For about as long as Debbie and I have been traveling to distant places together, she has said that Hawaii was a place she wanted to visit since she was a child, seeing it in book and on TV as a far-away tropical paradise. In March 2019, we brought that dream into reality. Since we figured we wouldn't be coming back soon, our strategy was to move fast and cover ground. So we spent 2 nights on Maui, 3 nights in Hilo on the Big Island, 2 nights on Kauai and 2 nights in Waikiki Beach on Oahu. I shot around 1700 photos during our time there, filling every available spot on my camera cards. This is a collection of the better ones and hopefully provide a fair telling of our travels there.
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| Coming in for landing in Honolulu, this was our greeting. Pretty great way to start out. |
MAUI
Pacific Golden-plover. The Polynesians call these birds kolea. Many of them spend the winter in Tahiti and pass through Hawaii on their way north to Alaska and Russia. The Polynesians that found Hawaii came from Tahiti, and followed these birds on the idea they must be going somewhere north to land.
On our first full day on Maui, we went on a whale watching trip in the Maui channel. That's our catamaran behind us.
Looking back at West Maui.
Me taking pictures of West Maui.
We got some good views of humpback whales. Each one has a unique pattern on their tail.
Some boats got lucky and the whales approached them closely. This is a whale fight going on.
When they surface and exhale they can blow about a gallon of water into the air.
When we were coming back into port and were out of time we saw the best action of the day. Coming that far out of the water is a very aggressive move by a whale.
And it lets them make a very big splash. This was another whale fight, which mostly involves a lot of splashing and aggressive exhaling.
Debbie in front of the largest banyan tree in the US, in Lahaina on Maui. It shades about an acre of land.
The next day we went to Haleakala National Park. This is at about 7,000 feet where it was very chilly, windy and damp.
One bird I was very happy to see was this Hawaiian Goose, known in Hawaiian as nene.
Driving down from Haleakala looking out onto West Maui.
On our way back down, we stopped at a roadside park on the the east shore of Maui. A serious weather event had started that would go for several days, hitting Hawaii with high dangerous surf and high winds. Debbie is just trying to hold onto her hat here.
Capturing rock vs. water.
This is what I was shooting at.
Tough shooting conditions, but the results were pretty neat.
Slightly different perspective, with more sky.
There was a beach to our north. People were boogie boarding in this.
HAWAII (BIG ISLAND)
We caught an evening flight to Hilo on Big Island. This was the view from our hotel room right when we walked in. In the distance shrouded in clouds and pink light is Mauna Kea.
Driving along the Kona coast (west side) of Big Island. Old lava flow and an ohia tree up close. Life finds a way.
I climbed a pile of lava.
Debbie didn't get so far with the lava. She says she was just doing yoga poses.
We made the 2.7 miles (one way) hike out to Green Sands Beach. There are only 4 of these in the world. Walking out there our faces were sandblasted the whole time. The wind was steady at around 45 mph and was gusting (I think) to 70 mph. But it was worth it.
The south end of Big Island, near the Green Sand Beach.
This gives an idea of what the surf was like.
That evening, we took a tour up to the summit of Mauna Kea to watch the sunset. This is looking across at Mauna Loa, with cinder cones in the foreground. Those are the site of old eruptions.
They had coats for us to borrow. It was about 30 degrees up there. Hello from 14,000 feet!
Yup, that's snow. In Hawaii. Actually we got to see the only snow plow in Hawaii. Not infrequently they have to plow the road.
The Subaru telescope. This is the largest single piece of glass on Mauna Kea
The Subaru again, and the two round ones are Keck 1 & Keck 2. 
The next morning we made a quick jaunt up to Hawaii Volcanoes NP.
Blossom of an ohia tree.
Then we went to Punalu'u Beach, one of the best examples of a black sand beach in Hawaii.
The other main attraction for Punalu'u are these guys- honu, aka Pacific green sea turtles. They frequently rest on this beach, there's an area cordoned off so they can do their thing undisturbed.
Hawaiian Hawk. We got to see 2 of them have a scuffle over territory.
KAUA'I
The following morning we caught another flight from Big Island to Kaua'i. This island turned out to be our favorite, by a long shot.
Looking out from Kilauea Point lighthouse.
There were a pair of Laysan Albatrosses nesting, and one Cattle Egret that was nosy.
Red-tailed Tropicbirds.
Also a White-tailed Tropicbird.
Red-footed Booby showing you its name.
This one is carrying nesting material.
This is where it was going. Might be hard to see, but all those white dots covering that slope are nesting boobies.
Slightly closer view.
Great Frigatebird, the sailor's friend. Frigatebirds can't land on water so seeing one usually means land is near.
Looking down at the north shore of the Na Pali coast from Koke'e state park.
The incredible Waimea Canyon.
For scale, the 2 waterfalls combined are about 800 feet tall. There's a yellow helicopter just left of the waterfall to give a sense of scale.
Big place.
NA PALI COAST
Debbie and I took a sunset sail to the Na Pali coast, on the north side of Kauai. I got to talk with the captain some and he said in the winter about half of the scheduled trips don't get to go because of the weather and seas, so they go to the south side of the island instead. Ours did make it and the light, the water and the land came together in a way that we crossed over into some dream world that doesn't exist here. The pictures below don't really do it justice.
West side of Kauai heading out of port.
We had a mother and calf humpback whale swim up pretty close to the boat, and they were being escorted by a pod of bottlenose dolphins!
The dolphins just off the bow of the ship.
Another catamaran from the sailing outfitter we used, very similar to the one we were on.
The beach just as we came around the point to the Na Pali coast. For scale, there's a person walking on the beach...
Seeing the dreamland for the first time.
There's a big X on the wall. Hawaiian lore says that mark was made by Pele.
Sailing back around the point.
The sun setting over the island of Lana'i.
So they served a drink called a Sneaky Tiki. Debbie had a few. Also, if you look behind her at the blonde woman, that's a child on either side of her. We got about 100 yards out of the harbor and both of them discovered sea sickness. They spent the rest of their trip at that spot, begging for it to end. This picture was about 3.5 hours into our 4 hour trip.
Making tracks back to port.
OAHU
We spent 2 nights at the Marriott Waikiki beach. This was the least favorite part of our trip. Honolulu operates as a big city with big city issues. And as it was described to me later- Waikiki Beach is like Manhattan with nicer weather. But, we were on the 18th floor and on our last night we got to witness one last magical sunset from our balcony looking out over the bay.
ALOHA!
