Our Remarkable Home
By Jan TenBruggencate Kalo in the lo‘i at Limahuli Garden. It is possible for a visitor or even a resident to spend time in Hawai`i, entirely missing what makes this place special. You can shop at...
View ArticleCanoe Plants — The Hawaiian Survival Kit
By Jan TenBrugrencate The survival kit that Polynesian voyagers brought from island to island as they populated the Pacific changed over time. For Hawai‘i, the kit included about two dozen plants and...
View ArticleMonk Seals
By Jan TenBruggencate A Hawaiian monk seal and its pup rest at Miloli‘i, Napali Coast last summer. Photo by Léo Azambuja The Hawaiian monk seal is showing signs of recovery after decades of collapsing...
View ArticleHawaiian Canoe Building
By Jan TenBruggencate The Princess displayed at the Kaua‘i Marriott Resort in Kalapaki belonged to Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalaniana‘ole, born in 1871 in Po‘ipu. An avid supporter of canoe racing, his...
View ArticleKnocking on Hardwood
A new coffee table design Joe Sullivan calls his Rollerglide Revolver. It is stable because of the weight of a recycled truck disk brake drum. Its wood base spins in a lathe-turned groove filled with...
View ArticleSunscreen Dangers
By Jan TenBruggencate xWaters sampled off Po‘ipū Beach in 2016 showed levels of oxybenzone of 281-419 parts per trillion, above the 72 parts per trillion that is considered harmful to coral cells....
View ArticleJewels of Nature
By Jan TenBruggencate The Koki‘o (Hibiscus kokio subspecies saintjohnianus) is found only in the rugged mountains of northwestern Kaua‘i, in pockets of mesic forest and shrubland on steep cliffs along...
View ArticleNo Footprints
By Jan TenBruggencate A turtle on a deserted beach. Photo by Jan TenBruggencate Years ago, I wrote a story in the old Honolulu Advertiser about a Kaua‘i beach without footprints. It was just a few...
View ArticleWalk Toward a Better Health
By Jan TenBruggencate Officials untie the maile lei during the blessing of three new segments of Ke Ala Hele Makalae, Kaua'i’s multi-use path in 2013. From left: Steve Baginski, president and CEO,...
View ArticleChickens
By Jan TenBruggencate High on a fence, a wild rooster scans his surroundings at the Kaua‘i Museum in Lihu‘e. Photo by Léo Azambuja Kauaʻi’s famous chickens are, of course, not standard domestic fowl....
View ArticleA Brief History of Hulē‘ia Region
By Jan TenBruggencate Hule‘ia River and Estuary The Nāwiliwili and Hulē‘ia region has been a center of Kaua‘i activity since the earliest days. The bay held the nearest safe anchorage for sailing ships...
View ArticleThe Great Chiefs of Kaua‘i
By Jan TenBruggencate The Hikina a Kala heiau in Wailua. Photo by Léo Azambuja Victors get the spoils, and also write the histories. And when the Kamehameha family supplanted the historic Kaua‘i line...
View ArticleShould We Be Afraid of Fear?
By Jan TenBruggencate Aliomanu Road in Anahola has been reduced to a one-lane road due to erosion caused by the ocean years ago. Photo by Ruby Pap We are often scared of the wrong stuff. As we go...
View ArticleHow Ready Are You for an Emergency?
By Jan TenBruggencate Hurricane Lane. Image courtesy of NOAA Many of us who lived through Hurricanes ‘Iwa and ‘Iniki remember that the food was real good for the first day or two — until we finished...
View ArticleFeasting in Paradise
A photograph of a royal lu‘au thrown by King Kalakaua, with Robert Louis Stevenson and Queen Liliuokalani, taken Feb. 1, 1889 at the Henry Poor residence in Waikiki. Others present are Fanny Stevenson,...
View ArticleCook’s Landing
By Jan TenBruggencate An Island View in Atooi, One of the Sandwich Islands. Drawing by John Webber describing a village near Waimea visited by Capt. Cook during his third voyage to the Pacific Ocean....
View ArticleLosing Sleep Over Invasive Species
By Jan TenBruggencate Ah, the wonders of living in rural Hawai‘i. Much has been written about the invasive species crisis in the Islands. Some invaders go after the environment, like the Argentine ants...
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