This beach is a glass apart

I am the kind of person for whom a beach vacation is not complete unless I have scored a piece of sea glass, one of those shards of broken bottle that have been tumbled by water, sand and time into a state of smoothness that renders them treasure.

But a beach full of the stuff? Somehow, despite the fact that I had been visiting in-laws in Hawaii for 16 years — spending more time eating, shopping or watching my children windmill off surfboards than collecting bits of old Vicks jars — the existence of Kauai's appropriately named Glass Beach had escaped me. Until recently, that is.

Even after learning from locals that the beach had been picked over, that there were days you could show up and find nothing but pieces so small they were almost sand, did not dampen its allure. On my family's next Pacific fling, I resolved, we would take the girls to Kauai.

And somewhere between visits to its majestic canyons, cute towns, idyllic bays and crowded pools, we would find time for my sea glass obsession.

Increasing scarcity

Sea glass was once mostly ignored as trash, although, according to Richard LaMotte, author of the collectors' bible Pure Sea Glass, it, at one time may have served as a status, symbol in Philadelphia, where residents would place a jar of it in their front windows to illustrate their affluence. Now people collect it and make things out of it — from fine jewellery to sun catchers, frames, mosaics and stained-glass windows.

Part of its newfound appeal is its increasing scarcity. Glass bottles and containers have given way to plastic, shipwrecks have become more rare and people have stopped dumping trash in the oceans, all of which means there is less raw material for sea glass.

Further compounding the problem, says LaMotte, one of the founders of the North American Sea Glass Association, is that much of the sand brought in to replenish beaches buries whatever glass is on the shore.

I have certainly never had much luck finding sea glass in Hawaii. The children and I once collected a cupful on Oahu, but it was mostly pedestrian browns and greens, the colour of everyday bottles. (LaMotte says it can take 10 to 30 years to create sea glass, depending on the "wave action".)

I had higher hopes for Glass Beach, but first we had to find it.

Finding the place

Glass Beach is not mentioned in most guidebooks, and there are no signs directing drivers to it. The beach turned out to be in the middle of an industrial zone not far from the popular tourist area of Poipu on Kauai's southern end.

You will not know whether you have gone the right way until you walk onto the probably deserted beach and look down. If you are lucky, stretches of the black sand will be paved with glittering glass.

We hit what we considered a bonanza that day: not just your average white and brown and green, of which there were plenty, but amber and blue and aqua.

There were shards of smoothed pottery and a few pieces of well-worn trash (the sea glass comes from a nearby dump), and what looked like engine parts. But mostly, there was lots and lots of glass — on the beach and stuck between the rocks.

The beach was not suitable for anything other than combing; the rocks would make swimming suicidal, and, when we were able to tear our gaze from the sand, the view was not impressive: Several gas tanks overlook one side of the beach.

But we spent little of our time looking up, the four of us scouring the beach, we parents sporting sticks to help navigate the slippery rocks.

The whole time we were there, we saw only two other people. We did not talk, except to shout out discoveries: "Here's a big one!" "Here's a blue one!" "Aqua!" We found so much that we left some pieces for future beachcombers. We did not want to be greedy.

Stella Burgess, who is the Hawaiian cultural specialist at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa and one of the go-to people for information about Kauai, remembers when "everyone on the western end on Kauai would dump rubbish" on the outcropping next to Glass Beach. They would burn the trash and toss it into the ocean. The ocean then threw back the trash, some of it rounded and sparkling.

"Nobody really paid attention to the glass," she says. "It just kept building on top of each other … The whole beach was glass."

When she was younger, the glass was at least six inches deep. Folks used to go down there with five-gallon buckets and scoop it up to use in retaining walls and driveways. As beach glass became popular for jewellery and craft, artisans found the beach and raked it over.

On a visit this past summer, Burgess says, "it wasn't like I remembered it".

Unique stuff

While "sea glass" can be made in tumblers and acid baths, enthusiasts prefer the real thing. And Hawaiian sea glass is prized because of its unusual colours and shapes.

"Hawaiian beach glass is unique in that you can find more blues and that's considered one of the more precious colours, if you can consider beach glass precious," says Sharon Umbaugh, a Sea Glass Association board member.

In addition, Hawaiian sea glass is "smooth and rounded as opposed to the East Coast of the US, where it's flat and ragged," Umbaugh says.

While Glass Beach may be unusual, she says, there are sea glass sites all over the islands, although "any serious collector won't reveal their sources".

Collector Hilda Morales, who lives on the northern side of Kauai, also has a knack for finding sea glass. "You always have to follow the tides and the wind," she says. "If you see a lot of driftwood, coral, stop."

Her collection, she says, is taking over her house. But sea glass has attracted her since she was a little girl in Acapulco, Mexico, where her mother called the bits "mermaid tears".

According to LaMotte's book, the rarest colours are orange, red, turquoise, yellow, black, teal and gray.

LaMotte was kind enough to look at photographs of my collection and had some encouraging words. The white pieces with tints of lavender, grey or pink could be pre-1930s glass. "I'd collected some 'tough to find' deep aqua colours," he wrote.

That made me wish Kauai weren't 5,000 miles away, because by the time I get to Glass Beach again, there may be nothing left but sea and shore. What is happening at Glass Beach perfectly illustrates what is happening with sea glass itself: As customs change, both trash and treasure disappear in the relentless crush of time.

Go there...Kauai

From the UAE
Lufthansa/United Airlines fly daily via Frankfurt and San Francisco to Kauai from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

British Airways/American Airlines fly daily via London and Los Angeles from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

How much
Lufthansa/United Airlines fare: Starts from Dh5,720 exclusive of taxes.

British Airways/American Airlines fare:
From Dubai: Starts from Dh3,820 exclusive of taxes.

From Abu Dhabi: Starts from Dh3,610 exclusive of taxes.

— Information courtesy Al Naboodah Travel & Tourism Agency

Information

To get to Glass Beach from the resort area of Poipu, take Poipu Road (Route 520), turn left on Koloa Road (Route 530), follow to Route 50 west and take the Port Allen exit. Follow Waialo Road to your last left, which is Aka Ula and becomes the unpaved road leading to the beach on your right.

For general information on Kauai, contact the Kauai Visitors Bureau (800-262-1400, www.kauai-hawaii.com).

For information on sea glass, go to the website of the North American Sea Glass Association (www.seaglassassociation.com)