Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [142]
Kea’au Beach Park
This beach park is a long, open, grassy strip that borders a rocky shore. It has rest rooms, showers, drinking water and picnic tables, making it a good place to unpack that picnic lunch. A sandy beach begins at the very northern end of the park, although a rough reef, sharp drop and high seasonal surf make swimming uninviting.
North along the coast you’ll see lava cliffs, white-sand beaches and patches of kiawe, while on the inland side you’ll glimpse a run of little valleys.
Makua Beach
This beach has an interesting history – way back in the day it was a canoe landing site for interisland travelers. In the late ’60s it was used as the backdrop for the movie Hawaii, starring Julie Andrews. These days there is little here beyond a nice stretch of sand opposite the Makua Military Reservation.
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HOMELESS IN PARADISE
Every big city in the USA has a homeless population, due in part to an inadequate mental health-care system, drug and alcohol abuse and a certain cultural legacy of wanderers and drifters. But in O‘ahu, where many of the city-managed beach parks have become permanent homeless encampments, the profile of the average homeless person is quite different from that of the mainland. Many in this group are low-income families who have been pushed out by the island’s housing boom.
The state doesn’t have an accurate figure of how many people are living at the parks, but 2006 estimates put the number at about 1000 people living on the beach of the Wai’anae (Leeward) Coast. Other sources quote between 12,000 to 15,000 islandwide and include extended families living together in cramped quarters.
With the state’s strong economy and increasing national housing prices, many rental properties, especially in the now-gentrifying Wai’anae (Leeward) Coast, have been sold to owner-occupiers, thus diminishing the available rental accommodations and driving up rents. A studio apartment that cost $400 per month in Makaha a few years ago now costs about $800.
Many low-income families – some with service-industry or construction jobs, others receiving some form of government assistance – can’t afford the increase and can’t find alternatives within the state’s public-housing system or the federally funded housing-assistance program. Another aggravating factor is the state’s diminishing stock of public housing, with no new construction in the past decade.
With the economic downturn affecting O′ahu both directly and indirectly due to a reduction in tourist numbers, the number of homeless people living on the Wai’anae (Leeward) Coast is bound to increase.
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Locals crawl out from their nine-to-five lives on holiday weekends to absorb the sun and spirit of the beach. The powerful shorebreaks are popular with bodyboarders and high surf waves appear in winter and spring. Spinner dolphins are frequent visitors and snorkeling is good at the northern end.
There are two parking lots on either side of the beach, but no facilities.
Kaneana Cave
Two miles north of Kea′au Beach Park sits this giant stone amphitheater. Carved out by the incessant waves through centuries of pounding, this enormous cave sits dry by the roadside. The waves that created the cave have receded and now the highway sits between it and the seashore.
Kahuna once performed rituals inside the cave’s inner chamber. Older Hawaiians consider it a sacred place and won’t enter the cave for fear that it’s haunted by the spirits of deceased chiefs. Judging by the collection of broken beer bottles and graffiti inside, it’s obvious not everyone shares their sentiments.
Ka′ena Point Satellite Tracking Station
The US Air Force operates a satellite tracking station high on the ridge of O′ahu’s northwesternmost tip. It was originally built for use in the country’s first reconnaissance satellite program (known as Corona), but now supports weather, early warning and communications systems. The station is