Kauai: Mokupuni Punahele

Spend at least an afternoon sunning or snorkeling at one of Kauai's gorgeous beaches. This journal will help you pick your favorite.

If time permits, visit the ridiculously dramatic Na Pali coast, only accessible by boat or a multi-day hike. Not allowing enough time for Na Pali was my biggest mistake on this trip. If you're only in Kauai for a day, make sure to at least fly over the cliffs on your helicopter tour!

Quick Tips:

Day trippers: Rent a car and tour the "Coconut Coast" east and north of Lihue. Schedule your helicopter tour in the morning so you have plenty of time to enjoy the rest of the island. If you don't already have snorkeling gear, get it from Snorkel Bob's in Kapaa on your way up the coast from Lihue - you can return it on the way back. If time permits, the South Coast drive is also worthwhile.

Overnighters: Allow at least one day for the North/East drive from Lihue and another day for the South/West. And don't forget to allow 2-3 hours for a helicopter tour!

Best Way To Get Around:

While I did see more hitchhikers on Kauai than any other island, I'm not recommending that you try to thumb a ride yourself (or pick up hitchhikers, either!).

In Kauai, rent a car at Lihue airport so you'll be able to make the most of your time on the island. Rental cars are unusually inexpensive in Hawaii, and tour operators such as American Express offer flight/car packages that lower the cost of the rental car to as little as per day. Renting a car also gets you a copy of the invaluable "Drive Guide" (there is one for each island) which provides maps, coupons, and a mini-guidebook to whatever island you're on. The detail maps in particular are extremely useful, and I don't think you can get them anywhere except from the rental car companies.

I tried to unravel the poi mystery over the course of the week by asking locals about it. One admitted to disliking it - but gleefully confided that she made her kids eat it. Another said it 'wasn't that bad' served hot with butter and sugar. Another claimed it was edible when mixed into pancake batter. My thought: Why ruin a nice batch of pancakes?! Even Don Ho (whose show we saw while staying on Oahu) made fun of the poor tourists who had the misfortune of trying it. But for a 'real' cultural experience, try it you must - and at least Dani's won't charge you an arm and a leg for the privilege.

Open 9am - 6pm daily

How to get there: Banana Joe's is on Highway 56/Kuhio Highway, right around the Kolo Road turnoff near Kilauea.

The bakery shares a building with Pau Hana Pizza, whose freshly baked pies are bursting with exotic ingredients. Toppings for vegetarians include chipotle pepper, sun-dried tomato pesto, asiago cheese, even tofurella. Meat-eaters can enjoy smoked ham or smoked ono (a tuna-like fish) in addition to the pepperoni and sausage you'd expect.

The Bakery is open from 6:30am - 9:00pm daily. Pizza is served from 11am to 9pm daily. There is supposedly a website for both Kilauea Bakery and Pau Hana Pizza at Click here for Alleged Website but it didn't seem to be working when I tried it.

Thus reads the advertising of Snorkel Bob, island legend and all around wacky guy. Snorkel Bob doesn't just talk a good line though - he rents (or sells) a quality product at an amazingly low price, makes it easy and convenient, and even throws in some freebies! ("a Freebie for You, In Appreciation of Behavioral Patterns Propitious for Me, Snorkel Bob.")

Snorkel Bob is reliable, cheap, and ubiquitous. You can pick up your gear on one island and drop it off on another. For the ridiculously low price of only $9 per week, you get a nice set of mask/fins/snorkel PLUS a mesh bag to store it in, a container of mask goop, a fish ID card, a map, and Snorkel Bob's very own tip sheets for the best snorkeling beaches on the island. And best of all, Snorkel Bob rents prescription masks for the visually challenged who forgot to bring their contact lenses along, like me!

They also rent boogie boards, beach chairs, and other beach-going goodies. You can buy inexpensive underwater cameras, and even book boat trips.

I, Truly Malin, heartily recommend your friend, Snorkel Bob - and I don't even know the guy!

Open 8-5 daily (but you can drop off your gear after hours)
Also located in Koloa and on the other islands.

Haena Beach Park/Tunnels Reef
Claim to fame: The scene from South Pacific where Bloody Mary sings "Bali Hai" was filmed here. It also offers the best snorkeling on Kauai. Adjoining Haena State Park has a colorful past: actress Liz Taylor's brother formed a hippie commune here in the '60s, but they were kicked out because of poor/nonexistent waste disposal practices. Those days are long behind us, happily, and Haena is now full of sun-loving families and guitar-toting tourists. If it's snorkeling you're after, Tunnels Reef is the place to go - but there's never any room to park. So here's what you do: park at Haena, lock up your valuables, then grab your snorkel and hike down the beach to the east (right). Soon you'll see people in the water snorkeling. Find a palm tree to drop your gear under and get in that water! The Tunnel reefs run perpendicular to the beach, making for fantastic snorkeling - and even better surfing in the winter, apparently. The lacy coral and colorful, inquisitive fish made Tunnels a memorable snorkeling experience. Just don't try it in the winter, when the surf makes swimming extremely dangerous. RSCF

Lumahai Beach
Claim to fame: Also featured in South Pacific - this is where Mitzi Gaynor "wash[ed] that man right out of [her] hair". Gorgeous Lumahai is just past Hanalei Bay. Don't go out of your way to visit it unless you're a movie location junkie - you'll have to hike down a hill to get to it, and it's a terrible place to swim! You can snorkel here but why bother when it's so much nicer at Haena? Look for the beach between mile markers 4 and 5 on Highway 56. Park on the roadside and hike down the trail. No facilities.

Hanalei Beach Park
Claim to fame: Idyllic location inspired Peter, Paul, and Mary to situate Puff the Magic Dragon in "a land called Honalee". One wonders what exactly they were puffing... Hanalei beach is a great place to relax and hang out - quiet, calm, and graced with a stunning view of Hanalei bay, a perfectly round crescent cut out of the coastline. Swimming can be treacherous, as with any North coast beach. Take Aku Road in Hanalei and turn right at the dead end. RSL.

Anahola Beach Park
Claim to fame: Safest beach on the East/North coast, namesake of the irresistable Anahola Granola bar (available at Banana Joe's ). Bring the kids, but not the fins and mask. Take Anahola Road after mile marker 13 on the highway. RS.

Note: I heartily endorse Snorkel Bob for your gear rental needs.

Within minutes of our arrival, we spotted a family of distinctive-looking geese and correctly identified them as nene, which are not only Hawaii's state bird, but are practically extinct. A friendly ranger told us that about 180 of the 2,000 nene on all the Hawaiian islands make Kilauea Point their home. September is when they start to pair up for their nesting season.

Love was recently in the air for the Wedge-Tailed Shearwater as well. The surrounding cliffs were pockmarked with their distinctive nesting holes, which they dig painstakingly with their beaks and then fill with adorable grey powderpuff chicks. We also saw White-Tailed Tropic Birds soaring dramatically over the point, occasionally duking it out with Great Frigate birds. These pirates of the air like to harass the hapless tropic birds until they drop their food - then the frigate birds swoop down and catch their ill-gotten snacks in mid-air.

Even if you're not into birds, the view of the ocean is superb, as was the pod of spinner dolphins who jumped and cavorted in the water just off the point.

The birding lineup:

Great Frigate birds can be seen year-round
Wedge-Tailed Shearwaters arrive around April and stay until November
Tropicbirds are there from March - October
Red-footed Boobies nest from February - September
Laysan Albatross prefer Kilauea from November - July

The Point is open from 10am-4pm daily except holidays. Admission is $2 for adults (free for kids under 16).

Flying into Waialeale crater, full of waterfalls and not a tourist in sight, is one of the most unspoiled encounters with nature I've ever had. Waialeale is the wettest place on earth, averaging 40 feet of rain a year. This makes it impossibly lush and speckled with silvery strips of waterfalls everywhere you look. Equally stunning was the flight over the Na Pali cliffs, with its rivers running headlong into the ocean, rainbows arcing almost 180 degrees, and once again, not a living soul to mar the National Geographic beauty of it all. My third favorite vista was Waimea, the "Grand Canyon" of Kauai, if only for the dramatic and unexpected contrast of its arid Arizona-esque landscape with the lush greenery of the rest of the island.

Throughout all of this, our pilot/guide provided expert narration. The six-seat helicopter was comfortable, except when the air conditioning stopped working (thankfully we were close to finished by then). Seating is at the discretion of the staff, so large men will likely find themselves assigned to the middle of the back seat, where they are least likely to unbalance the copter. Still, with wrap-around windows in the front, everyone has a chance to admire the views.

What made this tour less than perfect? Our flight was 50 minutes long, but the entire experience took over two hours. There was a great deal of waiting - in the office, on the tarmac, and after our flight, for a van to take us back to the office. This last wait took so long that a group of visitors from a cruise ship almost missed their boat's departure. We were also baffled by our "personalized video", which they said would include coverage of the group boarding the helicopter, followed by stock footage of the trip. What we actually got was TWO tapes. We were told that one was stock footage, and the other contained our 5 minutes of fame. At home, though, I popped the custom tape in the VCR and found that our smiling faces were followed by nearly an hour of gorgeous footage, with narration by our same guide. Weird!

In summary? Despite these few glitches, I’m willing to recommend Ohana Helicopters for what will certainly be an unforgettable trip.

Begin in Lihue, where rental cars can be picked up at the airport. Breakfast at Dani's Restaurant in Lihue is an inexpensive look at how the locals eat, if you've got time. Take Highway 56 (also called Kuhio Highway) and head North out of town.

With only one day to spend on the island, I didn't have time to take a detour up route 583 to Wailua Falls, where you can paddle up the Wailua River (rent kayaks in Kapaa) and visit the tourist-infested Fern Grotto, then continue upriver for the short hike to Ho'olalae or "Secret" Falls.

Stop in Kapaa to pick up gear at Snorkel Bob's for your snorkeling or beach-going needs later in the day. Kapaa is also a good place to rent a kayak if you're planning on spending more time in the water. Kapaa itself isn't a particularly nice town, but it does offer plenty of services. For instance, if you skipped breakfast, or are hungry for lunch, you can find food in Kapaa (try the Aloha Diner or Pono Market for typical local cuisine and "plate lunch") but try to wait until you get to Kilauea.

North of Kapaa, the highway turns inland, but not before giving you a glimpse of the beautiful soaring peaks of the Anahola Mountains. A calm swimming beach may be found in Anahola (see "Coconut Coast beaches" entry), but if you're planning to go further or are a devotee of snorkeling, however, keep going. It gets better!

At the 23 mile marker, you'll reach wind-swept, stunning Kilauea. Make a right on Kolo Road, pausing to look to your right at the Christ Memorial Episcopal Church, made entirely of lava rock. Then bear left onto Kilauea Road to reach the Kong Lung Center, a vintage trading post cum tourist attraction, and the unforgettable Wildlife Refuge/Lighthouse.

If you're hungry now, lunch is waiting at Kilauea Bakery/Pau Hana Pizza but save some room for the mouth-watering treats at Banana Joe's - or at least plan to stop there on the way back!

Continuing West on the highway, you'll pass Princeville, an ultra-luxury resort overlooking the Hanalei bluffs. Next is the Halanei Valley Overlook, worth stopping at for a glimpse of a true Hawaiian vista. Terraced taro fields blend into wildlife refuges and wild stretches of untouched land. At the bottom of the hill is Hanalei Bridge, a one-lane rickety looking affair that is closed in foul weather lest flash floods trap unwary visitors west of their escape route. Happily, tour buses are too heavy to cross over it, so anything west of here is likely to be even more unspoiled than their eastern counterparts.

Hanalei is very tourist-friendly - but I prefer to think of it as (ahem) charming. The Hanalei Center and Ching Young village are colorful, fun-loving smorgasbords of shops, restaurants, and crafts. There are tons of places to eat, shop, and overnight here. Keep going though and check out the bay! Also on your radar should be Lumahai Beach, coming up right after you round the corner past Hanalei Bay. Keep going and the jungle will start to encroach upon the road. The asphalt narrows, small streams meander (when it's been raining) across the pavement, and somewhere past the 8 mile marker (the numbers reset after the bridge), you'll encounter the gaping mouth of Maniniholo Dry Cave on your left (and Haena Beach Park on your right). Maniniholo is an interesting excursion - better if you remembered to bring a flashlight. Vines are draped ominously over the entrance. Wild taro grows within, and water drips occasionally from the ceiling. Maniniholo is an enormous former lava tube. Walk as far as you dare toward the back as the ceiling lowers. If you brought that flashlight I mentioned, you can follow a passage at the back left wall a fair distance.

Your last stop before turning around should be Haena, where I strongly recommend leaving your car and proceeding to Tunnels Reef for some world class snorkeling. The road continues a bit further, and there are two caves - one wet and one dry - to explore. Go ahead if you have time, and let me know how they were!

A final note: Past Haena, hearty adventurers with time to spare will have just begun their trip. The Kalalau trail begins where the road ends, traversing 11 rugged miles of inland beauty and the untouched tops of the Na Pali coastal cliffs to Kalalau Beach. If I ever get back to Kauai, I'll make sure I'm in decent shape and have plenty of time for this, the ultimate Kauai adventure.

Get out of Lihue fast - there's very little to do there. Take Highway 50 (Kaumualii Highway) and then left onto 520 (Maluhia Road) toward Po'ipu. You'll drive through a tunnel of Eucalyptus trees, planted in 1911, that smell wonderful. Watch for signs for Poi'pu Road and get on it. You are headed for Po'ipu Beach Park, and boy are you in luck. Dr. Stephen P. Leatherman, the nation's foremost beach expert and a professor at Florida International University in Miami (I am not making this stuff up - do a Google search if you don't believe me!), named Po'ipu the world's most beautiful beach in his 11th annual survey of beaches this year. While I would argue that there are other beaches just as beautiful, I won't soon forget my sunset visit to Po'ipu. It's located at the southernmost point of Kauai, with nothing but ocean in most directions. To the West, surfers frolicked in the break in front of a pinkish sky. To the south, an ugly fence blocked off the entire beach. Why? Because two months earlier in July, an endangered monk seal had decided to give birth to a pup right on Po'ipu beach. There are only 20 monk seals on all of Kauai so we were thrilled to be able to see two of them, including the most recent arrival! Monk seals have wonderfully expressive faces, and although mother and pup were both sleeping, they had attracted an enraptured crowd. Despite the fence, you could see that Po'ipu is a special place. When it isn't occupied by endangered species, Po'ipu offers great bodysurfing, spotless white sand, and plenty of facilities (lifeguards, showers, restrooms, and a deli within walking distance).

In my haste to tell you about the monk seal I forgot to mention Koloa, known to tourists as "Old Koloa Town" at the intersection of Maluhia and Koloa roads. It's a cute, friendly looking little plantation village, carefully restored to encourage Poi'pu's visitors to stop for a bite to eat or some shopping.

While you're in the area, take a detour onto Lawai Road (the right turn you didn't take when Po'ipu Road forked left) and follow it to the end to Spouting Horn. This is a submerged lava tube through which water is forced when the surf crashes to shore. The result is a geyser-like spout of salt water that varies wildly in height depending upon the force of the wave that preceded it. We had fun trying to predict which waves would result in the biggest spouts, and trying to time the click of our camera shutters accordingly. Across the street is tiny Kuhio Park, where wild chickens strut about and the roosters do their best impersonations of Foghorn Leghorn.

There's also some fine surfing for spectators on the other side (left or East) of Po'ipu Beach Park, near the Beach House restaurant. For variety's sake, you might try taking Poi'pu road east down the shore until you reach Weliweli Road. It'll take you back to Koloa via an alternate route.