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View From Here - Hawaii Travel Blog - Snorkeling & Water Adventures

Welcome to View from Here, a travel blog, where I write about living in, traveling about and experiencing Hawaii as a malihini, a 12-year-resident of the Hawaiian Islands. My name is Kim Steutermann Rogers, and you're likely to find blog posts here about food--who doesn't like to eat?--and outdoor adventure. Like hiking through Haleakala on Maui. Diving with manta rays off Hawaii (Big) Island. Snorkeling Shark's Cove on Oahu. And paddling Napali Coast of my home island, Kauai. Not that I'm some, young, adrenaline junkie. Those days are long over. I just enjoy collecting life experiences. And that's why you probably won't find much in the way of shopping here, unless it's about a fantastic, locally-made product--like soap--and the charming, young, single-mother who makes it. Then, I gush on and on. Oh, as a warning, I can sometimes jump on my soap box and write about the realities of marine debris, Hawaii's endangered species--like humpback whales and Hawaiian monk seals--great book discoveries and the wonders of nature. And my dogs.

Total Number of Entries - 60

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Readying to Kayak Napali Coast

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Tue 5/21/2013

Destination: Kauai

One month from today, I will spend five days kayak-camping along Napali Coast. That means, I have 30 days to get in shape. The trek will involve kayaking 17 miles along the majestic Napali Coast, one of Hawaii's most scenic vistas. We will explore sea caves and dip into waterfalls. We will gawk at the line-up of cliffs that gives this coastline its name--Napali translates to English as "the cliffs." One month from today, I will spend five days kayak-camping along Napali Coast, and that means, I have 30 days to get in shape.
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Waves of Waimea Bay

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 4/10/2013

Destination: Oahu

Beyond the always crowded parking lot. Past the sticks of showers circling the public restrooms. Far to the south of the command center that is the lifeguard tower in the center of Waimea Bay is a rock jutting into the ocean at the edge of the beach. It’s more than twice my height and where I wanted to be to photograph the surf rolling into Waimea Bay—surf so big that lifeguards had closed the beach to swimming and alerted beachgoers on a public address system whenever ripples on the water’s surface far on the horizon, made their way to shore, hit the steeply rising land, and pitched into the monster surf for which Waimea is famous. The right-breaking waves off the point at the north end of the bay can grow to 50 feet. That’s no small thing. In fact, that’s the height of a five-story building.
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The Inspiration of a Master Canoe Shaper

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 3/27/2013

Destination: Oahu

I spent an afternoon last week in an industrial area a few miles from Honolulu International Airport, past a sand and gravel supplier, a drywall contractor and a cabinet re-facing company, in a setting that made me wonder whether Hawaii Five-0 had filmed here. The place was hot, reeked of migraine-inducing paint fumes, and everything was coated in layers of dust that you could measure in quarter inches, and for Tay Perry, this is his office away from the office. Amidst the sounds of power sanders and paint guns, this is where a lifetime of passion and sweat go into creating Tay’s legacy—shaping canoes.
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Hooking More Than Just Fish. Hawaiian Monk Seals At Risk.

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 2/18/2013

Destination: Kauai

“Are you on island?” she asked. She knows I travel around the Hawaiian archipelago and cannot always respond to her requests. As it turned out, I was not only on Kauai, but I was above the very beach a male Hawaiian monk seal needed help. I knew this monk seal, flipper-tagged T12, and born three years ago to a regular, productive mother, known as Rocky. The juvenile seal had recently molted, and sported a beautifully, clean coat of silvery-grey and milky-white stomach.
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Saving the Seas of Sea Monsters

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 2/15/2013

Destination: Maui

When I arrived at slip number 17 at Lahaina Wharf to check in for my whale watching boat tour, it was mid-morning and clouds drizzled down the West Maui mountains behind me. It had rained hard overnight. But looking out to sea, the sky was blue. I hoped the skies would remain their blue color, but the bruised clouds behind me were making a convincing argument otherwise.
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A Lola-Palooza Whale of a Day

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Tue 2/5/2013

Destination: Maui

The most often heard word on most whale watches is, “Blow.” And, indeed, that was the word I heard repeated again and again last night. As in, “Single blow. Three o’clock.” Or “Double blow. Ten o’clock.” Today, however, the word of the day started with a "B," but it wasn't "blow."
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Here fishy fishy fishy. Gone whale watching.

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 2/4/2013

Destination: Maui, Kauai

Travel is hazardous to fingernails. I've only just sat down in seat 6B, and I've already ripped off two, one from each hand. But I don't mind. I've come to see my ragged fingernails as something else--a sign that I am once again doing that thing I love: traveling.
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Glenn Poulain's "Honu Ascent"

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 1/21/2013

Destination: Hawaii Island, Kauai, Maui, Oahu

Glenn Poulain is giving away a stunning 20x30" underwater image called, "Honu Ascent." Join us tomorrow, January 22, 2013 from 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. HST on our OutriggerHawaii Facebook page, and one day soon this canvas print framed in Koa veneer might be hanging in your home.
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A Chat with Hawaiian Fire Surf School's John Pregil

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 7/30/2012

Destination: Oahu

Meet John Pregil, co-owner of Hawaiian Fire Surf School. He’s an interesting blend of laid-back and charge ‘em and a reminder that not all surfers are slackers. And firefighters are not just brawn. John and I met over the Internet via email. I sipped a cuppa Hawaiian Vanilla black tea. And he? Well, he might have been enjoying a cold one after a major surf session off Magic Island. Read on. You’ll see what I mean.
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Whatever Happened to Kolohe the Monk Seal?

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 7/11/2012

Destination: Kauai

A couple months ago, one rascally Hawaiian monk seal appeared on a Kauai beach with extra baggage. That is, a giant ulua hook. The fish hook had lodged deep in the monk seal's throat and veterinarians decided the wily buggah wouldn’t take kindly to them digging in his throat to remove it. So, they flew him to Oahu to perform the procedure in a controlled environment. He spent nearly two weeks there but was eventually flown back to Kauai and released on a south shore beach.
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