Kilauea Lighthouse, Kauai, Hawaii

Aloha… Blog #2

Dear Blog Readers,
Enjoy this blog about our excursion to the…
               Kilauea Lighthouse & National Wildlife Reserve 

Today, the lighthouse is an important landmark and a beautiful picture postcard. 

A National Historic Landmark, this lighthouse had the largest clamshell lens of any lighthouse in the world and served as a beacon since it was built in 1913 to guide passing sea and air traffic. It was built on land purchased from the Kilauea
Sugar Company for "the consideration of one dollar" and was manned for 62 years before being automated. In 1979, the lighthouse was placed on the National
Register of Historic Places. Its importance over the years lies in the fact that Kilauea Point is the northernmost point of land in the inhabited Hawaiian Island chain of islands and was therefore the first landfall seen by ships arriving from the Orient.  The light was replaced in the 1970s with a low-maintenance light beacon. You can walk into the lighthouse but not the lantern room. It is at an elevation of 180 ft. on 31 acres. 

From our condo in Princeville, it's a short drive down the road to the lighthouse. 

Do you see the island in the top lefthand corner background of this photo 
(taken from our condo)? 
The lighthouse is sitting atop the promontory to the right of the island.

A refuge for several species of seabirds, some nesting and endangered, surrounds the lighthouse. Red-footed boobies, Laysan albatrosses, wedge-tailed shearwaters and the magnificent frigate bird can be seen at the refuge. The refuge is alive with birds! It is easy to see them with the large binoculars provided.

The day we visited, we saw Laysan albatross (watched babies through binocs), nene, red-footed boobies (hundreds of them) and frigate birds.

This is the cliff where hundreds of red-footed boobies live!

I could not get a photo of an albatross! So I copied this one from the internet.
 The rest of the photos were taken with my Panasonic Lumix camera. 

The Hawaiian nene goose (relative of the Canada Goose), once endangered is making a comeback due to the efforts of the Wildlife Refuge. This state bird (no, not the helicopter!) was once almost extinct. 

Dozens of the nene roam the refuge grounds around the Kilauea Lighthouse.

We often see the nene land on the grass in front of our cliff-side condo.
...And come begging!
I never feed wildlife, but obviously, someone is doing it. Bob did not!

Humpback whales are often seen off of the point at the lighthouse. We did not see any the day we visited. This morning however, I saw 6 while having my morning coffee (from the vantage point of the cliff right outside of our condo)! They were too far away for a photo. Sorry. 

When visiting the lighthouse, you are able to use your National Park Pass. 

On our drive home from the lighthouse, we saw this roadside stand
and stopped to buy some fresh juicy lemons.

There's lots to see and do on the island of Kauai. 

Thanks for joining us on one of our adventures. We hope that you visit us again.

Cheers,

Mary and Bob