Aloha Shirt Postage Stamps
Postage stamps picturing colorful Aloha shirts will go on sale at U.S. Postal Service offices around the country. The stamps also will be available online at www.usps.com. The aloha shirt stamps will be 29 cent postcard stamps.
Nothing says “Hawai‘i” or conjures casual good times like the colorful Aloha shirt, which takes its name from the Hawaiian word often used as a blessing or greeting. The U.S. Postal Service celebrates the spirit of “Aloha” with five stamps, each depicting a different shirt. Aloha shirts are made from boldly patterned fabric showing decorative images of Hawaiian life. Two of the five classic shirts depicted in the stamp art showcase surfers and their boards; one shows fossil fish, shells, and sea stars; another shows a tropical flower known as the bird of paradise; and one shows Kilauea, a volcano on the Big Island of Hawai‘i.
Hawaiian Reef Fish and Japanese Angelfish
Japanese Angelfish (Centropyge interruptus) are a rare Hawaiian reef fish found on reefs and ledges deeper than 60 feet in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands of Kure, Midway, and Pearl & Hermes. Like Potter’s Angelfish, they live in small groups of one male and several females. In addition to algae and detritus, they feed on the feces of plankton-eating damselfish, and are usually found where these are abundant.
It has an orange-yellow body with purplish blue spots completed with a bright yellow tail. In bright waters, the oranges and blues of this fish are electric. The spots are larger towards the tail, and the bottom part the rear of the fish gradually becomes purple. Males have more blue on the head than females and the margins of their soft dorsal and anal fins are blue with horizontal black markings. Blue facial dots become lines on males, and they can attain a length 6 inches.
Kauai Beaches and Haena Beach Park
Heana Beach Park is another great reason to visit the North Shore of Kauai. Located near the end of the road, the park sits at the edge of the Na Pali coast, and the presence of Mount Makana looming directly behind the beach is the major factor contributing to the magnificent look of the beach. Haena Beach Park is a favorite camping spot for both visitors and locals. It is a small park (about 5.5 acres) which offers a grassy picnic area with tables and benches, restrooms, cold showers, shady trees and camping spots.
The wide bay offshore is bordered by two large reefs, Makua Reef to the east and Hauwa Reef to the west, but the beach itself is completely exposed to the open ocean. During periods of high surf, waves funnel unchecked directly into the beach, creating dangerous water conditions – particularly a pounding shore break, and powerful rip currents. The sudden drop off and undertow make swimming in the winter months pretty much out of the question, but there are lifeguards on duty to advise you. Better swimming and snorkeling is just a short walk to Tunnels Beach and can be enjoyed year round.
Waikanaloa Wet Cave, with a large and still water pool, and its counterpart the Maniniholo Dry Cave is also near the beach. Limahuli National Tropical Garden is also nearby. The garden is a great treasure of rare native Hawaiian plants built in terraces. The trailhead to the Kalalau Trail is also just north of the park.
Good for picnics
Camping with permit
Beachcombing
Showers
Restrooms
Swimming
Surfing
Bodyboarding
Directions: Haena Beach Park is located only about a mile from Ke’e Beach (the end point of highway 56).
Please remember: When in doubt, don’t go out.
Check our Kauai Surf Report.
Kauai Rainbows
One of nature’s masterpieces is the rainbow, and the tropical climate and misty rain showers on Kauai provide many opportunities to see a rainbow painting the sky with colors. A rainbow is a dispersion of visible light which is composed of a spectrum of wavelengths, each associated with a distinct color. To see a rainbow, you have to have your back to the sun, which also has to be less than 42 degrees above the horizon with suspended droplets of water or a light mist. This only occurs in the morning and evening (the most common times to see rainbows). Each individual droplet of water acts as a tiny prism that both disperses the light and reflects it back to your eye. As you look into the sky, wavelengths of light associated with a specific color arrive at your eye from the collection of droplets. The net effect of the vast array of droplets is that a circular arc of ROYGBIV is seen across the sky.
Each water droplet in a rainbow disperses a full spectrum of colors, but from where you’re standing you will see only one of the colors from any particular drop. You will see the color that refracts at just the right angle to reach the place where you are standing. For example, you’ll see red when the angle between a beam of sunlight and the dispersed light (at the water droplet) is 42 degrees, and violet when the angle is 40 degrees.
The top of a rainbow is red and the innermost arc is violet – this is because a water droplet bends violet the most and red the least. If violet light from a single water droplet enters your eye, the red light from the same droplet will fall below your eye, and so you will not see it. To see red light you have to look at a raindrop higher in the rainbow.
A double rainbow is actually two completely different rainbows, one directly over the other, and are caused by a double reflection within the raindrops. The secondary rainbow is larger than the primary rainbow, and has its colors reversed, with violet on the top, and red on the bottom. In ancient Hawai‘i a rainbow (anuenue) symbolized the presence of a god or a chief.
Hawaiian Birds and Hawaiian Honeycreepers
Smithsonian scientists have determined the evolutionary family tree for one of the most strikingly diverse and endangered bird families in the world – the Hawaiian Honeycreepers. The researchers determined the types of finches that the honeycreeper family originally evolved from and also linked the timing of that rapid evolution to the formation of the main Hawaiian Islands. Using genetic data from 28 bird species that seemed similar to the honeycreepers morphologically, genetically or that shared geographic proximity, it was determined that the various honeycreeper species evolved from Eurasian rosefinches.
There were once more than 55 species of these colorful songbirds, and they are so diverse that historically it wasn’t even entirely clear that they were all part of the same group. Honeycreepers probably represent the most impressive example of an adaptive radiation in vertebrates that has led to a number of beak shapes unique among birds. Some eat seeds, some eat fruit, some eat snails, some eat nectar. Some have the bills of parrots, others of warblers, while some are finch-like and others have straight, thin bills.
Hawaii’s unusual geology played a role in the rapid evolution of many honeycreeper species that followed. The volcanic islands have formed one by one over time, as the Pacific tectonic plate is dragged across a “hot spot” of magma, and each new island provided a new opportunity for colonization. Each island that forms represents a blank slate for evolution, so as one honeycreeper species moves from one island to a new island, those birds encounter new habitat and ecological niches that may force them to adapt and branch off into distinct species.
The researchers looked at the evolution of the Hawaiian honeycreepers after the formation of Kauai-Niihau, Oahu, Maui-Nui and Hawaii. The largest burst of evolution into new species, called a radiation, occurred between 4 million and 2.5 million years ago, after Kauai-Niihau and Oahu formed but before the remaining two large islands existed, and resulted in the evolution of six of 10 distinct groups of species characterized by different sizes, shapes and colors.
Kauai Golf and Kukui’ula Golf Club
The Kukui’ula Golf Course on Kauai is a private 18-hole championship course designed by British Open Winner Tom Weiskopf. The course follows the natural flow of the land through 
the coffee fields, meadows, and rolling hillsides of Kukui’ula. This 216-acre, par 72 course features panoramic ocean views, paspalum-turf, sand-plated fairways, and a landscaped filled with native flora. The golf clubhouse consists of a well-appointed golf shop, men’s and women’s locker rooms, expansive lanai seating and indoor lounging areas.
Kukui’ula is a 1,000 acre luxury community on the South Shore of Kaua’i. A private $100 million clubhouse serves as the social and recreational centerpiece of the community and includes the main clubhouse, known as The Plantation House. There is also an elaborate array of swimming pools, a community farm, and 20-acre fishing lake. The course complements the island’s rolling terrain, dramatic views, and thrilling trade winds. Players will face a different set of challenges and opportunities each time they play, but always require them to think their way around the course. Tee times are set aside each week for locals to play.
Course: 18 Holes Par 72
Black Tees: 7,028 yards – 74.8 Rating – 130 Slope
Gold Tees: 6,649 yards – 73.0 Rating – 128 Slope
Blue Tees: 6,203 yards – 71.3 Rating – 124 Slope
White Tees: 5,721 yards – 68.6 Rating – 122 Slope
Red Tees: 4,949 yards – 65.0 Rating – 109 Slope
Blue Tees: 76.9 Rating – 126 Slope
White Tees: 74.0 Rating – 123 Slope
Red Tees: 69.7 Rating – 114 Slope
