Category: Life

The sculpture garden formed when lava flowed over trees. The trees, it seems had enough life in them to support the lava as it flowed around them, formed tubes and lava and then burn the encased trees … resulting in these sculptures … imprints of trees made of lava. It is hard to capture in…

Today we drove up to Mauna Loa – the sprawling mountain across from Mauna Kea. Its an impressive drive up … a long wavy road that crosses through vast rough textured lava fields … it did not feel as steep as the road up to Mauna Kea … its impressive feature was its length and…

We seem to have found a rhythm of one day intense and one day soft. Today was soft … two beaches. We were able to get close by car to the first … and went swimming in it: ​ ​ A short hike through a lava field brought us to the second where we were…

Maune Kea is one of the two volcanoes on the Big Island, the one with all the observatories on top of it. We passed through the clouds on the way up. This was the view down from the visitors center at ~9000 feet where we stopped to acclimatize. ​ After anotherr few steep miles we…

After the long day in Volcano National Park we went for a different kind of day … a less-traveled spot … about a mile walk from the coastal highway brought us to a beach (with another rich and shameless deserted villa) that brough us to a picturesque lagoon where, together with the local turtles, we…

We took a long drive down to Volcano National Park where we started with a hike in Iki (=small) crater. Later in the visitor center I learned that we were walking on what was a lake of lava less then 100 years ago. I’m not sure the images can begin to capture the contrasts of…

A short flight brought us over to the Big Island. From the plane landing it became apparent that this is a very different island. First the powerful, raw, rough & rugged black lava that dominates. Then the large and full private jet parking lot at the airport! We are staying at what is the most…

Yesterday we started out with a surprising waterfall … small but alive and vital … and with the added playfulness of the people who were jumping into its pond and climbing out around it. I found a quiet spot just before the waterfall to dip my feet in a gentle flow   Then we revisited…

After a first waterfall (poor light, no good pictures) we caught up with a group finishing a kayaking trip: then a waterfall with decent light (not limited access … trails were closed) then a beach … with end-of-the-day light and we got back to the resort just in time for a sunset … mostly from…

On the way we passed the harbor and saw a cruise-ship in it for the day … these things are HUGE … And then drove all the way around the island to the last beach, just before the cliffs on the other side of the Na Pali Coast. A beautiful 12 mile stretch of beaches.…

The Na Pali coast is, I’ve been told, one of the highlights, if not THE highlight of Kauai. I am not a fan of hiking so I cannot enthusiastically get behind that … many years ago when I visited  New Zealand and arrived at such a famous coast + trail I chose to skydive over…

Today’s weather forecast changed our plans, the hike has been delayed … and we did some more beach-hopping. First was a beach not far from our resort … in this one I stayed by myself a bit and went for a dip … the water was warm, clear, shallow (static) and waves with power (dynamic):…

I’ll let the images do the talking: and another beach … with a volleyball competition a harbor and a sunset (on the west side of the island)  

Today we took it easier … checked out a few local beaches and did a bit of scouting in preparation for tomorrow’s hike. Had a look around the resort we are staying at … dominated by a golf course (that is woven between numerous resorts) … it is new to me … so at the…

First hike in Kauai in Waimea Canyon 🙂 we started by driving 3/4 around the island clockwise and stopped at a view vantage points to get an overview of the area we would be hiking: The top of the waterfall in the top-left hand corner was our destination (which means that we would not really…