Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
Hawai'i Near Polulu Valley - by Tami |
I lived on O'ahu from 1975 through 1977. Tami joined me there, as well, when we married in early '77. Since I was only a teenager (in the Coast Guard), when I arrived on the islands, their impressions and influences on me are deep and long lasting. The downside of being a teenager, in Hawai'i, is that I had little money or photographic expertise. So, the few photos I was able to save, over the 30 years until I created this page, are the best I could come up with at the time. The oldest photos are on the bottom half of this page with all the newest stuff, from our 30th anniversary visit, on the top half: |
Facts and Figures:
The Hawaiian Archipelago is comprised of 18 islands and atolls extending across a distance of 1,500 miles (2,400 km). Eight of these are considered the "main islands" and are located at the southeastern end of the chain. The Hawaiian islands total 6,427 square miles in area making Hawai'i the 47th largest state - slightly larger than Connecticut (4,872 Sq miles) and bit smaller than New Jersey (7,468 Sq miles).Hawai'i became the 50th state on August 21, 1959. The islands are located about 2,300 miles (3,700 km) from California and are also known as as the Sandwich Islands. The State's population, at the time of our last visit in 2007, was approximately 1,300,000 - that included permanent residents, military and tourists. The southern tip of Hawai'i Island is also the most southern point in the United States (Alaska remains the western most state...).
Hawai'i was first inhabited by Polynesian settlers sometime around 1000 CE (Common Era). It's believed these peoples came from islands in the South Pacific, most likely the Marquesas. For about 800 years the Hawaiian people lived in a complex caste system governed by warring chiefs and an extensive set of religious and social rules called the "Kapu" system.
British explorer James Cook was probably the first European to stumble upon the islands, in 1778, although there's some indication the Spanish may have wondered into the area a bit earlier. Cook, who named Hawai'i the "Sandwhich Islands," was killed on the Big Island, in 1779. Cook and his crew were engaged in a dispute with locals during one of their religious observations, over the theft of his ship's small-boat at Kealakekua Bay, and was whacked on the back of the head when he tried to return to his ship...
In the very early 1800s the warrior known as Kamehameha was the first, ever, to have conquered and controlled all of the major islands at one time. He accomplished this mostly by force although a couple of the island cooperated without fighting. About nine decades later, Queen Liliuokalani gave the U.S. government control of the islands in her effort to avoid bloodshed between non-native residents and her Hawaiian people. I have a note about the United States' official apology for this incident at the page bottom.
However, more important than human conflict is the devastation Hawaii (and the rest of the planet) has endured at the hands of ancient and modern peoples. During the first 20 years of the Endangered Species Act (signed into law by President Nixon in 1973) 114 species went extinct - nearly half of those were in Hawai'i! Further back, the arrival of Polynesians in Hawai'i, ten centuries ago, caused the extinction of at least 39 species of endemic (indigenous) land birds. And, although I haven't found an Internet reference to it our guides told us it was common for warring Hawaiian chiefs to burn down Lāna'i and parts of the other islands during countless conflicts. Finally, of course, the huge numbers of people living, building, and consuming on the islands has had a devastating effect - just like everywhere else in the world.
- Roger J. Wendell
February 2007
O'ahu
(the "Gathering Place") 596 Square miles. 2007 Population aprx 900,000
 Cutting the coconut |
 Buying the coconut |
 Drinking the coconut |
 Waikiki climber... |
 Bonzai Pipeline by Tami |
Diamond Head (Lē'ahi)
State Monument:
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Click Here for a park pass... |
 Diamond Head crater |
 Diamond Head tunnel |
 Diamond Head trail |
 Diamond Head stairs |
 Honolulu from Diamond Head |
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Click Here for Tami's Diamond Head hiking certificate! |
Wahiawa and
the rest of O'ahu:
 Welcome to Wahiawa! |
 Waimea Life Guard |
 "Mok" Rock, Waimea Bay |
 Waimea Bay, O'ahu |
 Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve |
 Tami's favorite library! |
 Entrance to our valley |
 Waikalani Woodlands |
 Entrance to parking garage |
 At our apartment, C-204 |
When we got married, in February '77, our first apartment together was in a place called "Waikalani Woodlands" in what is now labeled Launani Valley. It was a wonderful setting in a small valley beneath what is now the H2 freeway. Even today, during our 2007 visit, Waikalani Woodlands remains green, quiet, and serene. Of course that kind of environment comes at a steep price on such a crowded island. Back in '77 I believe our rent was $300 or $325 per month - although expensive for us it remained very much worth the price.Our street address, back then, was 95-269 Waikalani Drive, Wahiawa, HI 96786 (it's since been changed to Mililani 96789...). The hyphen ("-") in our address is a common delineator for rural addresses throughout O'ahu and on parts of the Big Island and Kaua'i (Kaua'i uses only one digit before the hyphen and the Big Island doesn't use the hyphen on it signage). O'ahu, except for military basis and heavily populated areas, is divided into nine districts/tax zones, each subdivided into nine sections. The first two digits of an address, before the hyphen, indicate the tax zone while the three (sometimes four) digits after the hyphen are the address numbers. Lāna'i, Māui, and Moloka'i, and parts of the other islands (mainly urban areas and military bases) maintain conventional numbering systems
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Click Here for the time I spent on O'ahu, with the Coast Guard, during the mid '70s... |
Māui
(the "Valley Isle") 727 Square Miles. 2007 Population aprx 140,000
 Our Lahaina apartment |
 Prison Street, Lahaina |
 Cyclists on Haleakalā |
 The road to Haleakalā |
 Humpback Whale, Auau Channel, Māui |
 Maui Grown, Hana Highway |
 Hana Highway, Māui |
 Tami at Kipahulu Valley |
 Tami at Waimoku Falls |
 Humpback Whale, Auau Channel, Māui |
The Aina-Nalu apartments, in Lahaina, gave us the most wonderful upgrade for our 30th anniversary! The accommodations were perfect so it was difficult to leave each day, to explore Māui, but we did! Part of our travels took us the entire length of the Hana Highway, probably one of the most difficult and beautiful (at the same time!) roads in the world. Since we have a personal vacation policy of letting the traffic beat us (we leave hotels and apartments at about 10:00 am, on average, any given morning) we had most of the Hana Highway to ourselves - in complet contrast to the slow moving traffic jams that have made it legendary... Anyway, about eight or ten miles past the hamlet of Hāna, itself, we parked at the mouth of Kipahulu Valley where we hiked a few miles up to the 400 foot Waimoku Falls. Again, we had the entire valley, and waterfalls, to ourselves as it was later in the day. And, since Kipahulu Valley is the southern part of Haleakala National Park we were able to use the same entrance pass that had allowed us earlier access to 10,023 foot summit of Haleakalā.Back at Lahaina, we boarded the Pacific Whale Foundation's observation boat where we were able to watch dozens of Humpback whales breaching, jumping, and diving in the Auau Channel between Māui and Lāna'i. Observation boats can come within 100 yards of a whale, by law, so I was able to photograph a few whale tales with our simple (12x) digital camera. According to the onboard biologist, the whales come down to Hawai'i, from Alaska, for breeding. Interesting to note that the waters off Hawai'i are clear because they're basically nutrient deficient - the whales have nothing to eat, while visiting Hawaii, so females not interested in mating stay in the cold waters off Alaska...
As I mentioned, we drove to the 10,023 foot summit of Haleakalā Crater where it's cold and extremely windy. As you can see from the photo, a very popular activity is to ride bicycles from Pu'u Ula'ula (Red Hill, at the summit) down the entire length of Haleakalā Crater Road. Dozens of cyclists are engaged in this activity at anytime during the day...
Lāna'i
(the "Pineapple Island") 140 Square Miles. 2007 Population aprx 3,200
 Crossing the Auau Channel |
 Island of Lāna'i |
 Lāna'i coastline |
 Housing, Lāna'i City |
 Housing, Lāna'i City |
 a Bruce Harvey welcome! |
 Welcome to Lāna'i City! |
 Icehouse jail, Lāna'i City |
 Garden of the Gods, Lāna'i |
 Buddhist Temple, Lāna'i City |
We made our way over to Lāna'i by boat from Lahiana - a trip of about an hour across the Auau Channel where we again saw more whales but not so close (and slow) this time around. Our private guide for the day was 55 year old Bruce Harvey who was born on O'ahu and had lived on Lāna'i for the past seven years. Bruce was a huge wealth of information on every aspect of Lāna'i and Hawaiian culture in general. Although Lāna'i "felt" pretty big to us Bruce's 4WD tour covered the entire island in five hours!!98% of Lāna'i is privately owned by billionaire David H. Murdock who gained possession of the island in 1985 when he purchased Castle & Cooke - owners of the Dole Food Company who bought the entire island in 1922. The remaining 2% of the island is owned by the few hundred families who have built homes in Lāna'i City where, historically, properties were purchased from the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (Now known to many of us as Dole Pineapple or the Dole Food Company) by the plantation workers.
Although I'm far from knowledgeable about the island of Lāna'i, and its politics, it seems apparent that Mr. Murdock is doing a pretty good job of keeping the island in its natural state. However, the island has seen some historical abuse as its entire forest was burnt down, by warring Hawaiians, and all of its population either killed or removed by these chiefs as well (hence the island was eventually able to fall into private hands since nobody was living on it...).
From what I understand, David Murdock maintains tight control over development and plans to pass the entire island on to a conservancy after his own death. Too bad there aren't similar plans to arrest development around the rest of our country but that's another story and web page in itself...
P.S. As you can see from the photo, above, the original jail on Lāna'i was in an icehouse. It's not longer in use as there's a more modern police facility available a couple blocks away. For that matter, everything in Lāna'i City is only a couple blocks away!
Hawai'i Island
(the "Big Island") 4,038 Square miles. 2007 Population aprx 160,000
 South Point Complex |
 South Point Complex |
 Mauna Kea telescopes |
 Submillimeter Array |
 Road up Mauna Kea |
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Click Here for my page on astronomy and more photos on top of Mauna Kea... |
 Entrance to Volcanoes NP |
 Tami and the convertible |
 Punalu'u Black Sand |
 Jungle hiking |
 Pololu Valley Store |
Lots of Lava:
 Warning to Hikers |
 Volcano fumes |
 Volcano steam vent |
 Steam vent love! |
 Tami and a steam vent |
 Lava on the road... |
 Roger hiking |
 Tami on the lava field |
 Lava field |
 Roger playing in the field... |
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Click Here for my video of the flowing laval and tourists... |
 Lava into the sea |
 Lava in the sea |
 Lava gamers |
 Tami and the lava field |
 1982 Lava Flow |
 Lava toe |
 Lava toe |
 Lava toe |
 Lava toe |
 Roger's toe... |
 Lava tube |
 Tami in a lava tube |
 Lava tube entry |
 Lava fold |
 Roger photographs the Lava... |
Tami and I enjoyed Mauna Kea so much we took a second trip up, a day later, after sunset! During the first day we had the distinct pleasure of touring one of the Keck twins (the W.M. Keck Observatory houses the world's two largest telescopes) and actually watch them rotate and pivot the 10 metre telescope. The night we returned we parked our convertible near the big scopes, took down the roof, and laid back to watch the stars, planets, and meteors unfold before us. At the 13,796 foot summit the temperature was still in the 40 degree range - relatively comfortable by Colorado standards, with the air almost perfectly still. It was also a bit eerie to hear the various telescope domes slowly turning around us in the dark all evening - quite the experience! It's a bit embarrassing to admit that we drove 1,003 miles in our rental car during our five day visit to Hawai'i Island. But, this enabled us to see "tons" of interesting beaches, archeological sites and telescopes - all in addition to spending an evening with nephew Dustin studying Geology at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.South Point Complex, the southern most point of the United States (Alaska remains the furthest west of any state), was well worth the extra 25 miles of driving off State Highway 11. A bit further down the road, of course, is Volcanoes National Park where we hiked right up to the edge of a live lava flow, inhaled the warm-moist sulfur fumes of the volcano's vents, and hiked the length of a huge, underground lava tube. Actually, the "live-lava" experience was a bit dangerous as the fumes can be damaging and the heat deadly. And, if you're not careful, you can step through crust of a lava "toe" and completely engulf your foot, ankle and leg in 2,100 degree molten lava. The Park Service does a pretty good job of protecting tourists except for those (like us) who hike too far into the backcountry - out of range of trail markers, guide ropes, and danger signage...
The Big Island also afforded us a chance to experience black sand beaches, watch turtles come ashore, and play in waves almost as big as O'ahu's north shore.
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Click Here for the various waypoints we recorded on each island... |
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Although I did acquire a bit of "Island Fever" (the desire to be surrounded by vast prairies or mountain ranges can cloud your view even in paradise!), at times, I feel lucky to have experienced so much at such a young age!
At left are four pictures from O'ahu during February, 1976. At the time I owned a 1972 Honda CB 450 - very similar to the CL 450 that I owned in Colorado (The "CB" was the street version while CL, on Honda motorcycles, usually indicated off road or trails...) - I used the 450 to take me just about everywhere on O'ahu. Anyway, you can see the bike parked in one of the photos... While in Hawai'i I did a "ton" of snorkel and scuba diving. I did acquire an underwater camera, while scuba diving, but lost a lot of photos after it floated away from me one day in Hanauma Bay... |
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Click Here for my Coast Guard page... |
 Burning Sugar Cane |
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 Fun and friends! |
At left are photographs of burning sugar cane, a sugar cane field, and some of my Coast Guard buddies at Waimea Bay on O'ahu's North Shore. From left to right is Jon Nethers, John Bilos, and me (Roger Wendell) in May of 1976.
Lots of other friends and buddies come to mind but I can't seem to find too many pictures after trying to put this web page together 30 years later!! |
| Kent Brown and I spent a lot of time snorkel and scuba diving back then. We spent time outdoors, whenever possible - this picture is of Kent "goofing" in the surf. Unrelated, but maybe of interest (?) were the pineapple fields that covered much of central O'ahu (I've heard most of them have been turned into housing tracts now...). Locals (including me) would occasionally "borrow" a fresh pineapple for use at home - despite the $50 fine/warning signs that were posted everywhere. There's that youth stuff again... |
 My 1966 VW Beetle |
 Kent Brown - North Shore |
 Dole Pineapple - O'ahu |
 My '72 Honda in Hawai'i |
 Me at age 20 |
At left is a better shot of the Honda CB 450 I owned while living on O'ahu. Although it was only four years old it received plenty of abuse with dozens of excursions completely around O'ahu, including Kaena Point (which was unpaved, rocky and exposed at the time.) While on O'ahu I eventually bought the 1966 VW "Bug" that you see above. I believe the 1966 may have been the last year VW Beetles came with a 6 volt battery system - making a stero purchase, or other car accessories, somewhat difficult. Nevertheless, the VW was a great little car that a Navy friend, at NavCamsEastPac (the naval communications facility where I worked in the center of O'ahu), had completely overhauled and sold to me for a very good price. Problem was he forgot to put one little oil seal back into place and it would have required taking most of the engine apart again to do it properly. So, I occasionally had to make sure the little piece was still glued into place to keep all of the oil from being sprayed out. Anyway, I drove that VW a lot, especially after getting married, and would even sit on top the driver's headrest to "tour" with my head and torso poking through the sunroof. Ahhhh, mindless youth... |
Japan loves Hawaiian bottled water!
Bottled Water Translation:
When I lived in Hawai'i, during the mid 70s, there was a pretty strong Japanese influence that grew even more prominent after I left (so I'm told). Anyway, in 2004 my family and I took a trip to Japan and were delighted to find this bottled water named "Hawaii!"
"Hawaii, Kailuah, Kona - Deep Ocean Water 250""Hawaiian Deep Ocean Water" is said to slowly travel the earth at depths of around 5000m as the eons pile one on top of another. This deep water has quietly continued to circulate the earth and is loaded with magnezium which essential to human health. It is "a gift from the ocean depths." The water has traveled from the northern atlantic ocean, to the pacific ocean where it is drawn up from the deep see off of Hawaii and named "Kailuah, Kona Deep Ocean Water." Hawaii, with its clean air and water, is still an island where this mysterious deep ocean water is born and even the worlds natural scientists have taken notice.
picture:
title: Mauna Keia
island shape :kona
pipe looking thing: suction pipe
current looking thing : deep waterbelow picture:
Usage information : After opening refrigerate and please drink before the expiration date
Miscellaneous Hawai'i
 Navy antennas at Lualualei |
 RJW at Lualualei, O'ahu |
 1966 VW "Volksie Walden" |
 Tami visited me in 1976! |
 Reinstated Government |
 Yankee go home! |
Hawaiian Sovereignty Movement
While living in Hawai'i, during the mid 70s, it was clear to me that original peoples weren't happy with the 100+ year European/American occupation of the islands. While I was there, at the tail-end of the Vietnam War, the Hawaiians (and most of the rest of country!) didn't have much appreciation for the U.S. military. It was at about that time, while I was there, that a groupd called Protect Kaho'olawe 'Ohana (PKO) began to occupy Kaho'olawe to halt the military's practice bombings. The PKO also filed environmental lawsuits, in federal court, with the island eventually being returned to the state and turned into a reserve that can only be used by native Hawaiians not engaged in commercial operations (The smallest inhabited Island, Ni'ihau has equally serious restrictions as well...).Besides the Kaho'olawe issue, I also saw various signs that most native Hawaiians (who are very small minority in the overall population) wanted the rest of us out. However, that's not unlike many reservations and foreign countries I've visited around the world. Who can blame the Hawaiians, Tibetans, Palestinians, or anyone else for wanting the foreigners out? Of course the sad reality is that "might makes right" so we won't be seeing any major changes for oppressed peoples anytime soon...
Anyway, from what I understand of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement is that its comprised of a loose coalition of groups that seek self-determination and self-governance for Native Hawaiians and redress from the U.S. government for its alleged role in the 1893 intervention and overthrow of Queen Lili'uokalani and the prolonged military occupation that began 1898. The Hawaiian Sovereignty movement overlaps with the Aloha 'Aina movement (love of land movement), and other groups, so there's some confusion over demands, desires, and tactics. Anyway, the two photos (above, right) are some evidence that these movements are still alive in Hawai'i...
- Roger J. Wendell
February, 2007Note: In 1993, 100 years after Queen Liliuokalani yielded her authority to the United States Government rather than to the Provisional Government of Hawai'i, United States Public Law 103-150 went into affect. The 1993 law was an apology "to Native Hawaiians on behalf of the people of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii on January 17, 1893." Apparnatly the Queen gave her authority to the U.S. to avoid bloodshed between her people and a group of non-Hawaiian residents working to overthrow the indigenous and lawful Government of Hawaii.
Of course everyone soon forgets that China, Japan, and maybe Russia and a few other places have had their eye on Hawaii over the years as well...
Protesters held after takeover of Hawaiian palace
August 16, 2008
HONOLULU (AP) -- Officers have arrested about 20 pro-sovereignty activists after the second takeover this year of the grounds of a Honolulu palace.State law officers climbed a fence and made the arrests Friday evening at the historic Iolani (ee-oh-LAHN'-ee) Palace.
About a dozen men had locked the palace gates and posted signs saying: "Property of the Kingdom of Hawaiian Trust."
Hawaiian activists have long used the palace as a location for protests against U.S. occupation of the islands. A different group occupied the palace grounds in April.
Books:
"For us there is only one name," the old man insisted in a burst of rhetoric. "Havaiki of the manifold riches, Havaiki of the brave canoes, Havaiki of strong gods, and courageous men and beautiful women, Havaiki of the dreams that led across the endless oceans, Havaiki that has lived in our hearts for forty and fifty and sixty generations. This is the island of Havaiki!"
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