The Hawaiian Archipelago: Six Months Among the Palm Groves, Coral Reefs and Volcanoes of the Sandwich Islands (Picador Travel Classics, 15) (Hardcover)

by Isabella L. Bird (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Isabella Bird visited the Sandwich Islands in 1871, when she was forty. Her letters home to her sister Henrietta have a remarkable freshness and spontaneity, and reveal the transformation of a Victorian invalid into a fearless horsewoman and enthusiastic mountain-climber, who thought nothing of riding for miles soaked with rain and fording terrifyingly swollen rivers. She undertook a thirteen-hour unaccompanied trek to the summit of the extinct volcano of Mauna Kea, revelling in the security with which she was able to travel and camp out without guides or companions. At the end of her stay she was able to make the perilous ascent to the summit of Mauna Loa, the largest volcano in the world, camping for the night on the edge of the crater, at nearly 14,000 feet.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 232 pages
• Publisher: Pan Books (September 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330350439
• ISBN-13: 978-0330350433
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,415,164 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hawaii at the Turn, December 9, 2006

By	Donald E. Eastlake "Three" (Milford, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a great eyewitness account of Hawaii in 1863, by one of the era's most intrepid travelers, after it had been impacted by its collision with the American and European powers but while it was still a robust independent Kingdom and before its forced assimilation into the USA. It really gives you a taste of the old Hawaii, if not the original Hawaii.