The Forbidden Island
Phyllis Wheeler
Take a vacation to Kauai, Hawaii, and look in to a mystery.
Here's the mystery: what's it like on the Hawaiian island of Ni'ihau? This 550-square-mile island is the westernmost of the main Hawaiian islands and has been privately owned since 1864 by the Robinson family, which forbids tourists.
Ni'ihau (Nee-ee-how) is separated from Kauai by a 17-mile strait. Standing on the Kauai shore, you can see Ni'ihau slung low on the horizon. If you could go to Ni'ihau you would hear native Hawaiian spoken. In fact, it's the only place you can go to hear native Hawaiian spoken as a living language. Hawaiian is taught in the island's K-8 school.
Islanders of course are free to leave and come back, so many of them do. They need to in order to get provisions from Kauai to live on the dry island, which is in the rain shadow of the ancient volcano cone on Kauai, Wai-ale-ale, "the wettest spot on earth" at 460 inches per year of rainfall.
The Robinson family, which owns Ni'ihau, has maintained sheep ranches there.
Ni'ihau artists create shell leis, stringing together thousands of tiny shells to make intricate folk art. Whole families collect tiny luminous shells, which come in a variety of colors. Then they sort them, and the artist chooses the colors to make intricate patterns. She punches a hole in each shell using a simple tool; at least half the shells break. Her tool may be made from a bicycle spoke--there are no cars on the island, but there are bicycles.
The Ni'ihau shell leis are precious in part because the shells are rare on other Hawaiian islands. Kauai, for example, was home of sugar plantations for many years. The agricultural runoff has destroyed many of the sea creatures that make shells.
So, how did Ni'ihau form? Was it the first Hawaiian island, at the opposite end of the chain from the most recently formed one, the Big Island of Hawaii? Ancient Hawaiians thought it was the first one, the original home of the volcano goddess Pele, who hopped islands over the ages and is currently living in the active volcano on the Big Island. But scientists say that Kauai is the oldest island, and that Ni'ihau is a side vent of the volcano that formed Kauai. Ni'ihau is flat and sandy, except for an eroded lava dome on the eastern side of the island. There are also two freshwater lakes.
It's possible to find a map of Ni'ihau, and pictures of its rock formations. But how can you go and see? In fact, the Robinson family is allowing a few forms of tourism now. Some helicopter tours from Kauai are allowed to land on remote beaches. And you can take a hunting safari, to control populations of feral bighorn sheep and Polynesian boars. In addition, scuba divers regularly dive off Ni'ihau.
Access to Ni'ihau is from Kauai, 17 miles away. While you're on Kauai, you'll want to play on the beaches and in the surf. You'll also want to look at the stunning natural wonder that is the Na Pali coast, the northwest side of Kauai.
About the Author:
If you adore a puzzle, you'll come to Kauai for a Kauai Hawaii vacation. You'll want to read all about Niihau, the off-limits Hawaiian isplace, as well as about Kauai, place of lush natural beauty, from writer Phyllis Wheeler.
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