Author Archives: Rob

Evil Frigates

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Early in our visit to Kauai, we paid a visit to the lighthouse and wildlife refuge at Kilauea Point.  We were there to see the lighthouse and the surrounding coast but the wildlife element was an interesting addition.  There were tons of birds in the area.  Along the cliffs we saw a lot of Red Footed Boobies.  These are a pretty decent sized bird that is akin to a small albatross.  The boards also mentioned the presence of frigate-birds.  These weren’t close in but appeared to be out towards the lighthouse.

Once we got out on the peninsula on which the lighthouse sits, we became a lot more familiar with the frigate-birds.  It turns out that they are something I have seen on one of the TV nature programs that the BBC produces in great detail every five years or so.  Frigate-birds are a prehistoric looking creature.  Their wings make them look like a pterodactyl and their beaks have a most evil looking hook on the end.

The thing that the TV show explained and that we got to see in action is their preferred method of getting food.  The boobies head off out to see to catch fish.  They bring the fish back in a pouch in their throat and then use it to feed the chicks.  The frigate-birds are not so interested in making much of an effort so they hang around and wait for the boobies to return.  They then attack them trying to make them spit out their catch.  Nice, huh?

Anyway, we got to see this at close range.  The frigate-birds would pick a target and go for them, sometimes in pairs.  The attack would continue for some time as the boobies tried desperately to get out of the way.  If they got close enough to the shore, that seemed to be good enough and they could get back to their roost.  Otherwise, the frigate-birds would be pretty tenacious.  Quite something to witness at close quarters!

Surfing in Paradise

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If I were to ask you what sport you would associate with Hawaii, it might depend on your age as to what you choose.  If you are a bit older, it might be ocean going canoeing (is that how you spell it?) that you think of, perhaps accompanied by the theme to a 70s TV police show.  However, if you aren’t in that group, your choice is more likely to be surfing.

Did I go surfing while in Hawaii?  Ah, no.  Did lots of other people go surfing while we were there?  Oh yes.  Half the vehicles we passed seemed to have a board on the roof or so it seemed.  There were plenty of places to try your skills since most beaches seemed to have breaking surf in some areas.  The large numbers of reefs might, of course, make some of those areas a touch risky.

Anyway, I didn’t spend a lot of time tracking down the surfers.  Instead, we saw a bunch of people closer inshore not always on full surf boards.  Here are some shots of the action we saw.  One day I will have to make more of an effort to go out and shoot some surfing since it makes some great shots!

Global Aviation Resource Piece

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Realized that I haven’t been totally comprehensive in plugging one of my pieces.  If you don’t follow Facebook or Twitter (and in that case how do you even know that this is here?) then you won’t have seen a piece show up on Global Aviation Resource’s site that I wrote about Mauna Loa Helicopters.

 

Click on this link and you can see the article.

Na’Pali Coast

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One of the most stunning areas of the island of Kauai is the northwest coast, known as the Na’Pali coast.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on your point of view!) this part of the island is really hard to access.  There are no roads that go out to the coast.  There are hiking trails to get you there but these do require a fair amount of commitment on your part if you want to get there.

You can get boat trips to take you along the coast.  These trips are not particularly cheap but they do appear to provide an interesting experience.  We chose not to take one on this trip.  Originally it was part of the plan but the week was starting to get a little overloaded and this was supposed to be a vacation.

We did, however, have a plan for seeing the coast and this, I would suggest, is probably the best way to see it.  Go by air!  There are many helicopter operators on the island that provide sightseeing flights.  You can research which ones are of interest to you and why.  We went with Mauna Loa Helicopters.  They have smaller aircraft which we could charter for just ourselves.  No need to share the ride with anyone else.  Also, they are one of only tour operators that provide flights with the doors off.  This certainly makes for a better photographic experience.

The tour covered the whole island but here I shall focus on the Na’Pali coast.  You can choose the time of day for making the trip and this coast was the primary reason for me choosing a later afternoon flight.  We had a 4:30 departure from Lihue and the flight lasted a little over an hour.  Sunset was about 6:30 so, by the time we reached the Na’Pali coast, we were well into the gorgeous light.

The time of day can be a bit of a lottery since clouds can build up later in the day.  Indeed, while we were further inland, there was a lot of cloud around that flattened out the light in some areas.  Once, we reached the coast, however, the sky was clear and the light was gorgeous.  To drop across the coast and see the beautiful scenery was a stunning experience.  While I was shooting a lot on this trip, I did make the effort every once in a while to put the camera down and just soak in the outstanding views.

We ran along the coast and explored some of the deeper canyons and valleys that were on the coast.  We saw the rock formation known as the Cathedrals.  There were isolated beaches accessible only from the water and lots of cave along the rocky coastline.  We even saw one of the tour boats.  That was great because it reminded you of the scale of everything you were seeing.

Kauai is a beautiful island and the Na’Pali coast is one of the most beautiful parts.  If you are there, I strongly recommend and aerial tour.  It may be expensive but, if you have made the effort to go that far, don’t miss out on this experience.

Spouting Horn

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During our time on Kauai, we spent a fair amount of time with things planned to do and lots of activities lined up.  However, it was a vacation so having a bit of time to gently amble about the place and look at the pretty stuff was still part of the schedule.  One day we took a trip to the south side of the island to see what was down there.  This side of the island is more heavily developed for tourism but it did have some cool stuff to see.

One such feature is Spouting Horn.  This is a hole through the rock that funnels incoming waves and forces them out of a blowhole.  Depending on the tide and the strength of the waves, this can produce a waterspout of over 50 feet. Apparently, there used to be more than one spout with the other one producing a far larger plume.  However, this sprayed salt water onto a small part of the local plantation and reduced the crop yield so the plantation owner had explosives dropped in the hole and now it doesn’t do much at all.

There is another hole nearby that produces a sighing sound as the waves come in.  You can read the local legends while you are there about the creature trapped under the rock and why it is unhappy.  While I suspect this isn’t entirely true, it certainly does make quite a groaning sound as the water comes in which adds to the overall effect.

There is a plateau of rock in this area around the blowholes and they are certainly not keen on you going out there.  The books are full of stories of people getting swept off by a higher than average wave or even getting swept into the blowholes themselves.  Knowing had unpredictable the see can be, I don’t doubt this can and has happened.  I am not so desperate to be close that I am going to try out getting closer.  It all looked pretty good from the viewing platform.  However, one chap was out there while we were there taking a look around.  I hope he found it enjoyable.  I think he lived.

Fantastic Flora

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While the scenery on Kauai is dramatic and interesting, the plant life there is quite something too.  Since I am not well traveled enough to see what other Pacific locations have to offer, I have no idea whether all of these things are unique to the Hawaiian chain or even Kauai with one exception.  Our visit to the one of several botanical gardens on the island did explain how one plant was native to the islands and rather rare.

I can’t remember the name of the plants off hand but it looks like a baseball bat with a cabbage on the top.  Not a graceful description I know but if you look at it below, I think you will agree it is a fair one.

Some of the plants are just colorful, others seem to have interesting structures.  Probably some effort to get to good sources of water make for the interesting shapes.  To be honest, I don’t care too much.  I am just interested in seeing them.

Not all of them were so unusual.  I include below a picture of a tree down on a beach.  The ground underneath it has gradually eroded away but this doesn’t seem to have bothered to tree one bit.  It now just stands a little above everything around it.

Here are a couple of other shots to finish off what we saw.

Predictable Sunsets

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The trip to Hawaii was focused on Kauai but also included some of Oahu.  This provides ample opportunity to get some interesting photos.  Needless to say, I took a lot of pictures while we were there.  One of the sights that we were treated to almost every day was a great sunset.  Not only was the sun usually clearly visible as it set but the likelihood of some medium level cloud to catch the last light was high.

Therefore, I was totally predictable and took a bunch of sunset shots while we were away.  I know, what more obvious and formulaic a topic could there be?  How cheesy?  Absolutely right.  However, I am happy to defend myself because a) they were gorgeous and b) I was there and there was no way I wasn’t going to shoot them!

The sun dropping down was always a great sight but the impact on the clouds around us was equally impressive.  I must have spent a ton of time just shooting various cloud formations as their colors changed and dusk came upon us.  I thank goodness for digital as you can experiment to your hearts content.

The Chicken Secret

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We have just spent a week on Kauai having a great time exploring a fantastic island. I will cover aspects of the trip in coming posts but today I want to cover the big story that no-one tells you about.

We read many books and websites when researching the trip to Kauai. They were full of lots of good information about the island but not one told you the number one theme. Chickens! The island has thousands of chickens roaming wild. The normal predators are not present on Kauai so they flourish.

We arrived at the airport and a family including some very small chicks were walking across the parking lot. Someone mentioned it to the shuttle bus driver and he said they were everywhere. He wasn’t wrong!

Tracking Unusual Aircraft??

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Okay, I will admit it right up front, this is a silly post.  However, it is something that amused me.  If dumb stuff is not your thing, look away now!

I was shopping recently in Harry and David getting some of their good tasting but probably not too good for the waistline snacks.  They had some gummy candy called Jetfighter Gummies.  What could be better for someone like me.  Bought a pack and took them home.

When I opened them up, not only where they gummy jets, there was a selection of different aircraft, all reproduced with a surprising amount of detail!  I checked through and they had a B-2, an F-117, an F/A-18, and SR-71, an F-15 and an F-22.  Each was reproduced in some detail including panel lines.  I was amazed.  After eating a bunch of them, I thought I ought to reproduce them to prove I wasn’t making this all up.

The accompanying shots are the fleet as it was left by the time I got around to taking the shots.  Some of the remainders were not the best of their type and all of the F-15s had been eaten by then – or withdrawn due to fuselage cracking, who can be sure?  There were still F-22s on the ground so nothing inaccurate about that!

Might have to pop back at some point and get some more.  I will have a bigger air force than the UK if I buy a couple more packs!