KAUAI

The Garden Island

This northernmost grande dame of the inhabited islands of hawaii. is magnificent Measuring 553.3 square miles, kauai is the top of an undersea volcano that blew out of the ocean six million years ago.
On a january morning in 1778, the ships of Captain James Cook closed in on the Island of kauai, offshore of the village of Wamea, and the crews stared spellbound at green and flowering hillsides. They were the first arrivals -but by no means the last- to fall istantly in love with Kauai. today a monument marks Cook's landing site on the southwest coast.

Arriving in Kauai

Arriving in Kauai

Kauai is also the oldest island in the chain has hawaii's greenest scenery, a deeply cut canyon; The grand canyon of the Pacific: Wamea Canyon. It has also the wettest spot on the earth: Mt Waialeale. Movies like Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley, South Pacific, Jurassic Park.. were filmed here. It's main attraction is it's scenery.
Visitors arrive in lihue, county ssea of government, center of shopping and dinning and site of a fien musseum that tells the kauai story in thoughtfull exhibits. Closeby is Nawiliwili harbor where cruise ships call. also nearby old sugar mills, lovely Wailua falls (used in the opening sequence of the populair tv series "Fantasy island"

Kauai

Kauai

A scant 7 miles up the coast lies the wailua River, the only navigable river in Hawaii and a place where a king of kauai assembled his war canoes. Today comfortable riverboats take visitors up to the Fern Grotto, a cave of poignant beauty, alive with ferns, a place where local people and visitors alike go to get married. The road that winds behind the beautifull white beaches passes through small towns that lie like pearls on a necklace...Kapaa and Kelia. Kilauea Lighthouse is the northernmost point of the eight major Hawaiian Islands and a heaven for seabirds. At the Kilauea point national wildlife refuge you can learn about kauai's protected bird populations, Red-footed booboes, wedge-taled shearwaters and more than a dozen other species thrive here. And from December till march Humpback whales spout and twitch their flukes as they migrate past the historical lighthouse. if you are lucky, you may also catch a glimpse of spinner dolphins cavorting in the waves, and rare hawaiian monk seals lounging on the beach

Kauai

Kauai

Head to Hanalei River where you can paddle back in time past emerald green taro fields. Ride the waves in Hanalei Bay, or dive underwater for a closer look at the humuhumunukunukuapuaa (the Hawaiian state fish) or other marine creatures. Visit the Napali coast book a tour or hike the 11 mile trail, where hidden sea caves, colorful legends and awesome sights await you: the famous razorback cliffs of the Na Pali coast
Parading along the east side of kauai are groves of gracefull coconut palm trees that give the area its name -The royal Coconut Coast. Rent Kayaks in Poipu and plunge into the ocean to view Spouting Horn, the famous blowhole, then kayak to a secluded beach.

Flora and fauna of Kauai; Papaya tree

Flora and fauna of kauai

Yet the Garden island touts more than just splendid scenery and supurb resorts; it's calender is filled with events. Local folks celebrate everything with a festival -from taro, the staple crop of the hawaiians, to a trip that Hawaii's Queen Emma once made to the Alakai Swamp in Kokee's rain forest.
A jewel in the middle of the Pacific, Kauai -The Garden Island- is waiting for you. Come , and leave a piece of your heart forever