The Forbidden Island
No commentsIf you love a mystery, consider a vacation on Kauai, Hawaii.
The mystery involves the neighboring island of Ni’ihau, Hawaii. The Robinson family has owned this island since 1864 and does not allow tourists. Ni’ihau is the westernmost of the main Hawaiian islands, measuring 550 square miles.
Ni’ihau (Nee-ee-how) is visible from the southwest shore of Kauai, lying low on the horizon 17 miles away. There are 200 or so native Hawaiians who live there and speak the Hawaiian language. In fact, it’s the only place the language is spoken any more. It is taught in the island’s only school, which goes K-8.
Islanders of course are free to leave and come back, so many of them do. They need to in order to get provisions from Kauai to live on the dry island, which is in the rain shadow of the ancient volcano cone on Kauai, Wai-ale-ale, “the wettest spot on earth” at 460 inches per year of rainfall.
The Robinson family, which owns Ni’ihau, has maintained sheep ranches there.
A stunning form of folk art comes from Ni’ihau. These are Ni’ihau shell leis, tiny shells strung from many strands. These tiny luminous shells come in various colors, and so whole families collect them and sort them for size and color. Then the artist, usually a woman, sets to work, punching a hole in each shell using an awl often made from a bicycle spoke (there are no cars on the island). About half the shells shatter at this point. She chooses colors in such a way as to make a final product that is textured with color.
If you look for similar shells on Kauai, only 17 miles away, you won’t find them. The reason is that the Kauai, home of sugar plantations, has had agricultural runoff for years which has killed off many of the creatures that make shells. Other Hawaiian islands have the same issue. But on pristine Ni’ihau, the rare shells can be found. As a result, the Ni’ihau shell leis are precious.
So, how did Ni’ihau form? Was it the first Hawaiian island, at the opposite end of the chain from the most recently formed one, the Big Island of Hawaii? Ancient Hawaiians thought it was the first one, the original home of the volcano goddess Pele, who hopped islands over the ages and is currently living in the active volcano on the Big Island. But scientists say that Kauai is the oldest island, and that Ni’ihau is a side vent of the volcano that formed Kauai. Ni’ihau is flat and sandy, except for an eroded lava dome on the eastern side of the island. There are also two freshwater lakes.
It’s possible to find a map of Ni’ihau, and pictures of its rock formations. But how can you go and see? In fact, the Robinson family is allowing a few forms of tourism now. Some helicopter tours from Kauai are allowed to land on remote beaches. And you can take a hunting safari, to control populations of feral bighorn sheep and Polynesian boars. In addition, scuba divers regularly dive off Ni’ihau.
Access to Ni’ihau is from Kauai, 17 miles away. While you’re on Kauai, you’ll want to play on the beaches and in the surf. You’ll also want to look at the stunning natural wonder that is the Na Pali coast, the northwest side of Kauai.
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 1:56 am and is filed under Vacation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
