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View From Here - Hawaii Travel Blog - Beaches

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 - 35

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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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Oahu Beach Infographic

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 5/17/2013

Destination: Oahu

It's here. When the first big south swell arrived this week, we got our first hint: Summer has arrived.
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Why I Don't Write Best Beach Lists

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Thu 5/9/2013

Destination: Kauai

To help you create the perfect beach experience, we’ve created an infographic for four of Hawaii’s islands—Oahu; Maui; Hawaii, the Big Island; and—below—Kauai.
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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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Our Insatiable Need to Collect Things

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 3/6/2013

Beaches are a magnet for shell seekers, for people with a collection of heart-shaped bits of coral, for those looking for broken and ocean-smoothed pieces of glass. Creative types may convert their finds into long strands of necklaces or wire-wrapped earrings. Or they may glue them to picture frames or decorate scrapbooking pages with their treasures. But just as likely, as I can testify, goodies collected from the beach wind up in a dish or jar or coffee can (do they still exist?) that, over time, gets moved to a cabinet and, then, pushed behind an old board game, an electronic picture frame with dead batteries, or, maybe, a kitchen gadget that used to work, all completely forgotten.
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Hana Needs a Home for the Holidays

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Fri 11/30/2012

Destination: Kauai

I wasn’t sure about going to the beach with Hana. Not everyone likes the ocean with its moving water. Some prefer a calmer surface. That’s why I chose Kalapaki on Kauai’s southeast shore. Kalapaki is a white-sand beach practically smack in the middle of Lihue. It’s a quarter-mile long with an easy, wide beach tucked behind a protective finger of land, which was once owned by Princess Ruth Ke’elikolani.
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Odyssey of a Hawaiian Monk Seal and a Volunteer in Waikiki

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 10/24/2012

Destination: Oahu

The sky above Diamond Head had just started to pink when I hit Kalakaua Avenue for my morning walk. I wasn't alone. Surfers bobbed on the waters off Waikiki Beach, which, I quickly noticed, rippled with a late-season south swell. Dogs had hit the streets, too. One particular chocolate Lab strained at its leash, its head cranked toward the ocean, yearning and excitement oozing from its whole body. On the beach, a group of Japanese soccer players ran drills. Another man was inventing a new form of stretching exercise.
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How Cleaning Hawaii's Beaches Saves Marine Life & Generates Electricity

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Mon 7/2/2012

Destination: Kauai

A whole container of ghost nets is now making its way to Oahu, thanks to the generosity of Matson Shipping. Schnitzer Steel will take delivery and a pair of giant scissors will be cut up the tangled nets into foot-long pieces. The bits and pieces of nets will, then, be trucked to the H-Power facility, where it will be converted into electricity for residents on Oahu. Bravo to Surfrider, Malama Na Apala and the many volunteers who have made this possible. Our endangered Hawaiian monk seals, humpback whales and sea turtles are a whole lot safer. And beaches are a whole lot cleaner.
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Hamakua Mushrooms and the Hukilau at Anini Beach

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Thu 5/31/2012

Destination: Kauai

High school graduations, summer vacation and a recent holiday weekend all point to summer on Anini Beach, a long thin, thread of sand on Kauai’s North Shore with a white ribbon of breaking surf a hundred yards off-shore where the primarily algae reef, home to a high number of endemic fish and marine organisms, greets incoming waves from as far away as the Bering Sea. Summer means Hawaii’s surf season has swung around to the south shores of the archipelago, the recipient of waves delivered by winter storms in the southern hemisphere. But stiff trade winds draw kite boarders and windsurfers to the usually calm inner lagoon, so there’s still plenty of fun to be had on the water at Anini.
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In Search of My New Hero

Kim Steutermann Rogers on Wed 4/11/2012

Destination: Oahu

I wasn't in Haleiwa on Oahu's North Shore to surf. I didn't much care whether the surf was breaking at Jockos or not. But I did want to know whether Jocko's mom was around. Surfline couldn't tell me that. I'd have to find out for myself. I first learned of Audrey Sutherland when I read the February/March issue of Hana Hou, Hawaiian Airlines' in-flight magazine. According to the magazine, Audrey Sutherland has paddled an estimated 12,000 thousand miles along some of the world's most epic coastlines. In an inflatable kayak. Solo.
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