Sailing to the Island of Lana'i
All of the images on this page are photographs that I took while visiting Lana'i - there is no artwork featured here.
I had the pleasure of joining a day-long cruise from Maui to the nearby island of Lana'i, on a catamaran belonging to the tour company Trilogy Excursions (highly recommended, you can call them at 1-888-225-MAUI, or visit their website at: http://www.sailtrilogy.com/). Whales and dolphins are often encountered during the trip between the islands, although the breathtaking off-shore views of the islands alone make the ride entirely worthwhile.
For those who are accustomed to the greener qualities of Maui and other islands, Lanai's appearance can be initially disheartening - the island is extremely arid and dusty, with very limited vegetation to offer shade from the withering power of the sun. But the severity of Lanai's character is often its most profound source of interest and beauty, raising it to a truly impressive level of natural austerity. Portions of the island are dramatically colorful, resembling the Painted Desert of New Mexico - there are many layers of white, orange, or rust-red ash, which are readily visible when exposed in the faces of eroded gulches and landslides.
Lana'i is most dramatic and beautiful in those places where the land meets the sea - the warmth of the brown lava creates exciting contrast against the intense blues, greens and whites of the ocean rushing up against it. The southern shores offer some rugged sea-cliffs, hundreds of feet high, where the layers of lava are exposed to view as in a cross-sectional diagram. Hulopo'e Beach Park is the most accessible shoreline area - while the beach itself is very nice, the really special attraction of this area is a point of land which extends into the ocean, featuring the finest collection of tide pools that I've ever seen anywhere in Hawai'i, in addition to a hidden white sand beach surrounded by orange cliffs. On any bright, sunny day, the variety and intensity of contrasting colors and textures to be found there is truly overwhelming.
Lana’i is especially endearing for its lack of traffic, crowds and noise - it seems as simple and sleepy as any place could ever hope to be. This is in stark contrast to Maui's growing communities, which have received an abundance of new houses, traffic-lights and parking structures during the past few years, while two-lane roads have expanded to five to accommodate an overwhelming traffic boom. Meanwhile, only fifteen miles across the ocean, Lana’i lies in perfect peacefulness, with fewer worries about traffic congestion than Yellowstone National Park.
