2/21 Our Last Day Off

2/21 Our Last Day Off

We woke to a cloudy day, but so far it seems that the rain will hold off. We chatted with L.B., the handy man, and he said that there were flash flood warnings across the island yesterday. The forecast calls for more rain today, but that is the typical forecast so we will see. We took our leftover pizza for lunch and headed down the mountain to see if maybe the sun is out on the coast. Just a short way down the road, we saw a young couple with big backpacks hitchhiking. We stopped to give them a ride. They are from Germany and had been camping and hiking on the mountain for the last two days. They were on their way to Waimea to another campground and were meeting friends there before they fly home on Wednesday. Before coming to Kauai, they had been in Australia for six weeks. They are both physical therapists. We stopped at a viewpoint as it was fairly clear (note the large waterfall from all of the rain last night) and then continued down the road. We dropped them off at their campground and are now at the Cottages to post our blogs. I will post this short one today also and then you won’t hear from us again until Friday when we will be in Oahu. I do hope it is a bit less rainy over there, but at least here we don’t have to shovel! By the way, in the short time we have been sitting here, it has started to rain again!

2/20 The Other End of the Island

We decided to postpone our shower time to let the Cornell kids rotate through the bathroom as they we leaving. They got off at 6:45 and then we got showered and dressed and headed for the North coast. We ate a small breakfast in the car and got up to the top of the island quite quickly. I think it was a combination of being Sunday and being early on the road, which helped. We drove to the end of the road (now we have been to both ends as far as you can go), which is Ha’ena Beach and the beginning of the Kalalau trail. The beginning of the trail was quite steep and rocky (and tricky in spots where the path was wet), but it eventually flattened out a bit. We found a few good scenic spots to stop and take a picture and at one spot I took a picture of an emergency helicopter landing spot (see pic). It was quite tiny and on the edge of the cliff. I would have been scared to death to get on it there, but I guess if you were badly injured and needed a lift off of the cliffs, you wouldn’t care how you got down. We walked on for a bit (the whole trail is 11 miles, but we had no intention of doing the whole thing- see photo of the other side of the Na Pali coast) and then turned around and walked down with a couple from the Boston area. They are recently retired and we had a nice time chatting with them. We walked down the road a bit and took a picture of a huge sea cave next to the road and then got back to the car. There were lots of people waiting for parking by this time and our spot was taken immediately. We drove back to Hanalei and stopped at a viewpoint overlooking the taro fields (see pic). We were going to stop for lunch on the road, but it was quite busy by this time and all of the café parking lots were full so we ate a few crackers that we had brought with us in the car. By this time, it had started raining and we drove back towards camp. It poured in places and even though it was only 3:00 we decided to stop at Brick Oven Pizza for takeout to eat when we got up the mountain. We were so lucky because the rain stopped for about 5 minutes as we pulled in and we were able to unload the car without getting soaked. We ate an early dinner and since it was so cold in the great room, decided to go to our room and read in bed. We climbed into bed at 5 and it started absolutely pouring. I thought that maybe we were going to get the whole 90 inches of rain in one night! It finally stopped a little after 8 and shortly thereafter we shut out the lights. It felt a little weird to be at the camp as we were the only ones there.

2/19 Pig Hunting and the Beach

We woke up to a slightly cloudy, but otherwise nice day here at camp. We were going down to explore the shore some more a bit later after breakfast, but two of the students, Mike from St. Lucia and Carl from Long Island, had been invited by Jim Cassell to go pig hunting. Rather than have someone drive them down the mountain and then turn around and come back up (about 1 ½ hours out to the farm and back) we said that we would go a little early and drop them off. The boys were very excited, neither had been hunting before and Carl had never ridden a horse. It started raining when we were at the farm, so Dave loaned Mike his Australian hat. We then took a leisurely ride and stopped along the way to see whatever looked interesting. Dave stopped at a shop and bought a new cap as he had left the one he brought on the plane (it had paint on it anyway). We stopped to look at the roiling waves where the mouth of the Waimea River meets the ocean. Eben says he has seen sharks there in the past, but we saw only a mom and her two girls fishing and playing in the sand. We stopped at the Russian fort, which was a star shaped Russian fort built in 1816. Only the foundations of the walls and buildings remain. We then stopped at Plantation Cottages to post yesterday’s blog and to check email. The rain had stopped and it was getting quite warm (80) and sunny. We decided to drive to a further beach (17 miles long) and eat a quick lunch (see photo). We enjoyed watching the waves (about 4 to 5 feet) and the people boogie boarding. We then decided to drive to the end of the road at this end of the island, which is at mile 35. The road winds past the Pacific Missile Range facility. Apparently their equipment is so sophisticated, they can detect a bottle bobbling in the waves! There is a dirt road that goes about 4 miles further, but with all of the rain we have had lately, the puddles looked as if they could swallow our car! Coming back into town we stopped at a local souvenir shop to look around. We had passed a huge gathering of people just before getting there and asked the owner what was going on. She thought they were hosting a bazaar today so we decided to go. As we were approaching the gate, I noticed some funeral flowers on the ground so I asked a man near the entrance what the event was. I was a funeral. After the church service it is customary to host a party celebrating the deceased’s life. I’m glad we didn’t go in and embarrass ourselves! We stopped at the Post Office to send a few more postcards. I took a picture of a statue of Capt. Cook (a distant relative - see photo) who first landed on the Hawaiian Islands here in Waimea in 1776. Later, he died on the big island when cannibals ate him. We also stopped at the Big Save to get a loaf of bread as we are out. We are going to try to finish our food this week, as we can’t take it with us when we fly to Oahu. We hadn’t heard from the pig hunters for a ride back up the mountain, so we left the shore and went back to camp. We read for a little bit and then Dave cooked dinner and washed dishes (remember the stitches?). We are all done and the students are just starting to cook. They are making fajitas and rice tonight. After dinner they will be cleaning up around here as they are leaving at 6:45 in the morning. We will have to figure out a shower schedule, as our plan is also to leave early in order to get up on the North Shore that we didn’t finish exploring last weekend.

2/18 A Small Adventure

For some reason we had trouble getting on line with Navigator and had to switch to Safari and the type on the blog is HUGE! - so sorry about that. I tried to put on some extra pix to make up for the not getting any on yesterday. The first picture is of Spouting Horn, then Scharlie, a fifth grader in my group holding a

ginger that she had dug up. The next pic is of a "moss dinosaur" that I spotted on the Alakai swamp trail. You also can see the boardwalk that we walked on (and I fell on). The next picture is one of Dave standing near a huge Banyan tree on the grounds of the Plantation Cottages. The last one is of my group from Cornell taken on the day we dug ginger in the forest. And now for the news. We woke to a beautiful day. After breakfast, we spent some time packing up (Smidgie and Alastair to their car and Dave and I back over to the main building). We also cleaned the cottage so that the new people coming in this evening would have a clean space to live. We said goodbye to the Macphails who are going to stay tonight in Lihue and then will fly over to Oahu to visit their daughter for 10 days before flying home. We then changed into shorts and went down to Plantation Cottages to post our blogs. Unfortunately, we were short of battery power so we didn’t get to put any pictures on the blog, but we will try to make up for it this weekend. We did, however, bump into the Macphails who were there checking their email. After we all finished with the computers, we decided to stay for lunch at the Plantation. We said goodbye again and then went to the Post Office to drop off some mail. We then took a leisurely drive down a nearby coast road. The temps were perfect – 85 and sunny. We discovered a lovely beach community and then stopped at a place called Spouting Horn. It was a blowhole in lava rock on the oceanfront. Apparently, it used to shoot up 200 feet, but the manager of a cane production company in the 30’s was upset that the salt spray was ruining about 10 acres of the sugar cane so he had some of his crew throw some dynamite down the hole. Now it only shoots up about 20 feet – still pretty neat though. We were going to go a little further, but it was 4:00 and we were about an hour away from the camp. We started up the mountain and, not unexpectedly, it began raining about 2 miles up the road. We went through some fairly heavy rain and quite a bit of run off on the road, but fortunately it was just sprinkling when we got to camp. We were the only ones here so we decided to do laundry while the machine was free and then ate dinner before the students got back. There are 15 students, 2 professors, and 2 children of one of the professors. Actually the students just got back (8:30) and they had eaten dinner on the shore. We will chat a bit with them and then head for bed after everyone has rotated through the bathroom. I’m not sure what we will do tomorrow, but we will definitely go down to the shore to enjoy the sun and shore.

2/17 The Garden and the Swamp

We went back to the garden today to finish our weeding and to put some taller stakes in the corners of the second garden so that we they get more fencing, the project can be done. We also chose a dozen plants from the nursery to plant in the garden. Now that it has been weeded and replanted with natives, it looks 100% better. It was a bit sprinkley, but not raining so we decided to go do weeding along the Alakoi Swamp Trail. Dave wasn't feeling great so he stayed back at the cottage to rest. Smidgie, Alastair, Kyle and I drove for about a half hour on muddy, potholed roads in the 4 wheel drive van to get to the trail head. It started raining lightly when we got there so we decided it was too wet to poison, but it was okay to take a hike. About a quarter of a mile in there is a boardwalk covered with wire mesh to walk on which goes for miles through a beautiful swamp. There were many different types of ferns and mosses along the way. At one point, being the graceful person that I am, I tripped on the mesh and went down. The biggest thing that was hurt was my pride, but then I discovered that I had cut my right hand on the mesh. Fortunately, I had a band aid with me and we continued on. We had a late lunch on the trail and then walked a little further, but decided to turn around as the rain was picking up. It was raining quite hard by the time we got back to the van and we certainly had an interesting ride out as the small puddles we had driven through were now quite deep. We got back and found that Dave was feeling a little better. I washed my hand in warm water and dish soap, but it looked like there was still some dirt in the wound and one end looked a little deep so we decided to drive down to Waimea to have it looked at. Part way down the hill we hit some fog and then Dave started not feeling great again. It was an interesting ride. By the time we got down the mountain, the clinic had closed so we went to the emergency room. Dave asked the nurse if there were any bugs going around and she said that people were coming in complaining of his same symptoms. Apparently, a volcano is erupting on the big island and the ask particulates are mixed in with the fog here and are affecting people who are prone to respiratory ailments, which, of course, Dave is. He at least felt better know what the problem is. The nurse cleaned out my cut and did get some more dirt out so our instinct were right. She thought the deeper part might need a stitch so was sending the doctor in. He took a look and decided to numb me up for the stitches. While we were waiting for the Novocaine to take effect, we chatted about how he came to be here. He was from North Carolina and did his residency in Southern California where he took up surfing (he was kind of cute (and young) like a surf boy). He went back to NC, but couldn't find a job. Soon after one of his classmates from California called and told him of the vacancy here in Waimea. He flew out, fell in love with the waves and here he has been for 2 1/2 years. He met a married a native girl and he expects to live here the rest of his life. Back to the stitches. It turned out that he had to put in six stitches - so I will have to compare with the grand kids to see who has the most. We came back up to camp just before dark, thank goodness, and had a small dinner. We watched a DVD on ferns that Katie had loaned us that wasn't great and then one that a student had made about the program up here. This one we will try to copy to bring home as it shows the camp and the work we do on the ginger and guava. We will have to move back to the main house tomorrow as someone is coming in and has been promised the cottage. Smidgie and Alastair are leaving tomorrow so it will be Dave and I and the Cornell students vying for the bathroom - should be interesting.

2/16 A Day with Cornell

It was quite windy in the night and the roosters were crowing at about 2 AM! We finally figured out that the moon must have been confusing them. After breakfast this morning, we met with the Cornell students and went into the forest to get rid of ginger. We were each put in charge of three students. I had two girls and a boy. Two were from upstate New York and the third was from Long Island. They dug out the rhizomes with shovels and make a pile that I would treat. I was on the lookout for guava as I followed along behind them. We had a full day of work and then came back to shower and have dinner. After dinner, we were invited over to the common room to meet with the students and to share what we have learned from being here for our two weeks and to listen to the students describe how they felt about their day. There was quite a philosophical discussion about the costs and benefits of using herbicide in the forest, but in the end I think we all agreed that sometimes you have to put up with a little evil to dispel a bigger one. One of the professors then gave a lecture and slide show on the Sword Alliance. She also show pictures of something a student had discovered last year here. They originally thought it was a cup fungus, but it turned out to be a gall. It was all very interesting.

2/15 A Mixed Day

We started this morning by getting rid of guava near the camp. It was a bit strenuous as we were working uphill most of the way. We worked until 11:30 and then drove up to the lookouts to take pictures and have a picnic. It was a bit foggy at the lookouts, but the picnic was delightful. We were to meet a school group at the Discovery Center, but found that they had left earlier than expected so we walked down the path to find them. We knew we were on the right path as I spotted some M & M’s on the trail. After walking for 45 minutes, we came upon the students who were assembled and about to get directions on how to dig up the ginger. This was a fifth grade class from Kapa’a Elementary School – 22 of them. We divided them up into small groups and took them out in search of ginger. I had five girls who called themselves The Island Girls. They worked quite hard and destroyed 458 ginger plants. They had to dig them out and I cut of the rhizomes into a bucket and counted. We emptied the buckets into a huge pile which Kyle would then poison after the children left. All together, the 22 students destroyed 1729 ginger plants, which I thought was quite a large number for only an hour of work. We caught a ride from Katie who was parked not too far away. She actually parked in the area where we had cut the black wattle last week. On the way back to our car she took a detour to pick some tea leaves. We will try to steep some tonight to make green tea (actually it will be quite green as we are not going to dry the leaves). We waited at the Discovery Center for the kids to get back so that we could pick up the student waiver forms from the teacher. Back at camp, we rotated through the shower and are now relaxing on the porch before dinner. After dinner, we sat with the Macphail’s in our cozy cottage kitchen and chatted. It was a lovely night with an almost full moon so we went for a walk. It was lovely.