They were always teaching us something about this environment. Everywhere we floated, our guides pointed out the flora from native ferns and beautiful flowers to invasive guava trees with their heavily perfumed fruit.Īt one point, they climbed out of the kayak, picked plants, and scraped away the barks to let us smell root-beer and a cinnamon substitute. Sometimes we could see waterfalls mauka (up mountain). After showing it to us, Austin released it back into the ditch.įloating across the seven flumes gave us a different view of the landscape, with peeks into the heavy growth of this tropical rain forest. Later, just like salmon, they swim back up the gulches or ditch to start the cycle all over again. Apparently, the prawns’ hatched eggs drift down gulches and the ditch to enter the ocean where the little prawns grow by molting multiple times. In the 18 months it took to build the first 18 miles, 17 workers died.įresh-water prawns live in the ditch, introduced to Hawaiʻi from Tahiti in 1956. We also saw bits of history that the Japanese workers left: a mark chiseled into rock that indicated the passage of one month from the time they started that particular tunnel, and a slogan that cheered on the Japanese victory over the Russians in their 1905 war. At times we could hear babbling water other times it was completely silent except for the sounds we made. Some were so low that we had to lie back in the kayak to keep from hitting our heads.
Other tunnels curved, and it was pitch dark all along the way, except for our head lamps. Luckily, it was a straight shot and we could actually see the light at the end from the beginning. The longest tunnel on the three miles of the tour is 1800 feet.
This is a part of the Big Island that you wouldn’t ordinarily see, and I felt humbled to be here.
#Kohala water flume full#
The sun filtered through the ohia trees, at times shining full force and sparkling on the water. The noisy invasive coqui frogs have not yet made it up here, though we wouldn’t usually hear them until nightfall anyway. So we got the royal treatment, sitting in the middle of the kayak.Īs we lazily floated down the ditch, we listened to birds in the trees. Having chosen an early morning tour, Stacy and I were the only people. On tours where there are more customers, some may be asked to do one or the other job. The kayaks hold four people including one paddler and one person who steers. Those who have trouble walking, can be driven directly to the boarding point. The water is only knee deep.” I felt very safe throughout the experience.įrom the drop-off point, we took a 10 minute walk across an elevated 150 foot flume and then alongside the ditch before boarding the soft-sided kayaks. Should I be concerned?” Answer: “If you should fall into the ditch, simply stand-up.
#Kohala water flume how to#
One of the FAQ’s on the website is, “I don’t know how to swim. This ecotour is a tranquil ride: no white-water, no shootin’ the rapids, only a 1% grade and a couple of bubbling dips. Our local guides, Austin and Mark, gave us flotation devices, head lamps, and a safety talk. We started our tour at the historic Kohala Ditch Company Building in Hawi. Today, the sugar plantations are gone, but the waterway remains, still delivering water to local farms.
In those sections, they built elevated flumes to carry the water across. The water also had to be transported over deep gulches and streams. Other times they had to dig tunnels through solid rock with pick axes, occasionally blasting with dynamite. Today those sections are mostly reinforced with concrete and covered with moss it’s crumbling in some places. (There’s another ditch on the Honokaʻa side, the Lower Hāmākua Ditch.) Sometimes the Japanese plantation workers who built it more than 110 years ago, only had to dig a channel into the earth and line it with hand-chiseled stones. The Kohala Ditch is a 22.5 mile manmade waterway that brought water to the sugar plantations on the Hawi (north) side of the island. I’m amazed that after six years of Paradise living, I’m still finding new things to do. It was the six year anniversary of my move to the Big Island, and as my real estate agent, she was part of getting me here. This month, Stacy and I kayaked the Kohala Ditch with Flumin’ Kohala.
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