Lately, this blog has been more about future destinations rather than places visited. What can I say, I get almost as much joy planning the trips as actually taking them.
Hawaii has seven inhabited islands-- Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Maui, and the Big Island of Hawaii. Niihau is a heavily restricted, private island. There are three ways of getting there-- A) get invited by the owners (never going to happen), B) take a helicopter and spend half a day on a secluded beach (contact with the locals is strictly verboten), or C) take a helicopter and spend a whole day hunting for game.
Hopefully, if the stars align, I'll get to visit Niihau via option B this November. The only hitch is that the helicopter won't go unless there are five paying passengers. Do you know anyone who's dying to visit Niihau? Neither do I. Worst case scenario: I end up "stuck" on Kauai for a week. (The helicopter departs from Port Allen Airport on Kauai.)
The other exciting part? I get to ride in a helicopter for the first time. It's an Agusta Westland 109. The primary purpose of the copter is to ferry Niihau inhabitants to Kauai for medical emergencies.
Some Niihau factoids:
- Dimensions: 10 km x 30 km.
- Population: 130.
- Elizabeth Sinclair purchased the island from King Kamehameha V in 1864 for $10,000.
- Hawaiian is the principal language.
- No radios, TVs, or cell phones are allowed on the island.
- When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, an errant Zero crashed on Niihau.
- FDR wanted the United Nations to be headquartered there.
4 comments:
cool! makes me wonder: where is the least densely-populated place in america (per square mile)?
Awesome, never heard of it - good luck. Kaui'i is heaven on earth, my wife and I spent two weeks there in a two story condo right on the cliffs on the north end of the island four our honeymoon back on 2003. Everyone thought we were locals 'cause there aren't many tourists and we had a Rent A Wreck Sentra. Someday we have to go back.
@MattC: I'll bet the North Slope of Alaska is the least populated region in America. I'm going there next summer (Prudhoe Bay and possibly Barrow)!
@Alan: Ugh. I got a Sentra through a place like Rent A Wreck on Maui. The brakes failed on the way down a steep hill (with my wife and mom as passengers). It was a nightmare and I was wracked (sp?) with guilt for a long time. No injuries, but had I not hit the soft shoulder, we would have gone over a cliff. I'm getting flashbacks just typing this.
Scary.
Ours wasn't that bad, probably a1998 model in about 2003. It was pretty clean except for a small roach infestation. I called and asked for another car and they said "sure, we'd be happy to offer you another car sir, but please remember this is the wettest island in the world - roaches are everywhere."
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