Photographing the Eruption
Tag: Hawaii
Poinciana Blooms
Hurricane Season
It is a wee bit active out there…
Three major hurricanes are wandering the eastern Pacific right now, two uncomfortably close to the islands.
Last month’s hit from Hurricane Lala did significant damage to the southern parts of the island, dropping up to 40 inches of rain, flooding Waiʻōhinu and Nāʻālehu, destroying homes and businesses. At our house, we spent a day without power and lost one of our mature plumeria.
It was only a couple of weeks, and we are facing another round…
Hurricane Lowell has passed us here on the Big Island, but is forecast to take an abrupt turn to the north, threatening Kauaʻi and Niʻihau. Hurricane Karina is forecast to swing north of us, but close enough that we may experience some impact.
With a record-breaking El Niño warming the water of the central Pacific, it is more than likely we will see even more storms beyond these. To live in interesting times…
Hurricane Lala
Lala was not our first hurricane.
After two decades of island life, we have been through a few hurricanes. In general, our location on the island, in the lee of a 13,802ft mauna, has protected us from the worst. Stiff winds and heavy rain from some, while a couple of hurricanes have passed with blue skies and almost no wind for those of us in the lee.
Lala was not our first hurricane, but it was the most serious yet.
Continue reading “Hurricane Lala”Keauhou Bay
Plumeria
Fellows Nudibranch
Drone versus ʻIo
This bird did not like the drone.
I have flown around big birds before. Bald eagles, ravens, seagulls, other hawks… few had taken more that a moments notice of the drone. This attack surprised me, I did not even see the hawk coming, and it came in hard.
I was on the return leg of an exploration into the ʻōhia forest behind Puʻuwaʻawaʻa and having a little fun with the drone. Simple plan… Set the drone to hover and then bike past through the camera view.
I had left the drone to hover for the moment as I moved to the next spot, when I look up to see a flash of white slashing at the drone. It hits and the drone staggers in the air before recovering.
Continue reading “Drone versus ʻIo”Anchialine Pool
An anchialine pond is a brackish water pool near the ocean. The Kona coast of the big island is scattered with such pools.
Near the ocean the water table is quite high, often just a meter or so beneath the surface. These recent lava flows are highly fractured, riddled with cavities and lava tubes. Here the abundant fresh water from the mauna comes down to meet the seawater. The young lava rock is rich in nutrients and life flourishes in the dark crevices and chambers.
Continue reading “Anchialine Pool”A Visit to the Nation of Hawaiʻi
At the back of Waimānalo is a place separated from modern society through an act of sheer will. Here in rainy, windward Oahu is a valley ringed with impossibly steep cliffs, a pali that soars thousands of feet overhead draped in lush greenery. At the base of those cliffs is a place where an older culture finds a place to shelter, a place of refuge.
I am here to attend a tech event, a hackathon where various makers like myself use technology to solve problems. This event has been arranged by the folks of Purple Maiʻa, an organiztion dedicated to tech education. The theme this time? Instrumenting an ahupuaʻa, learning from the land by installing a network of instruments to monitor such things as temperature, water quality, stream flow, and more.
Continue reading “A Visit to the Nation of Hawaiʻi”