Letter from Hawaii
Nancy Lane has left the Academy of Science and ACT WISENET and moved to Hawaii. She sends this note about her new life.
Since leaving the Academy of Science in Canberra, I am really enjoying work at PREL (Pacific Resources for Education and Learning - see http://www.prel.org) where I am Director of Communications. I think I could easily get used to the climate – every day the weather report reads a low of 71 and a high of 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The trade winds keep it from being humid and sultry, the rain sprinkles while the sun shines and rainbows sparkle against the green hills. And going for a swim after work is habit-forming! My routine: about 6 am I usually go jogging up from the city to the Punchbowl Crater. After some exploration I’ve managed to find a route where I can keep running by using overpasses and quiet streets. The problem is that even at this hour of the morning, the city is full of traffic and I was always having to wait at stoplights. I pass by several mango trees, and collect the fallen fruit before the birds get to them.
What I found strange was seeing the trees I'm used to in Australia, but totally out of context - clinging to the sides of steep rainforest canyons, rather than growing in flat, dry, sandy soil. At the start of the trail was a grove of Norfolk Island pines, and later we passed through casuarinas (called ironbark here). But the weirdest was seeing silky oaks, stunted and twisted by the wind, along the top of the ridge. With friends, we also discovered the Bo Tree in the Foster Botanic Gardens. This was propagated from a tree in Sri Lanka, brought from India in 288 BC, from the tree under which Buddha received enlightenment.
I’ve discovered the gardens in the Museum of Contemporary Art, with sculptures scattered throughout a picturesque quasi-Japanese landscape and a special theatre setting designed by David Hockney, the view towards downtown Honolulu from the Punchbowl National Cemetary, and the even more spectacular view towards Waikiki from Mt Tantalus. On Queen Lili'uokulani's birthday, we went to three concerts of her songs -and there were no repeats. The queen was overthrown in 1893 and imprisoned for two years - giving her plenty of time for composing. The first two concerts, held on the Iolani Palace grounds under the banyan trees, featured Dennis Kamakahi on slack key guitar by a local glee club. The third was held at the Kawaiaha'o Church (construction started in 1837, using blocks of coral weighing more than 1000 lbs., which were hacked from the reef by divers), and featured the Kawaiolaonapukanileo (no, I can't pronounce it) Vocal Ensemble, a hand-picked a capella choir.
Aloha WISNET Australia, Nancy