Pineapple Dump in Kauaʻi

Ancient History

When Laura was searching for some interesting things to see during our visit to Kauaʻi, one of the things she came across was the Pineapple Dump. Just the name alone sounds interesting, so we thought we would give it a try.

Of course, we knew before we got there that there was not any active dumping of pineapples going on. Instead, this was a piece of history from the old days of Kauaʻi. Back in the early 1900s, a local pineapple processing company in the town of Kapaʻa built a pier at the end of a set of railroad tracks. The trains would back up onto the pier and dump pineapple crowns and stems into the ocean. As you can imagine, this was long before the days of environmental concerns. However, some of the neighboring areas did have some concerns when their environment became smelly because of the rotting pineapple pieces washing up on their shores.

If you are looking for something exciting to do, this might not be it. Unless you are like us and enjoy walking along the trail to get there. The trail happens to be the same route that the old train tracks used to follow around the pineapple plantation, which I thought was cool. And if you like learning about past history, as we do, you might enjoy seeing this as well. There are signs around to explain what all is going on.

On top of all of that, if you just like to watch the ocean waves crash into the lava rocks below the concrete pier, you will enjoy it, too. We did. There were a couple of people there when we arrived, but then they left and we had the view all to ourselves. You can tell that we donʻt have an ocean where we come from because of the length of time we stood there just watching it all.

By the way, you canʻt actually walk out on the pier itself. As you can imagine, that would be pretty risky. A rail stops you from going any farther than we went to get this photo. And that was fine for us. Falling into the ocean was not an adventure we were looking to have while we were in Hawaiʻi. 

See more photos from our trip in the 2018 Kauaʻi Trip section.

Small Thrills

As you can probably tell from the above, we are not the kind that have to do something exciting every minute of the day. We do not have to have pulse-racing, heart-stopping moments to have a good experience.

We like the small things, too. Like seeing a place where they used to dump pineapple pieces into the ocean. Or walking along a trail and being able to see the shore and the waves down below. 

Many people like to fill their trips with big experiences. Thatʻs fine, too. But donʻt miss some of the small experiences that are around you, too. Maybe it is an age thing, but the little things can bring you just as much joy as the big things can if you have the right attitude about it all.

In your race to get all there is out of life, do not miss the little things along the way. Sometimes it is best to do a lot of little things that add up instead of doing one or two big things. We had a whole trip of little things in Kauaʻi. And it was wonderful. We do not have any photos or videos of us doing high-flying, risk-taking adventures from our trip. We have photos of little fun things that we did. And we have the memories of being there and thinking, “That is pretty cool!”

Teach our children, and perhaps ourselves, to enjoy the little things instead of just looking for big experiences that make good social media posts. Those little things will make life even more fun.

Bible Verse

Teach us to number our days carefully so that we may develop wisdom in our hearts. - Psalm 90:12

About the Photo

Just to set this photo apart somewhat from the previous photos I have posted from our Kauaʻi trip, I decided to make this Pineapple Dump photo look a little different. There is a little more contrast here instead of the usual HDR-type look that several of our photos have had. It is not an over-the-top type of processing. Just different than the usual.

This processing also helps it to stand out from other Pineapple Dump photos, at least maybe just a little. If you search on the internet, they all start to look somewhat similar after a while. This one still looks quite a bit like all of the others, but maybe it is just different enough to be noticed.

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Olympus 14-42mm IIR
Date: July 10, 2018
Location: Kapaʻa, Kauaʻi, Hawaiʻi