Last week, I took off in my friends beater Honda Civic, that barely drives, to go to the other side of the island I’m currently visiting. Kaua’i has a huge wilderness area called Ko’ke’e which houses possibly the wettest place on earth (there’s even a sign), an ancient high elevation swamp, and some of the oldest soil from the Hawai’ian island chains. Kaua’i is the oldest of the islands,
with the most endemic plants of any island in the world. The island is formed by many volcanic layers over time, and when looking at a map showing the ages of the volcanic formed soil, the place I went to hike was the oldest. Since I have been volunteering at an agroforestry project since I’ve been here, called the Kaua’i Food Forest,
I’ve been introduced to a lot of plants, especially the ecologically and culturally significant ones they harbor at the food forest project. I took off to the woods for time alone and to see a different ecology, as the island changes from ridge to ridge- and one side is like a desert and the other a rainforest. I’m using the Partiko app so I can only post one picture for now, but one of the plants I have been enamored by here is Māmaki or the ‘nettle tree’ an endemic tree to the Hawaiian islands in the Urticaceae family like Stinging Nettles! It’s scientific name is Pipturus albidus. It has many varieties (technically all one species though they are various different colors) which are all planted in the food forest. I found it hiking in Ko’ke’e and felt my heart fill up- as plants sometimes feel more like my friends than humans do. It’s leaves were and are still used for tea (I’ve had many cups!) like Stinging Nettles, and the bark for fiber and cordage. The bark isn’t harvested much now because of it becoming more rare due to invasive species brought to the islands. Many of the native plants are highly specialized to niche ecosystems that the invasive plants often take their place.
This hike and stealth camp in the backcountry (I didn’t get a permit and didn’t know I needed one until I got up there, and you can only buy one on the other side of the island!) blew me away. I slept so well in the forest, even with all the rain. The next morning I got up and walked towards the Napali Coast, of which is closed to people right now. There is a coastal trail that was popular among the global adventurer that parts of were destroyed in a flood this year. Of course, the native Haawai’ians would prefer that non natives keep out anyway. Many of the areas along the coast house permaculture like terraces growing Taro or Kalo in Hawai’ian - tended by families generation after generation- diverting water like rice to their beds and then back out to streams as the Kalo was fed.
I slid on muddy paths. The rains would come, I would parka up and then the sun would come out. Over and over. The humidity was immense. There were no mosquitoes up high. The dry hill tops were covered in Ericaceae looking plants- drier loving organisms. Everywhere you go on Kaua’i, including way out there in the wilderness, you hear feral chickens! They apparently started going wild at some point after a storm, I was told.
That’s all for the moment, there’s so much to share about my experience here and I am leaving in a few days and don’t really want to go. I hope to come back after some time of reflection on what I have learned here and taken in from the magic of this land and the spirits that are VERY present. I also am conscious of what it means to be a settler on stolen land. I have been trying to be of service, helping plant back native foods at the food forest.