Ahihi Kinau

Liz and I went down to the Ahihi Kinau reserve where Judy works. We walked out to La Perouse bay. On the way, saw some goat madness. There are goats everywhere and we saw a huge group of them. The babies were cute and some of them were play-fighting. Too bad they eat everything native. We finished that and talked to Judy for a while about the crazy public. It was extremely beautiful, but really hot. It's a recent lava flow that's on the leeward (dry) side. Crispy.....

Judy had some really interesting stories from the conservation standpoint. She also does some "conservation blogging" for Maui.net (turtles, snorkeling, Haleakala). I think I would learn a lot from working as a "public servant" in a park, but I think I would become even more jaded about people in general. I met Judy in the visitors center up at the summit - I would go timelapse there on my mornings off and the clicking camera either makes me instant friends (Judy, Mike, Nan) or enemies (Susie). Some of the response I would get from the busses of grandma's & southernes were ridiculous - "Are you going to look at all of those pictures?" "You know, one's usually good enough..." You know, the general idea that "I don't know what you're doing so I'm going to assume it's stupid" stance. The Japanese were usually a lot better - at least they started with "Why so many?". Judy has tons of stories about people tramping on the reserve, harassing turtles, and just being jerks in general. There's this guidebook series, the "revealed" series, that has given away a ton of the good stuff here. While I'm glad info is out there, it has caused a lot of hassle for the residents and locals. The main problem is that some/many visitors are ignorant, rude, inconsiderate, and full of attitude. When you cross private property to find some waterfall, don't dump your trash and insult the owner! Don't park in their lawn. Many of the things that have been "revealed" are now closed to the public because they were never really public in the first place.


The rift-zone - the line of cinder cones that goes from the Haleakala summit to the sea.

A wave spashing through a crack with Kaho'olawe in the background.
A vent with a recent lava flow burping out
A little bay with some kiawe trees and goats!
Goat-child headbutting.