoes. Several varieties are larger and longer still, but have a distinctive yellow-orange skin, much like the color of the fruit itself. (In other countries, such as The Philippines, these are the mangoes that are commercially dried and packaged; and except for the absence of juice, dried mangoes taste almost exactly like fresh mangoes.) The largest mangoes are the Hayden variety, which can grow big enough for two people to share. Expect to pay about fifty cents for a common or cigar mango; a dollar apiece for the larger yellow type, and three or four dollars for a giant Hayden.
All mangoes have large, flat seeds; here’s how to get the most meat out of them: Slice the fruit the “long” way, close to either side of the seed, to yield two cupped-hand-shaped halves. Set those halves aside and peel the strip of rind from around the seed; slice off whatever meat you can, into a bowl, and then (as local folks do) suck the rest of the meat from the edges of the seed before discarding it. Now, for each of the two halves, make tic-tac-toe on the flat side with a knife, but don’t pierce through to the skin. Turn the half-mango inside-out, and you produce neat chunks of juicy mango that you can peel or slice off, into your bowl.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - The Naked Truth about the Kona Coffee “Calendar Girls” June 10, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Is That Kona Coffee Really from Kona?
Between about 800 and 1,500 feet mauka of the Kona Coast, a lot of folks have been growing coffee for more than 100 years, and their beans enjoy a reputation for delivering a high quality buzz. But right now, growers in the Kona Coffee Farmers’ Association (KCFA) are buzzing like angry bees: they want the words “Kona coffee” to mean just that.
You may not know this, but if as little as ten percent of the beans in a blend were grown in Kona, it can be labeled and sold as “Kona coffee.” The KCFA wants that designation to be allowed only if 100 percent of the beans are Kona-grown; the label of anything else should prominently include the word “Blend,” and list the actual percentage of Kona beans.
Until recently, most Kona coffee beans got a fairly light “American” style of roasting, giving “Kona coffee” a reputation for being on the weak side. That may be why vendors have been blending it with more robust beans from elsewhere, although that, in turn, has made consumers skeptical of anything labeled “Kona coffee.” In fact, roasting Kona beans in the darker “French” or darkest “Italian” styles cancels any perceived weakness.
Almost anyone in Hawaii can grow coffee . . . as an ornamental: it has shiny dark green leaves and bright red berries. But getting a decent cup-a-joe from a couple of plants is far more work than it’s worth. To oversimplify: the berries have to be picked at just the right stage of ripeness, then dried and roasted with expertise. Coffee-farming is very labor-intensive, which helps to explain why a pound of 100 percent Kona coffee typically sells for more than twice the price of supermarket coffees.
But it’s that “premium” status that truth-in-labeling would help to protect.
Kona was not the first place on the Big Island where coffee was raised as a commercial crop. That was in Ola’a - now called Keaau - in Puna. Some coffee is raised there still, and some comes from up the Hamakua coast near Honokaa. But mauka Kona is the Big Island’s major microclimate for coffee. And the KCFA is part of a worldwide movement to ensure the veracity of “local” labeling. “Champagne” has to come from Éperney, France, and anything resembling it that’s made anywhere else has to be labeled “sparkling wine.” Any cheese with veins of azure mold can be labeled “blue cheese,” but only the dairy farmers of Stilton, England can call it “Stilton.”
To drum up publicity for this campaign, the KCFA has published a 2009 calendar called “The Naked Truth About Kona Coffee.” Inspired by an English stunt (which was celebrated in a movie called “Calendar Girls”), a dozen women who actually farm coffee in Kona posed for its pages - yes, in the nude. Okay, most of them are … “of a certain age.” And by posing with strategically-placed tractors or farm implements, none of them shows much skin. But hey! They’re really naked!
If you want to help them ensure that calling something “Kona coffee” is more than just a marketing gimmick, you might want to hang their calendar on your wall, or - at least - check the fine print on the label of your next bag of “Kona coffee.”
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - A Mental Exercise: How BIG is the Big Island? May 15, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel , 1 comment so farHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - A Mental Exercise: How BIG is the Big Island?
By Kelly Moran
Say “island” to most people, and their first thought may well the cartoon cliché of a tiny “desert” island, whose lone palm tree barely shades a hapless castaway. But when we, here, consider the word “island,” we probably think of our hugely bigger home, and have a picture in our minds of how big it is. But the immensity of Hawaii is not easy for visitors or newcomers to visualize. So here’s a mental exercise: pick up each of the other islands and drop them onto Hawaii, and you’ll see how much bigger it really is.
Start by turning Maui about 90 degrees clockwise, and moving it about 50 miles to the southeast, so the larger, eastern part is over Hamakua, and the smaller western part over North Kohala (that is, over Mauna Kea and the Kohala mountains, respectively. Maui being the second-largest island in the chain, it does (pardon the pun) cover a lot of ground. West Maui is pretty much the same size as North Kohala, and with comparable microclimates (wet valleys to windward; dry beaches to leeward). East Maui is about as big as Hamakua from Honokaa to Hilo, including the summit of Mauna Kea. But Maui, being the second-largest island in the chain, is the only one that can fit so snugly over Hawaii.
When you’re in Honolulu or Waikiki, and especially when you drive to the Leeward side or the North Shore, Oahu seems pretty big. But lift Oahu out of the ocean and set it down in Puna, and you’ll still see plenty of Puna sticking out all around. Coincidentally, Oahu has much of the most expensive – and Puna much of the least expensive – real estate in the islands.
Because Kauai is the geologically oldest of the inhabited islands, its landmass is more irregular than that of the others; so, driving around Kauai takes longer than you think it ought to, which leads you to imagine that (like Oahu) it’s bigger than it really is. But try placing Kauai on top of the Ka‘u district of Hawaii, and it will not extend even from Volcano to South Point. Ka‘u would be just about covered if you placed Lanai, Molokai, Kaho‘olawe and Ni‘ihau there as well.
But that would still leave uncovered the entirety of West Hawaii, comprising the districts of South Kohala and North and South Kona, which make up fully half of the Big Island. Thus, you will have proven that, as the guidebooks all attest, Hawaii really is twice as big as all the other islands put together!
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Getting Here is Getting Harder April 28, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Getting Here is Getting Harder
Flying to and from the Big Island has long been a no-brainer; now it’s something you have to think about and plan ahead.
At the end of March, Aloha Airlines suddenly went out of business. The announcement came just as the huge Merrie Monarch Festival week was starting in Hilo, forcing many hula troupes and fans to scramble for passage.
And as if that wasn’t a hard enough knock, ATA Airlines went belly-up a few days later, leaving passengers stranded both in Hawaii and on the Mainland. For Hilo, that knock doubled the pain, as ATA had been flying Hilo’s only non-stop Mainland service - to Oakland, where ATA had a partnership with and connections to Southwest Airlines.
It’s true that Aloha had been operating under bankruptcy protection for a few years. And it’s true that the rising cost of jet fuel is forcing many carriers to cut back on redundant flights, and raise ticket prices. But neither Aloha nor ATA telegraphed a warning of impending collapse to their own people in Hawaii - not to crews, back-office staffers, baggage-handlers . . . nobody got a heads-up.
Hawaiian Airlines immediately added flights, including some to the Mainland destinations ATA had been serving, especially Las Vegas; and also offered free interisland travel, on a standby basis, to Aloha’s ticketed passengers. Other stranded people found seats on the small interisland carriers, Island Air and Go, which - so far - continue to fly.
At the Hilo and Keahole (Kona) airports, half of the facilities are now empty and idle. This, even though both have rather attractive terminals. Hilo’s lounge area has classic, koa lanai furniture. And Keahole - though it’s scheduled to get a major face-lift in the next year or so - is still delightfully old-fashioned, with outdoor wheel-around passenger ramps.
Unfortunately, neither airport is likely to be served by more flights or a new carrier, any time soon.
