Lihue, Koloa, and Po'ipu

For a change of scenery, we switched hotels partway through our trip and we are now on the southern side of the island, in the Po'ipu/Koloa area. As we drove between the two towns, we made a stop in Wailua River State Park to check out the stunning 151-foot cascade of Opaeka'a Falls. The falls flow year-round and it's one of the only waterfalls on the island that is visible from the road.

Then we hopped back in the car and drove around to the other side of the river to see the equally majestic Wailua Falls. For anyone who grew up watching TV in the 1970's this waterfall will be instantly recognizable from the opening credits to the show Fantasy Island. Say it with me now: "Da plane, da plane!"

Speaking of TV shows, we have been enjoying the Apple TV series Chief of War with Jason Momoa. The show depicts the unification of the Kingdom of Hawai'i under the reign of King Kamehameha I, during the time period of 1795-1810. We enjoyed a stop at the wonderfully informative Kaua'i Museum in Lihue. There were many displays with historical artifacts, portraits of Hawaiian royalty, tools, and musical instruments. It gave us a good overview of what life was like in these islands before and after Western contact. They pack a lot into this excellent little museum!

The history of this island is so interesting! We made a point to visit the Lawai International Center, which is located in a sacred Hawaiian valley that was once the likely site of a long-gone Heiau (Hawaiian temple). In the later 1800s many Chinese and Japanese immigrants leased land in this valley to grow various crops including rice, taro, and vegetables. 

In the early 1900s, Japanese workers built 88 small Buddhist shrines into the hillside to replicate (in miniature) a 750-mile pilgrimage route in Shikoku Japan. Until the 1940s the Lawai valley shrines were a well-known pilgrimage site for islanders of all beliefs to come and pray for miracles. After WWII the shrines received fewer visitors and fell into disrepair. But one local Japanese-Hawaiian woman named Takano Nonaka continued to visit them faithfully every month for more than 60 years, hacking her way through the overgrowth to reach each shrine and pray. 

In 1991, local volunteers decided to purchase the land so they could restore the shrines and regrade the walking path. Through fundraising efforts they also built a larger-scale wooden Hall of Compassion using traditional Japanese methods. They created the Lawai International Center Foundation to preserve this site as a non-denominational and non-religious cultural center where people can "gather for quiet contemplation and personal renewal". Visitors can borrow a walking stick and hike up the hillside past each of the 88 shrines in succession.

Sure, it does sound a little woo-woo but the site is beautiful and you can walk as slowly or quickly as you like among the shrines. The path is lined with delicate orchids in all colors and varieties, and each shrine and Buddha statuette is unique. It's a lovely spot and yet another example of Hawaii's unique cultural tapestry. 

Okay, enough culture - it's time for a drink! One thing we learned during our time in the Caribbean is that wherever there is sugar cane, you can always find a rum distillery. We didn't have to look too hard to find one here in Kaua'i.

Koloa Rum Company has been making award-winning rums since 2009. Even though large-scale sugar cane farming on Kaua'i ended that year, the Koloa Rum Company was still able to source Hawaiian-grown sugar cane for their rums until 2016. Nowadays the sugar cane is brought in from Louisiana, but the other ingredients and know-how are 100% local. We booked a tasting so that we could try a few of the rums on offer, including their spiced rum, coconut rum, and their cinnamon-flavored Cane Fire rum. All were delicious. It was a fun experience, and our bartender/guide knew so much about the distilling process and had lots of great recommendations for drink recipes. We were happy to know that we could find most of these rums in our local Total Wine store so we saved on luggage space by just buying some tasting-sizes of the Coffee and Cacao-flavored rums.

Throughout the week we spent plenty of relaxing mornings and afternoons reading by the pool. We also took some nice walks, including a scenic hike along Maha'ulepu Heritage Trail. This trail starts at Shipwreck Beach, which was right next to our hotel.

This trail follows the coast through sand and beach scrub trees. There was even a preserved Heiau cultural site that you can view from the trail. Just before we turned around to go back to the hotel, we were rewarded with beautiful views from the cliffsides.

Even though it's hard to leave we know we eventually have to go home. Luckily the Hawaiian language uses the same word to say both hello and goodbye. So aloha, Kaua'i! I'm sure we will be back soon!

Kapa'a, Kaua'i

Aloha! It's been a decade since we last visited the island of Kaua'i. Last time we here we went heavy on the adventure -- with a doors-off helicopter ride over the Napali Coast. This time around we have a more relaxed agenda, starting with a couple of delicious Mai Tais and some live music at our hotel in Kapa'a, on the eastern side of the island (also known as the "Coconut Coast").

Our hotel offered beach yoga, so we gave that a try. As it turned out, it was actually more like "grass yoga" but at least we weren't covered with sand by the end!

Kaua'i is the lushest and greenest of the Hawaiian islands; its nickname is the "Garden Island". This is due to the generous rain that falls at Mount Wai'ale'ale. Wai'ale'ale is an extinct shield volcano that is the heart of the island of Kaua'i. At its summit, this peak gets nearly 400 inches of rain per year - that's a LOT of water! When the sugar cane industry got started on Kaua'i in the mid-1800s, farmers were able to use the heavy rainfall to their advantage. Teams of workers hand-dug long irrigation canals to bring freshwater down from the mountains straight to the cane fields. In the photo below you can see misty clouds covering the summit of Wai'ale'ale.

The last commercial sugar cane plantation closed in 2009 and sugar cane is no longer harvested as a commercial crop here on Kaua'i. But the Lihue Plantation's former Hanama'ulu irrigation canal is still in use -- as a tourist attraction. 

The best way to see this part of the island is to do the tubing adventure with Kauai Backcountry outfitters. They kit you out with helmets, gloves, and headlamps, then load you into a 4x4 shuttle vehicle for the scenic drive to the launch site. Everyone climbs into an inner tube and then it's off to the races.

There's no steering involved, you just float and spin along with the brisk current through the 2-mile run of the "ditch". Along the way, you go through five tunnels that have been carved right through the hillsides. The longest tunnel is about 1/2 mile. It's pitch black in there, which is what the headlamps are for.

Everything about the tubing adventure exceeded our expectations -- the guides were great, we learned a lot about the history of sugar farming on Kaua'i, and we even got to see a part of the island we wouldn't normally get to see because the route goes through private land. If you're ever on Kaua'i, we recommend checking it out!