Kaua`i - in search of a lost paradise

First was the joy of traveling to a place so far away, literary in the middle of the Pacific, and compared to Romania, exactly on the other side of the Globe, at a 12 hrs (behind) difference. Once I arrived in Hawaii I was nicely surprised to discover that this place doesn't seem to belong to US. It still has a personal note that many of the American cities lost, in the process of industrialization, the downtown Honolulu does not look at all like Wall Street, the villages have a typical specific, the roads have curves like ours have, and the volcanic landscape determined where people created their lives and settlements.

Regarding tourism segment, I was sad to realize that the city displays a mix of American '60s kitsch – with hotels built in the same style as ours were during Communism at the shore of the Black Sea, the stores are crowded like in any resort, the traffic it's outrageous, the buses are late...
Every time I was complaining that I do not understand why tourists are so charmed with the Hawaiian islands and that I don't see the fantastic of the tropical region, people explained to me that in order to find the tropical paradise, for long lost in Oahu (the island of Honolulu) due to industrialization, I would have to fly to the other islands.

Therefore, one day we went in search of the lost paradise, north of Oahu, in the island of Kauai. Early in the morning, when not even the sun was up, I met my friends and headed to the airport. Between the islands of Hawaii, for now, the best way to commute is still the air, in average a 30 minutes flight.

We checked our backpacks, tents, sleeping bags and boogie boards at the late Aloha Airlines, took off, got a round of guava juices, returned the empty cans, and landed - in exactly 37 minutes. As a comic note – our bags made it with the next flight to Kauai, half an hour later, but given the situation no one got upset because as soon as you land in the island life seems different… The waiting room of the Lihue (capital of the island) airport is outdoors, has palm trees planted around and mountains can be seen at the horizon.

The island has a circular shape, with mountains in the middle and especially at north – so you are forced to go around it, in order to see all beauties of this place.

DAY 1:

Riding on four wheels we went from the south-east of the island (where the airport is), towards west, and the first stop was Wai`mea beach. For a moment I didn't understand why all of us jumped happy from the car when we first saw the beach – though we just left the same ocean a few hours ago in Oahu?!?!... Soon I realized that we all longed for the silence brought by the sand, the sun and the sea... and this place is perfect. The currents of Wai`mea bring high waves to the shores, perfect for surfers, but not really attractive for the mass tourist. The beach is empty and the sand delicate, of a sunburned wheat straw yellow, where my steps seemed to be the first to step on it everywhere…

In the west of the island you'll find the Wai`mea Canyon – "the Great Canyon of the Pacific" as Mark Twain named it – and about whom experts say it looks exactly like the one in Arizona. The experience is amazing: the canyon is 11 km long, but going up you can stop at different altitudes to admire its beauty. You can see very well the layers of rock, colors of all shades of earth, as well as lush tropical vegetation and waterfalls. This is a place that attracts and rejects in the same time, that offers the calm you need and the nervousness of the wilderness, which gives you the possibility to stop as a suspended second in the Earth's history...

After a whole day of driving and pulling on a side of the road, of admiring fascinating views, and taking outrageous amounts of pictures, we finally headed to "the middle of nowhere" at the most western point of the island, where we planed to camp that night. The place turned out to be the Polihale beach park, which is actually an eeeempty beach somewhere at the end of the world. Because of the mountains in the north of the island that don't have modern communication ways, except the mountain trails, the road stops here. Surprisingly even, the last five miles of the road have no asphalt, but only dust and bumps, rarely known to the Western world... However, the experience seemed worthy because it took us to a beach that looks exactly how I imagine Vama Veche 30 years ago – away from the civilized world, where's no GSM or radio signal, where tropical plants grow up from the sand, where are no modern facilities (except maybe the beach toilets and showers), where tourists have to bring and cook their own food, to light up the fire... and where they can admire beautiful sunsets without disruption, and leave their spirit run free without borders.

From the beach you can see on the left, towards south-west the two almost inhabited islands at north of Kauai: Niihau (also called "the forbidden island" – a private island that belongs to a Hawaiian family who lives upon ancient Hawaiian traditions, and speaks integral the Hawaiian language) and Lehua (island used by the American government for scientific research). On the right, to the north-west you can see the mountains that form the Nā`Pali coast, who served as set for movies like Jurassic Park and King Kong.

The night was extraordinary – clear sky, billions of stars like I haven't seen in a long while..., warm and nice. Go figure! while on the rest of the island was raining and thundering, on our side was perfect. Explanation: among all 15 climate zones on the Globe, in Hawaii you can find 10!!

DAY 2:

We headed to what became my favorite part of Kauai, the most spectacular possible place – te east and north of the island. That part of the island is considered the touristy side, but it also hosts a series of extraordinary natural attractions.

One of them is the Kilauea park and lighthouse, serving as natural refugee for indigenous birds. The north has some beautiful villages with hidden houses through tropical gardens, on large or narrow beaches, with palm trees and high or low waves… We passed little bridges, over rivers, through the water, along rise or corn fields, under the rainbow…

Then… the surprise of the day popped up when we were on our way to the north and wondered why in the world has that mountain a constant giant cloud on top of it (?!). What were more beautiful were the rivers and waterfalls that flew almost vertical on the slopes of the mountain, all the way to the base. First, I just thought it is a nice landscape of a top of a mountain hidden among clouds, but later on I realized it is the Wai`ale`ale mountain – the most rainiest point on the Globe (!) – an unusual phenomenon, but with a perfect scientific explanation: because of the Pacific ocean's currents movement, clouds are constantly gathered above this mountain, therefore it rains about 360 days/year.

Another stop on our way to the north was made at the wet Waikanaloa cave – where you can swim from one room to another, underground, and to the dry Maniniholo cave. Both look like some giant wholes under the mountains, where you can enter straight from the drive way, and surprise through the fact that they don't have stalactites or stalagmites as I would've expected to see in a cave, but just emptiness and the amazing power to sustain an entire mountain.
Close by you find the last beach of the north – Ke`e, excellent for snorkeling through the tropical fish population.

From here starts the wonderful Nā`Pali coast – literary the best place in Kauai. Unfortunately it is awfully long – 11 miles (one way), which require a special hiking permit, plus about three days of constant effort. It is hard from the start, because you have to climb through very large rocks. As soon as you pass this part the trail it becomes a walk in the park, for the next section. From time to time you pass through mud, because of the frequent rains. However, when you walk with the mountain to your left and the ocean to your right ... and you have high visibility over the curves the mountain makes in the ocean ahead ...it worth! The landscape is breath taking! This is also where I saw for the first time in my life Humpback whales!

We finished the day and the trip at the twin falls of Wai’lua – two falls formed from the same river which fall in the same pool.

Indeed, the trip to Kauai unraveled an irrefutable tropical paradise.

The locals call the island of Kauai "the garden island" and say this is the most beautiful in the archipelago. And because of this they strongly oppose the mass tourism – perhaps the old traditions, as well as the globalization made them understand that if they don't defend their own environment, this will die with the tourists' invasion on the island. Unfortunately, the authorities inaugurated a Superferry line between Oahu and Kauai in the summer of 2007. The outcome: it raised the number of tourists, it offered them the possibility of bringing their cars with them, it endangered the fragile ecosystem of the island, as well as the beauty of the lost tropical paradise.