| Photos from 2002 September 19 |
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This is a panorama shot (the thumbnail is just part of it) that shows
the view from about 3000 feet above sea level on the slope of Mt.
Haleakala, looking to the Northwest at dawn. The clouds have not yet
move in to mask the mountaintop, and as you pan left to right, you can
see the ocean on both sides of the central plain. This impressed me
to no end, for some reason, that you could see the ocean in either
direction.
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As I drove to Weilea today, I noticed that the cane sugar fields were
burning. This is apparantly a standard part of the harvesting
procedure, and makes for a very interesting smell as well as adding a
beautiful dusky tinge to the dawn. This panorama shot is looking to
the southeast. Soon, the sun will peek over the left shoulder of the
mountain. You can see the smoke rising from the burning sugar to the
right, and drifting in clouds to the left.
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Another panorama shot of Haleakala, this one from the deck outside the
Outrigger Hotel in Weilea, where the conference was. Going up on the
deck gave me the unobstructed view Id been seeking for days, and since
this photo was taken in the early afternoon, the clouds had already
moved in to cover the crown of the mountain.
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The west mountain, naked of cloud cover, at dawn while driving down the
Haleakala highway to the northwest.
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Again, the west mountain. I hadn't gotten a good look at it without
the clouds before, and I hadn't realized how ragged and pointy it was;
I thought it was one grand peak, but in fact, it has multiple peaks.
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The south side of the west mountain at dawn, before the clouds moved
in. The rising sun lights up the mountainside in shades of red and
orange.
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The raft snorkeling trip I took first took us around to the south side
of the island, where the most recent (centuries ago) lava flows came
out of Haleakala and hardened as they flowed into the ocean. The next
few images are of the bizarre shapes that the lava formed as it froze.
This is a typical view, showing the >french fry< structure at the
waterline and the pourus, jumbled look of the crust on top.
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This image shows an inlet between two lava flows. The currents were
too strong for us to try actually going up inside this inlet, but we
were in for some excitement later...
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This is Pinnacle Cove, so named after the ice cream cone shaped
structure in the middle of the cove. Unless the tour guide guy was
pulling our legs about all these names. I was really struck by the
diversity of structure that the lava could take on.
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This is a compression cave. Under certain conditions, the lava can
cool and harden on top while the sub-surface rock is still flowing.
Once this lava clears out, you have an empty tube left under the rock,
and the ocean flows happily in. Since air is an incompressible fluid,
the inrushing water leads to a gout of spray coming out the top of the
cave as the water pushes in the bottom. Now, in this case, the
overall size of the cave was such that the water never gets to the
top, but there was a smaller tube down at water level in the back of
this cave that did cause spectacular bursts of spray.
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Our boat pilot actually backed the raft into the cave and held it
there, balanced against the rocking pressure of the waves. This is
the inside wall of the cave. I believe the pink color at the bottom
indicates the beginning of coral polyps finding a home there, if I
understood him correctly. The echoes of the engines and the booming
surf were quite striking in here.
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A natural archway. The left pillar has a waterway behind it. In
theory, the boat could drive all around this pillar, through the
arch, but they did not on our trip.
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Our laid-back and sardonic boat driver, Jake.
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A hibiscus flower I liked.
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This is Michelle, the email pen-pal who was kind enough to offer me a
spare room for the week. We are about to start the Luau at the hotel
where the conference was.
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To start the Luau, this chap blew the conch shell, and then dashed
around the grounds, setting all the torches on fire.
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This was the result of my trip through the buffet line. Shredded pig
from a roast which they had just dug out of a pit minutes before, meat
steamed in Ti leaves, poi, salmon salsa, and Mahimahi in a macademia
nut butter sauce are just some of the interesting dishes to be
sampled.
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The sun setting over Weilea beach.
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Some canoers flit by as the last sliver of the sun disappears below
the horizon.
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The Luau consisted mostly of demonstrations of hula dances, both
traditional and... not so traditional. Hard to imagine how
traditional it could have been with electric bass and guitars as the
accompaniment. Still, the dancing was good. I was trying to get a
shot where the motion of the dancers was captured as a blur of light.
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Venus was so incredibly bright, I wanted to see what would happen if I
tried to take a picture of it. This is >Venus Art<, or >What happens
when you take an eight-second exposure without a tripod<. The planet
has been stunningly brilliant all week.
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More hula dancing, this time incorporating the banging of sticks together.
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This dance involved shaking gourds that had lots of red feathers
attached to them. I also took a 10-second quicktime movie clip of one
of the dances. It should be in this directory under the name Luau.MOV
should you like to take a gander at it.
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The full moon was absolutely stunning, and I tried taking a picture of
it as it lit up the clouds around it. It actually overexposed!
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Go to 2002 September 18
| Go to 2002 September 20
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