KAUAI “The Garden Isle”

IF YOU FOLLOW the main drive around the perimeter of Kauai (which doesn’t actually go all the way around because of the Na Pali coast), you may be left with the impression that this is a lush, beautiful island, but one without all that much to see or do. Wrong. Kauai is not an island for motor-touring alone. By the same token, most of its delights are easily accessible by road, and the fact that it’s a small island with only a few main roads means that you can do much in a short amount of time.

Kauai is the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands and therefore has the best sandy beaches and some of the most dramatic natural formations. The most surprising is Waimea Canyon, which cuts a 10-mile swath across the western side of the island and can be entered only by helicopter or on foot. Kauai is probably the best island to see by helicopter, and from above Waimea Canyon it’s easy to see why. Waimea really does resemble the Grand Canyon (the comparison is made often), and although it’s smaller, its stark-ness and size are particularly startling after having seen what you thought was the whole island-an island that is, for the most part, very green. The canyons drop to the west of 5,200-foot Mount Waialeale, called the wettest spot on earth because of its annual rainfall of about 500 inches and its hundreds of waterfalls. Waialeale makes the east side of Kauai, including the main towns of Kapaa and Lihue, vulnerable to rain, although the weather on the north shores is usually sunny to partly cloudy. The southwestern region is the sunniest and boasts the best beaches for swimming, and most of the beaches on this island are also very appealing for water sports. And the coves and beaches on the north shore in and around Hanalei are as picturesque and romantic as any in the islands-which is why they were chosen as the backdrop for the film South Pacific.

Many movies and television shows have been filmed on Kauai, including the opening waterfall shot on Fantasy Island, and who, after all, can choose a backdrop better than Hollywood? Others have decided that Kauai is the appropriate backdrop for their own lives, and among certain seasoned travelers, Kauai has become the island of choice. Fortunately, this has yet to spoil the island, which exhibits very few signs of conventional tourism. In spite of-or perhaps because of-its age, Kauai strikes visitors as fresh and raw.

Driving southwest from the airport at Lihue on the eastern side of the island, you’ll get an immediate sense of the marvelous compactness of Kauai. The sea and hills are close, and the distinct curve of the road informs you that you are really on an island. In one direction, the road leads to sunshine, some of the best hotels, the Tunnel of Trees road (an elegant cathedral of eucalyptus trees) and the charming plantation town of Koloa. Nearby are the best beaches for swimming and body surfing: Poipu and Brennecke’s beaches.

Back on the main highway, it’s a short drive to the town of Waimea and the two roads leading up to the canyon lookout. Traveling into the canyon area can easily become an all-day affair because of the many interesting small towns along the way. From the lookout, Waimea spreads out before you, an inspiring array of a thousand colors and perilous-looking crevices that wrinkle into themselves. No road goes down, although there are hiking trails for the adventurous and shorter observation paths for those who simply want to enjoy the view. Eight miles beyond the canyon lookout, and higher in the mountains, is Kokee State Park, which is refreshingly cool and woodsy. Forty-five miles of hiking trails originate from here for hikers at all levels of expertise. At the very end of this road, you’ll find what is perhaps the island’s most breathtaking vantage point: the 4,000-foot Kalalau Valley Lookout over the Na Pali coast’s largest valley. It’s thick with greenery, rich with waterfalls and very impressive where the ragged hills meet the distant sea.

Kauai is crowned, appropriately, by a land called Hanalei. And if Puff the Magic Dragon is nowhere to be found, the enchanted traveler may leave Hanalei content in the knowledge that Puff was probably just sleeping in some quiet taro patch. Hanalei itself sleeps on the north shore of Kauai just past the new resort community of Prince-ville (condominiums only, with a great golf course) and is the storybook beginning of a nine-mile drive that James Michener called one of the 10 best in the United States. The Hanalei-to-Haena drive takes you through Hanalei’s delicate, utterly peaceful valley over 10 small bridges and past perfect beaches, occasional lookouts, wet and dry caves and all of that postcard – perfect shoreline with a background of mountains that recall the Bali Hai scenes in South Pacific. The road dead-ends at Haena Beach Park, a popular swimming beach, where the trails into the imposing Na Pali cliffs begin. From Hanalei and the Princeville area, you can arrange helicopter flights, snorkeling and scuba lessons, and a trip on the exciting Na Pali Zodiac rubber boat ride, which skims and bucks along the waves and makes side trips into caves, giving passengers a gull’s-eye view of the Na Pali coast.

As for accommodations on Kauai, if you choose to stay in the sunny Poipu Beach area, consider the elegant (if awkwardly constructed) Waiohai Hotel or its sister luxury resort, the Poipu Beach Hotel. From any point on the island, the Waiohai is worth visiting for a meal in its elegant Tamarind restaurant. If you prefer condominiums, both the Kiahuna Plantation and Poipu Kai share well-landscaped serenity and the perfect Poipu Beach. The other primary resort area on the island is Wailua and its immediate vicinity, just north of Lihue and about equidistant from the north and south shores of the island. Here, you’ll find the most famous resort on the island: the Blue Hawaii-esque Coco Palms resort, an unim-posing spread of 416 rooms set amid a grove of centuries-old coconut trees next to a lagoon. Guests return here year after year, lured by the Hawaii that Grace Gusslander created in 1954 when she decided that each bathroom basin should be an enormous sea-shell and that every night before dinner-every night-her guests should witness an elaborate torch-lighting ceremony in which Hawaiian boys wearing sarongs beat drums, blow conch shells and run through the grove lighting 100 torch pots before paddling off in canoes, torches in hand. (It’s worth a dinner trip even if you don’t stay here.) The Coco Palms’ biggest drawback is that you have to cross the road to get to the beach-a small inconvenience-but if you want a beach-front room in this area, consider a condominium, such as Lae Hani.