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Kauai ~ ~ Hawaii's island of discovery
Kauai is dressed in spectacular tropical greenery, blanketing a rumpled interior of steeply folded mountains, sharp spires and river valleys. Flowers and fruit are everywhere, along with drive-by waterfalls and postcard beaches. So compellingly beautiful is this lush, older island that moviemakers use it often as a backdrop.
Kauai is home to the legendary Na Pali (The Cliffs) Coast wilderness and a colorful deep gorge, the Waimea Canyon. The congressionally chartered National Tropical Botanical Garden and Limahuli Gardens, both open to visitors, shelter and important collection of rare and endangered plants.
Tourism and agriculture are the economic mainstays for some 55,000 island residents. Hawaii's sugar industry was born at Koloa in 1835, and canefields still carpet much of the Garden Isle, although sugar is giving way to other crops.
Resort areas are Poipu Beach on the southern coast, Kalapaki Beach by Nawiliwili Harbor, the Royal Coconut Coast extending from Lihue, the county seat, to Kapaa town, and Princeville at Hanalei on the North Shore. Popular outdoor sports include hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, snorkeling and diving, fishing, windsurfing, surfing, golf, swimming and bird watching. Common tour activities include cruising the wilderness coast in ocean rafts and flight seeing.
Points of interest: Fern Grotto, reached by a boat ride up the Wailua River; Kalalau Lookout, beyond Aimee Canyon; Hanalei Valley's taro patches and mountains; Lumina Beach; Keep Beach, where hikers meet the rugged 12-mile Kalalau Cliffside trail; and the Spouting Horn, a lava tube through which waves erupt in a geyser of water.
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