Photography, Travel

A Different Sort of Blue

Approaching Maui

There is a shade of blue which you encounter about ten miles out from the shore, as you head into the afternoon light, en route from Long Beach, CA to Maui.

When you first leave land and turn out over the open ocean, the clouds tend to fall like tangled strands of pearls flung out over a pale blue satin.

So much of the flight is over open water, unfathomably deep. The clouds, here, sheet across the waters in delicate layers, like tissue paper.

This section of the ocean always holds my imagination in thrall. Who knows what creatures inhabit these depths? It’s hard to tell where the ocean ends and the sky begins. What would it be like if this watery realm was your home?

I think about the Humpback Whales, who migrate each spring from the warm breeding and nursing grounds around Hawaii all the way to the frigid, but nutrient-dense, waters of Alaska and then turn back around and do it all over again in the fall.

As the plane approaches Maui, the other islands begin to emerge from the sea. This whole region was cast into being from the depths of a volcanic field, and, from the air, it is obvious how the islands are all connected by a common, shallow ocean floor.

Approaching the airport, the plane flies over the neck of land which connects the two ends of the island. The excitement always begin to twirl in my stomach about here because I know that we are close.

Then, you can see the long slant of a line of windmills winding up the hillside (you have to click the photo below to enlarge it enough to really see the windmills).

Maui captured my heart many years ago and just thinking about her warm waters is enough to soothe my mind.

I’m here now, in this little piece of heaven for the next week. We’ve hit the peak season for the Humpbacks and we’ve already been whale-watching and have seen many, many mom and baby whales (photos coming soon). I can hear the ocean from where I sit, typing these words. Her powerful lure tugs at me — time for a little swim, I think!

Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).

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