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Hawaii 2002 page1 page3Kauai
Kauai is much less commercialized than Oahu and Maui. And the northern end Kauai is even more laid back, and has a nice slow pace. The Hanalei valley has been carved out by the Hanalei river.
Here is a pararoma shot:
(Click for larger version)
The fields you see are not rice but taro fields, which was the staple starch of the Hawaiin diet, from which they make poi, which I think tastes like sticky purple glue.
Just around the corner is the town of Hanalei, about a 35 miles or a one hour drive from the Lihue Airport.
It is a quaint sleepy town that tries very hard to keep the tourist level at a mininum. One thing that helps is that the only bridge over the Hanalei river is a single lane bridge. This keeps out the tour buses or any other large trucks.
One draw back of this is that when it rains the road to the bridge floods and you are "trapped" in paradise. This happend to us on Monday. One of the nice benefits of this though is that the valley is full of waterfalls. You can just see one behind the local school
(Click for larger version)
One of our favorite places to shop is the Ching Young Villiage.
Another famous sight in Hanalei is the green church.
There is a famers market in this field every saturday, Kiah got a henna tatoo.
The one way bridge into Hanalei is one of 8 that it takes to actually get to the house!
This is the last bridge before the house
Along the way you have beautiful views of the Hanalei bay, a great place to surf and boogy board.
Just before the house is a beautiful Lumahai Valley, which is privately owned.
