Who is the most beautiful – Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Michelle Pfeiffer, or Catherine Zeta-Jones? That’s not a fair question. They are all beautiful. Likewise, all four of the major Hawaiian Islands are draped in beauty. How could you choose one over the other in terms of beauty? When push comes to shove, I would choose Kauai as the “fairest of them all.”
Kauai, the fourth largest island, is known as the Garden Island. This is the island they say was home to the very first Polynesians escaping persecution in their homeland, and they found ideal conditions. The seeds and trees they planted sprouted within weeks. Pineapples, mangoes, papayas, coconuts, coffee, sugar, citrus trees, and macadamia nuts. Centuries of growth have formed tropical rainforests, tumbling rivers and waterfalls – thousands of waterfalls, as it rains nearly daily. Kauai is home to the Waimea Canyon, named the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, over 3,000 feet deep. In one valley, there are 500 waterfalls, all runoffs from rainwater. One fall in the canyon is listed at 3,567 feet. In the center of Kauai, Mount Waialeale receives over 600-inces of rainfall per year. It is the wettest place on earth.
Just off the coast lies “Bali Hai” from the timeless movie South Pacific. Kauai is a filmmaker’s paradise. Jurassic Park, King Kong, Blue Hawaii, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Body Heat, and many other well-known movies were filmed here. It is a picture-perfect depiction of primitive beauty.
They still grow some sugar cane on Kauai, mostly for rum production, but there are no more sugar cane plantations in all of Hawaii. Instead, they grow avocados, bananas, oranges, coconuts, pineapple and scores of other fruits and vegetables – and, of course, coffee.
On our first day in Kauai on this trip, we booked a boat tour on the Wailua River to see the Fern Grotto. The Fern Grotto is considered holy ground in Kauai. It is said that Lono, the God of Agriculture and Healing, dwells here. Sacrifices by the early Polynesian settlers were offered in this grotto in hopes of a good harvest. It is also a most popular wedding venue with thousands of ferns dangling from above the cave. The float along the Wailua, the longest navigable river among all the Hawaiian Islands, was captivating.
Kauai offers everything from snorkeling over beautiful coral reefs to deep-sea fishing to spectacular golf courses to more than 50 miles of snow-white beaches – more beach per mile than any of the other islands – Oahu, Maui, and The Big Island. On our return cruise back to Oahu, the majestic grandeur of the Napoli Coast ushered us away from the beauty that never ends. According to my Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Kauai is the fairest of them all.