Kauai Polynesian Festival 2012
The 2012 Kauai Polynesian Festival will take place on Memorial Day weekend May 24 to 27 at Vidinha Stadium. This Kauai festival will feature Tahitian, Maori, Samoan and Hawaiian entertainment, Polynesian arts and crafts, solo and group dance competitions, food booths, and workshops.
Thursday, May 24
5:00 pm – Thursday night kicks off its 4-day weekend of cultural exchanges beginning with “A Polynesian Evening of Stars” an evening of Polynesian cultural protocol ceremony, entertainment by FAB4, a Hawaiian Contemporary group of four Hawaii Stars winners sharing energetic and heartwarming memorable tunes, fashion show and its newly added event “U Tink U Get Talent” a talent contest for youth and adult singers, dancers and musicians preparing to perform their favorite Polynesian song, dance or Polynesian instrument. Food, arts & crafts entertainment and more.
Friday, May 25
11:30 am – Gates open to partake in island style food and shop through the Polynesian arts & crafts, Polynesian farmer’s market display and demonstration tent.
12:00 pm – Celebrate a Polynesian Experience – a hands-on cultural crafts & dance activity. Learn weaving techniques using the fronds of the coconut and hala tree, learn to husk a coconut, fire making and spear throwing, finally let the pros teach you how to dance the hula, make a ti-leaf lei and tie a pareau (sarong), Polynesian style.
3:00 pm – The festival will feature island halau hula (schools of dance) who will share their talents in a selection of Traditional and Modern Polynesian dance presentations.
4:00 pm – Entertainment on center stage will begin with a repeat performance of ‘Oahu’s own FAB4, a Hawaiian Contemporary group of our Hawaii Stars winners sharing energetic and heartwarming memorable tunes.
6:00 pm – Aotearoa, New Zealand. The Maori action and poi ball dances of Aotearoa begins its dance competition followed by Na Kupuna Hula Auwana Group Competition and Keiki/Opio/Na Wahine solo & group Hula Kahiko competition in ages 6-12, 13-17 & 18-54. Entertainment, Polynesian dance exhibition, vendor fashion show offered each day.
Saturday, May 26
9:00 – Saturday morning at the soccer field, the dance workshops will begin with Maori action dances, poi ball, Samoan Fire Knife and Hawaiian Hula workshop. 9am to 11am.
11:30 am – Gates open to the public.
12:00 pm – Celebrate a Polynesian Experience – a hands-on cultural crafts & dance activity. Learn weaving techniques using the fronds of the coconut and hala tree, learn to husk a coconut, fire making and spear throwing, finally let the pros teach you how to dance the hula, make a ti-leaf lei and tie a pareau (sarong), Polynesian style.
3:00 – The festival will feature island halau hula (schools of dance) who will share their talents in a selection of Traditional and Modern Polynesian dance presentations.
4:00 pm – Entertainment on center stage will begin with Oahu’s own FAB4, a Hawaiian Contemporary group of four Hawaii Stars winners sharing energetic and heartwarming memorable tunes.
5:00 pm – The evening will begin with a Tahitian Otea dance exhibition performance by the 2011 KPF House drummers and dancers followed by dance competition in the Tahitian group Otea, Aparima & Ahupurotu categories. Directly after that, the evening will culminate with the exhilarating Fire Knife dance competition for age categories Junior 6-12, Intermediate 13-17 and Senior 18 & Over.
Sunday, May 27
9:00 am – Sunday morning at the soccer field, more dance workshops will begin with Tahitian dance and drumming workshops. 9am-11am.
11:30 am – Gates open to the public.
12:00 pm – Hawaiian Contemporary group “the FAB4″ will begin the Hawaiian entertainment on center stage.
1:00 pm – The competition will begin with Tahitian Ori/solo division ages 4-6, 7-9, 10-12, 13-17, 18-21, 22-25, 26-30, 31-39, 40 & over with Couples division and Drumming competition to follow. A Tahitian Tamure and Awards Ceremony culminate the weekend festivities.
Sierra Club Kauai Service Outing 2012
A Service Outing at Koke’e State Park August 26 thru September 1, 2012 will be hosted by The Sierra Club on the Island of Kauai. As a group of islands remote from nearby land masses, Hawaii evolved its own groups of plants and birds. These endemic species have been assaulted by invasive plants and animals, and those that have not already gone extinct are endangered. There are a few spots in Hawaii that continue to host endemics, and the upland area of Kauai (Koke’e State Park) is such a spot.
Depending on the group and the needs of the Koke’e staff, you may be clearing invasive vegetation from areas near popular hiking trails. The 2010 trip concentrated on one trail that is being improved for visitors to experience the historical sightlines within a forest walk. As with most State Parks, paid staff for trail upkeep are overworked or even non-existent. Your trip will be concentrating on clearing invasive plants and helping endangered endemics, but you will also talk about the challenges of island ecology.
Highlights
Reclaim a stretch of upland forest
Work with concerned locals to save the native birds and plants
Hike on both upland and seaside trails
Includes
All transportation on Kauai
All room and board during the trip
Sierra Club Kauai Hiking Outing 2012
Hiking the Garden Island is an outing sponsored by the Sierra Club on May 26 thru June 2, 2012. The trip will explore the diversity of Kauai through a variety of hiking excursions. You will hike the stunning ridge-top trails of Waimea Canyon. You will see the dramatic cliffs (pali) from both sea level and from high atop their ridgelines. You will stroll along an endangered beach and dunk into the turquoise Pacific.
The daily weather will determine which hike or swim we will do, as rain conditions around Kauai vary considerably. Days will include a combination of shorter walks and more strenuous hikes. The longest day is a nine-mile hike through the Alakai Swamp, which often offers both brilliant sunshine, warm tropical rain, and thick fog. Some hikes have cliff-top views with the beaches 4,000 feet below. Another day you will be hiking along the shoreline with the towering cliffs above you.
Highlights
Hike rainforest trails in Koke’e State Park
Snorkel and swim the Pacific
Discover endemic flora and fauna of Kauai
Includes
All meals except one dinner out mid-week; vegetarian option is available
All transportation, including pick-up and return to Lihu’e airport
All accommodations in shared cabins
Kauai Beaches and Rescue Tubes
Rescue Tubes have been installed on Kauai’s beaches to help distressed swimmers in areas where lifeguards are not stationed, or at times when they are not on duty. Because of strong rip currents around the island, more people on Kauai have died in the ocean than on the highway.
Since the Rescue Tube Foundation installed the first tube more than two years ago, 37 Rescue Tube saves have been reported. Rescue Tubes stand guard 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
In 2009, 67 tubes were installed, and 7 lives were saved.
In 2010, 107 tubes were installed, and 15 lives were saved.
In 2011, 162 tubes were installed, and 15 lives were saved.
Rescue Tubes are there for all of us. When you see a Rescue Tube, take a closer look and become familiar with it. Explain them to your family, friends, and visitors. Visit Rescue Tube Foundation for more information. Enjoy our beautiful beaches and stay safe on Kauai. 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.
Targeting Invasive Plants in Hawaii
The Nature Conservancy of Hawai‘i is using improved imaging and new software technologies to map, locate, and eliminate invasive plant species before they have a chance to threaten Hawaii’s delicate watersheds. The extremely high resolution images are made possible with better cameras that allow more area to be filmed from higher altitudes. New image resolution of up to one centimeter per pixel allows analysts to identify and map much of the younger small-leafed plants.
The work has already started with mapping for the removal of the Australian tree fern, a highly invasive plant that grows an average 30-feet high and 15-feet wide and displaces a lot of native trees. The fern began appearing in Hawai‘i in the 1970s and began spreading slowly over a 15-year period. During the last decade, the plant presented the potential to alter the Alaka‘i watershed and dominate the canopy of vegetation in the watershed.
The team will conduct aerial mapping to locate more ferns and eliminate them before they spread throughout the watershed. They can pick out plants in such detail that they can identify which are the bad ones to eliminate. After another year of mapping, they will remove the plants with low-volume herbicides on more than 5,000 Australian tree fern plants in Kauai’s forests. The herbicide technology was created by loading a compressed air gun with herbicide-filled paintballs that can target specific plants without overspraying and damaging surrounding vegetation.
The team will remap in three years to look for grow-back. In the meantime, the technology will expand to search out a long list of other small-leafed weed species spanning 20,000 acres of forest land across the state Hawai‘i, including the miconia and the strawberry guava. They are developing critical technologies with the potential to revolutionize forest conservation in Hawai‘i. These forests supply the fresh, clean water on which Hawai‘i’s people depend and are biological treasures vital to preserving the islands’ natural and cultural heritage.
