Paradise on Earth

 

Rising above the ocean floor is an island so unique and beautiful that it can be difficult to describe with mere words.  Surrounded by a vast ocean thousands of miles from anywhere you will find the remains of an extinct volcano blanketed by pristine rainforests and lush fertile valleys replete with colorful tropical flowers, giant trees, and the air filled with the songs of exotic birds echoing among the trees.

 

At the center of the island is a towering mountain jetting up high above the clouds with hundreds of waterfalls cascading down its sheer vertical face giving birth to the many streams and rivers that flow across the island and into the sea.  One of these rivers over a period of millions of years has carved a magnificent canyon with red and black lava rock walls nearly a mile deep.  This canyon is so impressive that a famous writer upon seeing it christened it "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific."

 

The island's coastline is as beautiful and diverse as its interior, with gentle palm trees lining white sand beaches that can go on for miles, and there are the numerous black lava outcroppings and huge chocolate boulders bathed by the relentless motion of an aquamarine sea.  The north of the island is tropical and lush with many different hues of vibrant green, while the eastern coast can be windy and cool and is often covered in clouds in the afternoon. In the  south and west of the island you will find a red desert like landscape with gentle rolling hills covered with flowering trees and odd shaped cacti.  From every direction you can see magnificent clouds sailing like great ships across the shimmering ocean picking up vast amounts of rain that will bathe the island each evening and decorate the landscape with dozens of rainbows some visible at night during a full moon.

 

This is the magical island of Kauai, the special place I've chosen for my home.  I like to think of this place as a refuge and a sanctuary, "the rainforest of my imagination" where my creative spirit can dwell unhindered from the turmoil of modern world.  Kauai is that lost world I imagined in my youth, that special place where the raw power of earth, sea, and sky are at their greatest. 

 

I hope you will enjoy a few of the special moments I've tried to capture with my camera over the years, and I hope that you will visit our island, and that you too will be rewarded with memories that will last a lifetime.

                                                                                                         Charles Ellenberger