Molokai May09 2day flyover and stay

We flew over in a friends Cesna with our pilot Adam. The weather has been unusually absent of trades, very light wind. The morning sea was calm, malie, containing but a small west swell. We flew straight in to Ilio Point at 3000 then descended to 1500, and then lower to land at Kalaupapa. Adam parked the plane, and we took a few minutes to explore the little terminal with it's restrooms, coke machine and twin water fountains. Kalaupapa's fame is due to the law decreed by the fifth Kamehameha in 1865 which banished all Hawaiians with the disease to Kalaupapa. "They were strangers to each other, collected by common calamity, disfigured, mortally sick, banished without sin from home and friends." (Robert Lois Stevenson) North east of the airport is a Kalaupapa lighthouse whose first light was seen in 1906. Its sweeping light was one of the few comforts to the people banished there to live out their lives. Despite its small size, the peninsula is a continuum of habitats, microclimates, vegetation, shoreline, every point unique. The windward eastern shore was known as Kalawao, the site of the original lepper colony was at the point the penisula met the cliff face, perhaps to take advantage of the protection from wind and weather provided by the cliff - we only looked at it as Kalaupapa is forbidden to uninvited outsiders. The later and present settlement is on the western leeward shore where the climate is likely warmer and drier. At the highest point is Kauhako, the remnant of the volcano whose lavas formed Kalaupapa. Visible in its center from the vantage point of our aircraft, is a deep pu'u - throat - which plunging deep into darkness. A road connects Kalawao and Kalaupapa village which tangentially touches the pu'u. A white cross stands at the edge of the crater. Like every place touched by man, the land speaks by its being, silent, immortal. Kalaupapa, the geographic site, is physically estimated at 300,000 to 500,000 years. Man has been here perhaps a the last thousand. 20 or so now remain at Kalaupapa. When the last leaves or dies, Kalaupapa will become a national park.