Splash of Kauai

Kalalau Valley appears from below the clouds..

It has been a while since I had been on this trail.  It seems that it need a little work.

The stairs going down to the  stream are looking a bit unsafe.

At least there seems to be a path next to the stairs.

Going slow seems to be the best option.

Here is a piece of the new trail.  The new trail is only one board wide. The boards are also less wide than the old boards.

This is a section of the old trail with ferns growing over it.

It is a little hard to get around this one. The mud is deeper than it looks too.

This one someone tried to make it a little easier.

I must say that the trail was in better condition the last time I was on it.

It is getting more challenging.

Now which one to step on.

It is like a spring board for mud diving.

There are lots of parts about they just need to be put together.

Here we switch to the new board.  Notice the difference in width.  If you meet someone it will be more apparent.

A bit of a puzzle here.

A Kolea in the swamp.

An Amakihi on Kolii.

An Apapane in an Ohia tree.

The view from Kilohana.  Wainiha Valley with Hanalei Bay in the distance.  the usual view from here is a white out.

In July of 2020 Comet Neowise (C2020 F3) became visible from Kauai.  At first in the mornings and then at night.  The mornings were cloudy and rainy so I did not try to see it.  At night I decided to try to look for it at Polihale.  It was too cloudy so I gave up.  I next tried to see it from Kalalau Lookout.  I Finally was able to see it.

Here you can see it in the center of the blue.  It is faint and very hard to see.

As it gets darker it becomes more visible to the eye.

This is a wider shot.  You can see the ridgeline and the stars.
The comet is still there just above the clouds, but it is very small.

The darker it gets the better you can see it.

This is more of a close up.  There are some stars in it.  The movements is because of a 30 second exposure.

More dark but can still see a little of the clouds and the ridge.

Someone had a light at the lookout.
It made it a little harder to see the comet but it was nice to get the lookout in the shot.

Stars and Kalalau.

Milky Way with the tracking station.

On another night I took this of Neowise over Port Allen.

This Coconut Tree started as a sprout in 2009.

It grew very fast and the first coconuts were already overhead. 

Eventually it became too big.  It was blocking the views from the second floor windows, the fronds were touching the roof, the nuts were hard to get to and it was dangerous to work under the tree.

It was hard to bring it down too. There was not enough room to just cut it down.

I started at the top and cut off all of the fronds and nuts.

After I got rid of the top I started to work on sections of the trunk.

It was not easy to cut off sections of the trunk.

It was also important to not fall or drop sections on myself or my ladder. 

A section of the heart of palm.

In the center you can see the young flower stalk.

Here is what the mature flower stalk looks like.

We did get several pounds of coconut heart and Naia had fun cooking with it.