Mike in the Wild

I could never say I had ever seen an albatross until my last visit to Kauai a month ago.  On my previous trip four years ago I hadn't even looked for them; before that particular visit, I was always there out of their season.  But this time I stumbled upon the birds in a development crowded with homes, condos, and resorts.  It turned out you don't need to be on a ship at sea to witness an albatross in the wild. There are more than a dozen species of albatrosses.  The wandering albatross is the largest seabird in the world, with a wingspan up to eleven and a half feet.  But the one I encountered on Kauai, the Laysan, was much smaller; the species' wingspan is not even seven feet.  In fact another local visiting seabird, the magnificent frigatebird, is slightly larger.   I paused to look at two birds soaring overhead when I was touring Princeville in Kauai, a densely developed resort community atop a peninsula on the Hawaiian island's north shore....

I was more excited about snorkeling at Ke'e Beach than anywhere else on my recent visit to Kauai.  Of the renowned sites on the Hawaiian island's north shore, it was the only one I'd not managed to visit on my two previous trips starting in 2020.  I might have only ever snorkeled there once before, thirty years ago on my very first trip to anywhere in Hawaii, and I remembered almost nothing about it.    Luckily two weeks before my latest arrival, I secured a mandatory reservation for entrance to the site, part of Ha'ena State Park, along with a remote parking spot and a shuttle between the sites, all for forty dollars.  However I was surprised to learn that the other travelers on my shuttle weren't going to the park's famous beach, Ke'e, but instead were setting out for a completely different adventure: a hike along the Kalalau Trail.   The trail hugs Kauai's remote and spectacular Napali coastline, a remote palisade of volcanic cliffs that tower over ...

Of the three ways to visit Kauai's Na Pali Coast, flying overhead in a helicopter was the least interesting to me.  It also cost the most, so it was easy to rule it out on my already-expensive vacation.  I decided on the two other visits, however: one by hiking, the other by boat.  Each was a completely different way to witness some of the most spectacular scenery in the world.  Panoramic view of the Na Pali Coast from a tour boat. Na Pali Coast from the Pihea Trail. Superlatives abound on Kauai.  It is the oldest and remotest of the main Hawaiian Islands, lying furthest west than the others.  It was also the first island to be settled by the ancient Polynesians and the first to be visited by Captain James Cook, the first European to land on any Hawaiian island.  Finally, it's home to the wettest spot on Earth, where over 460 inches of rain a year falls.  As a result, the verdant island is referred to as the Garden Island.  Thanks to Kauai's ...

For the first time outside of a summer month, I visited Kauai in April.  In fact, of my many trips to the Hawaiian Islands, it was only my third time not traveling to the state in the summer.  It  was also my very first springtime visit to Hawaii.   On my only visit to Hawaii in the winter, to the Big Island a year ago in February, I was overjoyed by the number of humpback whales I witnessed near the shore.  However on this recent April trip to Kauai, I was just missing whale season, the last of the behemoths having already departed for their feeding grounds in the Arctic.  Nesting seabirds were also on my mind as a number of species lay their eggs and and raise their young on Kauai.  Several albatross, shearwater, tropicbird, booby, and a frigatebird species all congregate on a specific peninsula, Kilauea Point, on the north shore of the island.  The site of an historic lighthouse, the area is now a National Wildlife Refuge.  Some of th...

Nothing excited me more while planning my latest visit to Kauai than a return to Tunnels Beach for snorkeling.  On an island chock-full of attractions, the beach was my very first outing on my first day on Hawaii's Garden Island.  Swimming with schools of surgeonfish on fish highways, green sea turtles ascending for breaths of air, and colorful parrotfish chomping on bites of coral were just some of the memories that I wanted to revisit from my very last snorkel there two-and-a-half years ago.  While my expectations were eventually exceeded, it would take three separate visits to Tunnels to finally happen.  Tunnels Beach is close to the end of the road on Kauai, where Route 560 or the Kuhio Highway terminates near the Na Pali Coast on the mountainous and scenic north shore of the island.   The beach is actually reached from Ha'ena State Park, where there is very limited parking but facilities like a freshwater shower, restrooms, and more importantly, a life...