Captain James Cook, the 18th century English navigator who met his end on February 14, 1779, at Kealekehua Bay on the Big Island of Hawaii. Cook's Wikipedia entry is worth reading. An unhappy Valentine's Day for the adventurer who on his third epic voyage. On previous trips to Hawaii, my husband have seen the Cook monument from across the bay, and my son and snorkeled very close it. It was time to approach it one more way -- on foot.
Monday was a cool day (for Hawaii). In fact, Lihue on Kauai registered a record low for the high temperature of the day: 61 degrees. What better day for a sea-level hike? The trail to the Captain Cook monument is off a side road north of the eponymous town of Captain Cook. The unmarked trailhead is across from three tall palm trees (below).
Cars park along the road, which reeks from sewer pipe vents along the way. A few steps and the sewerage strench is mercifully gone. The rail is walled in dense greenery, and rooster and wild bird seranades accompanied us as we descended between old sugarcane fields with trailside trees here and there.
The cane fields give way to open woods and then to stark lava flows, which absorb the heat and blast it back at hikers. The current Kiluea erputon is on the other side of the island.
The vegetation thickens near the shore, where sea kayakers pull up. Authorities are concerned about damage to corral, and kayaking is probably going to be banned soon from Kelalekahua Bay.
A short spur trail leads to the monument, which is officially on British soil to this day. Note to the Queen: Your Majesty, send someone to repaint the monument. It's peeling.
Here is the inscription on the base of the obelisk. A couple of other, small commemorative plaques have been placed around the platform too.
The hike isn't too long (a tad over two miles each way, with about a 1,300 elevation difference), and there certainly is a lot of oxygen at sea level. However, the heat and the humidity made it feel much longer. In fact, coming up was miserable and ennervating. No matter what the thermometer registered, it felt beastly hot -- at least for people like us who live in a low-humidity place. But even as we took sweaty step after sweaty step, it was the least we could do to recognize one of the important early navigators who began mapping the world as we know it. I won't get into the political aspects of these voyages, "discoveries" and conquests. I'm just honoring the curiosity and courage required to make the months-long voyages to unknown places.
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