We visited the popular Poipu Beach during our last full day, and popular it was! Everyone in Kauai seemed to have arrived before us. A monk seal even found solace on the sand before we could grab a picnic table under one of the few coconut trees. I don't know what the big deal is about this beach. It's like someone added sand right after the concrete parking lot and decided to call it a beach. It's a great snorkeling beach, but there were too many people in the water for our taste, so we only lasted an hour, enough time to eat our lunch.
Poipu Beach
Poipu Road
Driving to the South Shore to begin our Nualolo-Awa'awapuhi hike, we saw one of Mother Nature's most beautiful creations: Waimea Canyon. We vowed to return to make an appropriate visit.
Once an ancient volcano, Mark Twain dubbed the 3,600-feet-deep gorge "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific." Erosion has exposed colorful layers of lava canyon walls, creating a pathway for the Waimea River to cut the canyon and thus rusting the iron in the soil, giving it its red color.
Waimea Canyon Lookout
Highway 550
The Smith family of Kauai has been around since the 1940s. Smith Senior came from England, settled and married in Hawaii. They are very proud of their mixed heritage and their history--the entire family is in one way or another involved in the family's businesses. They started as a boat excursion tour along the Wailua River and have since opened a fern grotto where wedding parties are held. Their luau is probably their most famous service offered almost every day. Call ahead to make a luau reservation.
Luau is Hawaiian for "feast" and it is what comes to mind whenever you mention Hawaii. At Smith's Tropical Paradise, gates open at 5pm to let the visitors walk around the garden and tour the grounds. Starting at 6pm when the sun begins to set, an imu ceremony is performed where the pig that has been cooking underground for several hours is unearthed. Two of the younger Smith boys ("digging their way to college," said the host) blow their conches to give thanks to the spirits before digging the dirt to expose the oven pit.
After the imu ceremony, everyone is seated inside the clubhouse and the open bar begins. There is a never-ending flow of mai tais, the official cocktail of Hawaii made up of fruit punch and rum. There is also a separate open bar for other kinds of cocktails. It was our last night in Kauai so naturally, we made several trips to the mai tai bar.
Everything at Smith's was organized. Their experience in throwing luaus showed as soon as they called the guests to visit the food buffet row by row and family by family. There was so much food: several kinds of salad with interesting tropical-inspired dressings, Filipino adobo chicken, teriyaki beef, Mahi Mahi and of course, the pig itself, which was the tastiest of them all. There was also an abundant fruit table for dessert.
After the luau, there are several dance performances by young adults dressed in costumes from countries all over the Pacific. It was such a rated-G night for us, it felt like the Hawaii most tourists experience.
Smith's Tropical Paradise
Wailua Marina State Park
808/821-6895 |
