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#59 - Maui & Hawaii: A Retrospect (February 2019 & 2020)
For some reason, I thought those Discover Hawaii programs from 1975 to about 1978 had been discussed on a previous post. I don't see it, so it seems appropriate to remember them now.
This February, we spent 10 days on the big Island, Hawaii, at a rented house just south of a town named Captain Cook. This was my first return to the island since about 1978. But first, a word about what Discover Hawaii was about.
In Post #11, this program was briefly mentioned. It began in 1975 when I was working at the Western Forestry Center located near Washington Park in Portland Oregon. I was developing forestry related educational programs when approached by a woman, who happened to be a travel agent, with a suggestion to offer a program in Hawaii. It seemed like a good idea and the Western Forestry Center had the connections in the islands with national, state and county forestry offices as well as some private gardens.
The research and planning took about 6 months or more in order to contact the various agencies in Hawaii who would be receptive to visits by a small groups of travelers as well as have the personnel resources to talk with us. Further, this was going to be a camping trip, so I needed to find suitably located state and county campgrounds where we could pitch our tents or, when possible, stay in cabins. The planning came together and an initial group of 8 persons learned of the trip through the Western Forestry Center's Newsletter. If I can recall correctly, the approximately 18 day trip cost about $850.00 per person and included 4-6 nights on Kauai, Maui and Hawaii with all their meals. I purchased six Wilderness Experience 3-person tents which had plenty of space for 2 persons and cooked all our meals over an Optimus 8R camp stove. I drove a Hertz 12 passenger van with gear and luggage in back and shopped on each island for our food, which was kept in a box just inside the passenger's sliding door. Space was tight, but not crowded.
Many of our campsites were located next to the beach. Most of the time, we were the only people camping or staying in the cabins. We attracted some attention from the locals, since everyone, except myself, was 60+. One late night at Anahola Beach, we were awoke by loud talking not far from our tents. I climbed out of my tent in the dark to find out what was happening. Several men had dug a pit and were prepared to spend the night, drinking beer and roasting a pig for a morning wedding and luau. Would I join them? Of course. Come morning, we were all invited to spend some time with wedding families and the luau. These opportunities happened multiple times during the Discover Hawaii years.
I could recall only few of the camping and cultural/historic/natural history stop names, until our 2019 and 2020 Island visits. This last February, while driving through Captain Cook to our house rental, we passed a sign for Hapuna Beach (memorialized at the bottom of Post 11). I had not remembered on which island the beach was located, but noted the location with plans to return to the beach before we flew home.
My young daughter came with me on a couple of the Discover Hawaii trips. Since I was responsible for driving, pitching tents, cooking meals, leading hikes and introducing guests and speakers, I couldn't attend to her during those "tours." One of our visits on Kauai was Alexander's Nursery in Kapaa. It happened that the families young manager's had a daughter the same age as mine. You can imagine my daughter's wonderful experiences staying in a tropical nursery for up to 3 weeks, picking morning breakfast fruit from the trees, enjoying the fragrant smells and spending time down on the beaches. When our travelers flew home from Honolulu, I would fly to Kauai on the small mail plane to pick her up and she would sit behind the pilot and "shotgun" seats, on the day's mail, fly to Honolulu and to board our flight home.
So, in retrospect, what changes did I observe on Maui and Kauai? Traffic, traffic, traffic. Crowds, crowds, crowds. We drove roads that didn't exist in the 70's. Homeless people in the campgrounds and parking lots. Big hotels and condo's with golf courses along the beach front. Costco, Burger King, Subway, Pizza places, etc. located in big or small strip malls stretching along the roadsides. On some beaches, a person must arrive by 830-0900 am to find a blanket space. In the 70's, the beaches were nearly empty except for a few locals who may be surfing. The sun was still shining and the ocean was still blue. Whales, dolphins and turtles could still be seen after long waits in traffic along the road, searching the beach parking lot for an empty space and looking for a good observation place.
The eyes of the beholder. If you hadn't visited the Hawaiian islands in the 70's or earlier; if you hadn't trekked Annapurna or the Khumbu in the 70's or earlier; if you hadn't walked the Venice canals in the 70's or earlier, if you hadn't hike up to Taktsang in the 70's or earlier, you wouldn't know the differences. You would be seeing with fresh eyes, your experience untainted by a purer time.
#58 - New Blog Posting Schedule
It has become a little too stressful meeting a weekly deadline for my Blog posts. As we head into spring, summer and fall, I don't have the 8 - 10 hours each week for research, transfer slides to digital format, turn slides into a YouTube presentation and write the Blog. The Blog writing needs to share time with garden work, hiking, camping, lawn mowing, sipping wine, etc..
The Global Rambler will be posted every two weeks beginning with this post.
You can look forward to the following Blog Posts:
21 March - Maui and Hawaii: A Retrospect (February 2019 and 2020)
04 April - Tibet: Some Considerations
18 April - Tibet: In the Footsteps of Alexandria David-Neel
02 May - Tibet: The Solace of Sacred Terrain
16 May - Nepal: A Toe in Tibet and A Tiger on the Trail
30 May - Myanmar: Hiking Backcountry Burma
13 June - Sikkim: Walking Beside the Dalai Lama
I appreciate your taking the time to read my Global Rambler Blogs.
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