Return to the Garden Isle - Kauai Island, Hawaii

Sunset, Jan, 1997 by Jeff Phillips

ALMOST FULLY RECOVERED FROM A HURRICANE'S WRATH, KAUAI IS TELLING VISITORS IT'S TIME TO COME BACK

No one who's lived on Kauai for more than a few years takes the wind for granted - not since Hurricane Iniki slammed into the island in September 1992, with gusts so powerful in places that they broke the instruments designed to measure them. Those roof-peeling, car-flipping winds and the deluge of rain and hotel-gutting surf that came with them left economic and environmental wounds from which the island is still recovering.

Most visitors wouldn't know it, though. The Kauai they see today as they fly in from Honolulu more than lives up to its billing as Hawaii's Garden Isle. Lush emerald mountainsides tumble from beneath the clouds into steep, leafy canyons that are studies in the possible shades and textures of green. Groves of papayas and bananas border manicured fields of sugarcane that stretch like carpets to the edge of the sea. As your plane approaches the airport, the sleepy town of Lihue looks the way it always has, rusty tin roofs and all, and the gardens you see from your seat are accented with splashes of treetop blossoms: white plumeria, yellow hibiscus, red African tulip, blue jacaranda.

Tourists have been finding their way back to Kauai for a couple of years now, but visitor numbers have yet to reach pre-hurricane levels. Beach parks and hiking trails still feel less crowded, and traffic on the island's two-lane roads seems lighter than before the storm. Returning regulars, like Californian Lenore Horowitz and her family, who have been vacationing on Kauai annually since 1975, say the island pace today reminds them more of the laid-back early 1980s than of the bustling early '90s.

One reason for lower visitor counts may be that even though 85 percent of Kauai's hotel, condominium, and B & B rooms are ready for vacationers, four of the island's oldest and most popular marquee hotels have yet to begin reconstruction. Three of these - the Sheraton Kauai, Waiohai, and Poipu Beach - are prime properties edging the wave-lapped sands of the island's poshest resort area, Poipu Beach. The fourth is Cocopalms, an east-shore institution beloved of honeymooners.

While these hotels will reopen, botanists are less certain about the recovery of the island's native plant communities. In extensive areas where the forest canopy was destroyed, native plants are being replaced by invasive exotics.

Kauai may still be struggling with the hurricane's aftermath, but the locals' genuine eagerness to share their island with visitors - in addition to Kauai's relative lack of crowds and absolute natural beauty - makes it the perfect family destination. What the island lacks in nightlife and theme parks is more than made up for by the variety of scenery and outdoor activities.

The island is small enough that in one day you can drive the road that almost encircles it, yet complex enough that in a week you couldn't explore all of it - and who would want to try? A leisurely pace is the key to serendipity on this island: we'll help you find the best experiences, but only you can judge how long to linger over each.

WINDWARD KAUAI Sun and rain beneath the pali

The jumping-off spot for all arrivals to Kauai is Lihue. After claiming a rental car at the airport, head north, toward the trade winds.

Kauai's northern coast is about as close as most of us will ever get to an island paradise. Extending east and west from a bay, a river, a valley, and a town all called Hanalei (it means lei valley), much of this palmy papaya coast is overshadowed by the sheer, cloud-stopping cliffs of the Wainiha Pali, which are laced with foaming cascades after it rains.

And it rains here much of the time, an average of 10 to 15 inches a month during the winter (one February registered nearly 70 inches of rain) and not all that much less during the summer. People who live here really don't seem to notice. To them the most important seasonal difference is that winter storms make surf and offshore currents particularly treacherous along the island's north and west shores.

Driving north on State Highway 56 from Lihue, most people are in such a hurry to cover the 31 miles to Hanalei that they overlook one of the island's lesser-known treasures, the Wailua River valley, where portions of Jurassic Park were filmed. Although you can glimpse the lush canyon from overlooks along County 580, the best way to explore is by kayak. On a tour you can go up the river for a side-canyon hike to a waterfall as delicate as any you'll see farther north. Farther up the river, a rope swinging over a deep pool is a big hit with teens.

The gateway to the north shore is Kilauea Point. This wave-crashed, rocky bluff topped by an Old lighthouse is the site of some of the best wildlife-watching on the island. A national wildlife refuge with a dramatic visitor center (remodeled post-Iniki) featuring exhibits on wildlife along a chain of Pacific island refuges, the point is the place to look for rare monk seals hauled out on the rocks, and for whales just offshore. In late November, Laysan albatross, regal ocean fliers who glide above the red-footed boobies flitting along the black lava cliffs, return here to nest.