The Hawaii Traveler

Honolulu Harbor in 1881

The Hawaiian Islands, as you know from previous posts, are comprised of about 137 islands, islets, and shoals that were once known as the Sandwich Islands, named by Captain James Cook, whose trip there was sponsored by the fourth Earl of Sandwich.Now called the Hawaiian Islands, this archipelago of nineteen islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts crawl northwest by southeast in the North Pacific Ocean at the top of the Polynesian Triangle. Thus endeth the history lesson.

Now on to the more interesting question: What’s with those other, tiny little hunks of lava out in the middle of the Pacific?  The short answer is: Water, as most of these chunks of coral and sand and lava are so small that there’s no room for people, animals, or vegetation.  They are still fascinating, however, for exactly the same reason, in my opinion.

First off, those smaller islands, atolls, and reefs beyond Niʻihau are called the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, or Hawaiian Leeward Islands, and are all uninhabited, which the exception of historic Midway, which may or may not have people on it at any given time. (The very inhabited, main islands in the chain that everybody knows about are called the Southeastern (Windward) Islands.

Here’s a list of those Leeward Islands, which, like little planets, are accompanied by a host of other, littler rocks caught in their metaphorical orbit, bringing the number to a hundred and thirty-something…

• Nihoa (Mokumana)
• Necker (Mokumanamana)
• French Frigate Shoals (Mokupāpapa)
• Gardner Pinnacles (Pūhāhonu)
• Maro Reef (Nalukākala)
• Laysan (Kauō)
• Lisianski Island (Papaʻāpoho)
• Pearl and Hermes Atoll (Holoikauaua)
• Midway Atoll (Pihemanu) (features temporary residential facilities)
• Kure Atoll (Kānemilohaʻi)

• Ford Island (Mokuʻumeʻume)
• Lehua
• Kaʻula
• Kaohikaipu
• Manana
• Mōkōlea Rock
• Nā Mokulua
• Molokini
• Mokoliʻi
• Moku Manu

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