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  3. TRAVEL: 2007 through 2011
  4. Hawaii, February and March, 2009

Kauai #4

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Looking west, back toward Hanalei. Are those clouds or smoke from Puff?
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Looking west, back toward Hanalei. Are those clouds or smoke from Puff?

westkilauealighthouse

  • Established by Congressional charter in 1964, the National Tropical Botanical Garden is a non-profit, charitable organization with the mission of enriching life through discovery, scientific research, conservation, and education by perpetuating the survival of plants, ecosystems, and cultural knowledge of tropical regions. They have 6 National Botanical Gardens and Preserves, including 5 in Hawaii (2 of which are on Kauai) and one in Florida. Each garden has a different theme. Limahuli is dedicated to showing which plants are native and / or which were important to the earliest inhabitants of Kauai, in addition to educating about the myriad invasive species present and how to avoid them in landscaping.
  • As you enter, the pathway ascends some terraces along the Limahuli Stream, one of the last pristine waterways in Hawaii. Emphasis here is on ancient methods of cultivation. In fact, the name Limahuli is Hawaiian for "turning hands," a reference to the tilling and planting of taro (also called kalo or poi), historically one of the most important food crops.
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  • After winding through the terraces, the trail heads up into areas of natural forest and areas which are cultivated with ornamental plants.
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  • After a nice sojourn through a couple of different types of forest (one with native plants and one with invasive ones), the trail opens up to a nice, high, landscaped expanse offering a beautiful view to the north over the Pacific Ocean.
  • Then, finally, the trail descends a hillside back down to the terraced area in the valley. You can see the trail we were on earlier and the taro fields down below. The surrounding area is also part of the NTBG, specified as a preserve as opposed to being a part of the Gardens. If you would like to learn more about the National Tropical Botanical Gardens, look at ntbg.org.
  • We've left Limahuli Garden and are headed back toward Lihue. The sign tells about how taro cultivation used to provide crucial wetland habitat for several endemic species of Hawaiian birds. As "Western" foods have replaced the native diet, taro cultivation has plummeted. This, along with development and replacement of traditional taro fields with sugar cane has reduced wetlands suitable for water birds to about 5% of what was available 200 years ago.
  • The Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge, straddling the Hanalei River, has taken an unusual approach (compared with most National Wildlife Refuges) to attempt to rectify the problem: Instead of setting aside uncultivated area for wildlife, as in other refuges, land is specifically made available to farmers for growing taro, therefore re-introducing the wetlands which the birds have depended on for the past thousand years.
  • Remember in our last album the sunrise near the lighthouse? Well, the grounds were closed at that time, so we stopped at the Kilauea Point Lighthouse and National Wildlife Refuge again on our return leg. Built in 1913, the original oil lamp was a 250,000 candle-power, which was condensed by the French-manufactured (for $12,000) Fresnel lens (which you can see in the photo inside the housing) to a beam visible 20 miles out to sea. In 1930 the oil lamp was replaced by an electric one. Then, in 1958 it was upgraded to a final intensity of 2.5 million candle-power. The lens assembly weighs 4 1/2 tons, and is composed of over 300 hand-ground lenses and prisms. The whole assembly rested on a friction-reducing platform of mercury and pressurized air. A cable pulley system similar to what drives a common cuckoo clock (except that the weight was 250 pounds) turned the thing. This required an attendant to rewind the cable on a metal drum (located in the basement) every 3 1/2 hours to keep it turning. In 1976 it was deactivated, and in 1978 was listed as a National Historic Place. As you may recall, there was a rainbow here in the morning, also. Maybe this really IS the Rainbow Connection!
  • With wingspans of over 6 feet, the Laysan albatross is the second most common seabird in the Hawaiian Islands.
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  • Looking west, back toward Hanalei. Are those clouds or smoke from Puff?
  • Memory shot: An orchid greenhouse in Wailua. Time to get back to Lihue and get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow I have classes again. Then we will head back to Waimea Canyon. That's where you saw the sunset shots in the first album. Tomorrow, however, we will get there early enough to look around considerably more before the sun sets. See you there!
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