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Published: March 6th 2009
Mountain to the sea
Click on the picture to see the triangular sections of developed valleysOur first full day on Oahu is designed to illustrate the "mountain to the sea" nature of the sections of larger Hawai'ian communities.
We saw that when we flew above the more settled islands. Homes and businesses stretch up to a peak at the top of each habitable valley. And that habitation can be seen to go all the way down to the ocean.
This particular orientation means that Hawai'ians tend to think not so much on north-south terms as they do "toward the mountain" (mauka) and "toward the sea" (makai). Almost wherever they are on any of the islands, they are between a mountain and the ocean.
Each valley is named after its river. We start out at the mountain end of the Manoa River. Up there is the Lyon Arboretum, a research facility related to the University of Hawai'i - Manoa. One of its main missions is to save seeds of "endemic" Hawai'ian plants.
Hawai'i's plant population is nearly 98 percent "alien," introduced from someplace else on the planet. The plants are from Africa, Central and South America, Oceania, New Zealand and Australia, and southern Asia.
In Florida, we can stick a leaf or
First stop
Near the top of the Manoa valley branch in the sandy soil and expect it to grow! Hawai'i is the same way only more so being a little closer to the equator than we are.
Most of the "endemic" plants, those only found in Hawai'i, have been driven into the mountains or into extinction by the introduced plants. To try to avoid losing plants growing only in Hawai'i, the arboretum has set aside a building to preserve viable seeds and slips from these endangered plants. They also have another plant storage area in another part pf the state in case something happens to this site.
However, the arboretum also contains samples of most of the plants found on the islands so that they too can be studied by the university.
One such plant, wauke, is important because it was once used to make the cloth with which Hawai'ians garbed themselves. The inner bark is pounded carefully together to make a paper thin and rather delicate textile that will accept dyes well and can even be washed. Cotton and wool didn't become a factor in clothing islanders until after the missionaries came in the mid 1830s.
The arboretum has some beautiful flowers as well
as some rich vistas.
Our experience on the top of this valley was memorable.
Our next stop was in mid-valley at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa itself.
After giving us a view of the mission and nature of their program, a dean took us out on a porch high above the campus. From there we could see downtown almost to the ocean.
Susan turned us loose to tour the campus and sample the food served there as our lunch. Some of us made it as far as the student union where we found empty chairs and took naps!
The walking in the arboretum and on campus took a little of the vim out of our vigor and we and a few others were dropped off at the hotel rather than complete the trip from the mountain to the sea. The rest of the group went on to the Waikiki aquarium.
Marty reports on that part of the day in her T-blog at
http://www.travelblog.org/fred.php?id=375614
After being off my feet for awhile, I scouted the streets and alleys next to our hotel. I came up with two ABC stores and a stopping place for the
Plant "bank"
Where "endemic" (only growing in Hawai'i) seeds and slips are being stored for posterity bus to the Polynesian Cultural Center for which we signed up by phone. Saturday is again set aside as a "free" day and we chose the Cultura Center.
We also took advantage of the laundry while we had the chance.
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Marty
non-member comment
Movin' right along
Wow! Jerry, you're movin' right along with your Tblog. Just hitting your speed, so to speak. Keep going, I'm enjoying each page.