Kauai may be one of the smallest of the popular Hawaiian islands but it is the oldest and undoubtedly one of the most beautiful. The first main island in a chain of volcanic islands destined to emerge over millennia (the Hawaiian island chain stretches for thousands of miles to the northwest of Kauai in small atolls, islets, and seamounts), it has for centuries drawn to its shores Polynesian adventurers, settlers from every continent searching for a better life, missionaries intent upon conversion and in their multitudes, tourists and travelers in pursuit of the ultimate destination. One of the latter, I was lured by the island’s stunning natural grandeur and the culture of a people who had courageously set out from the Marquesas long ago in a quest for a land unknown.

Unlike its sister islands where glitz and glamour prevail, Kauai has retained its old world charm. For that reason Hawaiians from neighbouring islands; Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai and the Big Island, choose Kauai over all others as their own holiday destination. Tourism as we know it has yet to make a significant impact on the island, even though the spirit of aloha lies deep within the souls of its people.

For me, Kauai’s natural treasure lies to the west in the Koke’e and Waimea Canyon State Parks. Its mysterious fluted NaPali cliffs and the Alakei Swamp on a 30 square mile lava plateau are closeby. These areas encapsulate nature’s stunning vistas and fascination with dramatic flare.
Alakei is the world’s highest swamp at an elevation of 1,599 metres. Mist is more-or-less a constant in this mysterious environment. It drifts over moss-covered rocks and trees and clings like a ghostly cloud along the edges of a wooden boardwalk where violets and lush tropical ferns grow in rampant splendour.

A royal walk-about across the Alakei Swamp
Each year this strange but fascinating place almost disappears under a deluge of hundreds of inches of rain. In 1871 Hawaii’s Queen Emma was not daunted by Alakei’s inhospitable terrain. The Queen and her entourage including 100 hula dancers undertook to cross the swamp en route to the other side of the island. Today’s boardwalk was still a project of the future and the royal party undoubtedly sank up to their knees in the cloying red mud.

Kauai’s natural treasure
In Koke’e and the Waimea Canyon, rainbows, dense swirling mists, gentle rain showers and brilliant sunshine are the norm, but reaching those deliciously cool 60-degree temperatures in the mountains involves negotiating a road with potholes large enough to swallow a prize winning pumpkin.

In Koke’e’s vast rainforest (home to the hoary bat, Kauai’s only native land mammal) foreign tree species including redwoods and Japanese sugi cedars, mingle with native plants. Other foreign imports include dogs, chickens, rats and most importantly pigs brought in by Polynesians when they colonized the island. Wild boar from Europe have interbred with local pigs producing a vigorous strain and together with mule deer and black-tailed deer the local hunters are assured of lively sport.

Although birds are prolific on Kauai, many native birds, including the ‘o’o ‘a’a, are now extinct. In the past Hawaiians applied a sticky substance to tree branches, then, with offerings of fruit tempted the birds to alight. Once captured, a small number of yellow feathers from the ‘o’o ‘a’a and the red feathers of the ‘i’wi and ‘apapane were plucked from the captive birds and used for making cloaks for festive occasions. After parting with their feathers, the birds were released. The red feathered ‘i’wi and ‘apapane can still be seen in the rainforest.

Local Kauaians frequently visit the rainforest because of its connections with Laka the Goddess of hula. It is here that they collect the greenery of the mokihana and maile plants for making fragrant leis as decoration for two of the most sacred hula altars in Polynesia.

There are numerous ways to tour Kauai, but for a bird’s eye view, soaring aloft in a helicopter alongside albatrosses and Nenes (Hawaii’s national bird), and viewing the massive fluted NaPali cliffs and the canyon in miniature from the vault of an endless sky has been described as a spiritual experience.

For those with budgetary constraints, Koke’e State Park, the Waimea Canyon and the Alakei Swamp are easily accessible by car. Just a short drive to the end of the trail, and NaPali’s magnificent cliffs and a turquoise ocean, home to pregnant humpback whales in the spring, are clearly visible from Kalalau Lookout and Pu’u o Kila Lookout.

The goddess of hula’s ancient heiau
Near Kee Beach at the foot of the cliffs, the remains of an ancient heiau (hula dance school) draws hula enthusiasts from around the world. They come to honour Laka and to dance on sacred ground.

In times past novice students at this same heiau were closely guarded and compelled to abide by a stringent set of rules. Certain foods were prohibited. Cleanliness was mandatory. Contact with the dead was off limits and sex was forbidden.

A certain danger was also involved. At the culmination of their course, students were required to swim across a lagoon, home to a giant shark. Woe betide any who had broken even one of the taboos. Punishment was death by mauling.

Waimea Canyon, Kauai’s ‘jewel in the crown’
For Kaui’s most impressive vista, Waimea Canyon is undoubtedly the island’s ‘jewel in the crown’. Plunging 1,158 metres at its deepest point and spreading for close to 22 kilometres, Mark Twain’s ‘Grand Canyon of the Pacific’ is a favourite with hikers.

Small in comparison with its cousin in Arizona, the canyon’s earthy tones; emerald fading to pale green, rust, yellow ochre, light to dark chocolate and the saturated rose tints of its volcanic rock buttresses dazzled my eyes. Cliffs and peaks with waterfalls tumbling from unimagineable heights after rain, is a magnificent sight. As I leaned against the safety railing at Pu’u Ka Pele Lookout, I couldn’t help gasping at the glorious manifestation of nature’s majesty.

Waimea Canyon’s royal occasion
Wandering down to an open space away from the Lookout, I came upon a ceremony featuring visiting Polynesian Kings, Queens and Chiefs from the 15 Kingdoms and tribes of the Polynesian Triangle.

Like Birds of Paradise, elaborately and gorgeously attired in colourful apparel, these delegates – in Kauai to attend a conference in the small coastal town of Waimea – looked the epitome of Polynesian royalty. Standing on the sidelines, onlookers watched respectfully silent as the royal participants, led by a Polynesian man, almost naked but clothed elaborately in tattoes from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, offered prayers to their deities.

Kauai chickens on the loose
Back in the car park an army of chickens, descended upon us as we made for our car. I had heard much about Kauai’s roving fowl and here they were en masse, a crazy mingling of every imaginable colour and plumage style.

Escapees from domestic servitude after Hurricane Ineki swept across Kauai in 1992, they had gravitated to a life in the bush and Pu’u Ka Pele Lookout was obviously one of their lucrative peanut pecking points. Leaving their scratchings in what was probably barren earth, jewel coloured roosters and their less flamboyant hens followed by a gaggle of cheeping chicks rushed us in a quest for food.

Late that afternoon as we headed on down to the coast and the Waimea Plantation cottages where we were to spend the night, I couldn’t help thinking of the astronauts. Out there in space among the stars they must have looked down on the island as the last light of day slipped away like a ghost and watched Kauai welcome the night.

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Anne Gordon is a freelance travel writer and photographer based in Canada. For more of her world travels, visit Anne’s blog

A Travel Series by Diane Covington

Follow along with Diane as she explores the northern end of the South Island of New Zealand for adventures along the back roads…

Part 4: Catching the updraft above Nelson Lakes National Park, New Zealand

While we were staying at the Alpine Lodge in St. Arnaud, I had the chance to go up in a glider above Nelson Lakes National Park. What an unforgettable experience! Here are my thoughts on that amazing journey through the sky. If you want more information on taking a ride in a glider, check out the online home of the New Zealand gliding clubs.

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The fat brown Jersey cows munched the thick grass, flicking their tails against flies, then moseyed along. They never even glanced over at the light planes that zoomed past on the grassy runway, recently reclaimed from their pasture. The slender gliders raced up and down, landing and taking off, like birds in flight.

To go up in a glider, you get strapped into your seat, then the glider, attached by a cable to a wench, gets towed down the runway till it takes to the air, sort of like launching a kite. You’re taxiing down the runway, then whoosh, up, into the sky. No motor, no sound, just the feel of lifting up fast, carried by the wind. The wench releases, attached to a tiny parachute and billows down to the ground.

Up in the air, the sound of the wind rushing past the wings, a thin Plexiglas cover is all you have between you and the open sky. 1,000 feet above the ground, catching updrafts, lift as they call it, up, then down, circling, just like the ospreys, hawks and vultures, I’ve watched soaring, drifting, circling- -amazing.

I was stunned by the beauty of the perspective, thrilled by the closeness of the treetops, awed by the sensibility of literally “casting our fate to the winds” and depending on the whims of Mother Nature to carry us along.

The sheep and cows below looked like little dots of white cotton or brown fuzz. The sun sparkled off the Plexiglas cover, the clouds danced along the ridges, almost eye level to us now.
It must be one of the most direct experiences of flying that a person could have, except maybe hang gliding. I was reminded of the myth of Icarus who fulfilled his dream of flying but soared too close to the sun and melted the wax holding his wings together and fell to his death.

I’ve had dreams of flying and this felt pretty close. I can see why my friend who was piloting the glider has logged over 600 hours, feeling out the air currents, riding them and soaring through the sky.

How could I have missed this for all these years? Where was I that I didn’t know this wonder?

It felt gentle somehow, like we were riding Mother Nature, in some sync with her moods and fancies, flowing, natural like a bird. It felt like she smiled at us in a playful way, played with us a bit, a game of hide and seek, hiding the currents—catch me if you can—down, down, down, then up, up, up, over, always gliding, soaring, falling, then soaring again.

I thought about life–where are the updrafts, the places where I can soar with ease and grace, the wind beneath my wings, carried by something larger than myself, but which I am a part of?
And saw that gliding and life both require that you pay close attention to what is happening, moment by moment. Looking for the gifts, like the updrafts, the lift, which will carry you on.

Diane Covington 2010

A Travel Series by Diane Covington

Follow along with Diane as she explores the northern end of the south island of New Zealand for adventures along the back roads…

Part 3: Nelson Lakes National Park

It was a three-hour drive from the ocean at Golden Bay to Nelson Lakes National Park, up in the mountains.

We chose the small village of St. Arnaud, right on the shore of the sparkling waters of Lake Rotoiti. There is so much outdoor fun available here, it’s hard to know what to do first.

On the lake, you can kayak, windsurf, water-ski, canoe and swim. Or try your hand at fly-fishing in the nearby rivers, for some of the best brown and rainbow trout fishing in New Zealand. Or kayak or raft down the river.

There are hiking trails all over the park, with an extensive network of tracks and huts for overnight stays for backpackers.

I spent my days bike riding and then jumping in the lake to cool off.

We found a gem of a lodge, the Alpine Lodge, a five-minute walk from the lake.

The lodge is a perfect place if you want to be outside and active all day, then come back to a clean and comfortable room, shower and have a gourmet dinner. We enjoyed delicious entrees such as Chicken Curry, a Vegetarian Burrito and an amazing Burger in their bar at the Lodge.

Just next door, their café serves breakfast and lunch. I had a delectable chocolate and berry muffin for breakfast and for lunch, a bacon, cheese and vegetable quiche. All their breads and baked goods are made from scratch. They buy local produce and support local businesses, including serving beers brewed in nearby Nelson and of course, New Zealand wines.

Owner Alexandra Unterberger, who runs the lodge with her fiancée Leighton Marshall, comes from a family with over 300 years history in the hotel and restaurant business. They really go out of their way to make guests feel welcome.

“We’re here every night with the guests. We enjoy having that personal touch,” Alexandra said.

The Alpine Lodge and St Arnaud are centrally located for sightseeing day trips. It’s one hour to Nelson, for arts and crafts and Blenheim for wine tasting. Or the West coast for dramatic coastal scenery, including blowholes.

We had a two-story studio with a view of the creek and felt at home during our three-day stay.

“We want to provide clean rooms, good service and good food,” Alexandra said.

And they did. We’ll go back for sure.

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Diane Covington 2010

Follow along with Diane as she explores the northern end of the south island of New Zealand for adventures along the back roads…

Part 1 – From jet lag to stunt pilot:
First day in New Zealand and I become a stunt pilot—even with jet lag! Read on and catch the two videos for more fun. Photos too. Enjoy!

If you’ve ever dreamed of being a stunt pilot, soaring high among the clouds and doing rolls and loops, this is your chance!

Want to be a stunt pilot—at least for a day? Well now you can. New Zealand is living up to its reputation of the “land of wild and crazy adventures” and this one leaves bunjee jumping in the dust, literally.

In the little town of Motueka , at the north end of New Zealand’s south island, near Nelson and Golden Bay, there’s a small grassy airstrip where a very brave pilot lets you pay him to take you up in his open air bi-plane, and not only fly it, but do turns, rolls and loops.

You’re soaring through the air, snoopy style, goggles, hair flying, looking down on the green hills and valleys of New Zealand, the ocean sparkling below, farms with sheep and cows grazing. In the distance, there’s Farewell Spit, the narrow peninsula that extends out like a fish hook at the top of the island, then the curving shore and white sands of Golden Bay and the wilderness of Abel Tasman National Park.

You take the plane up to 7,000 feet, feeling the air temperature cool as you climb higher and the wind rushes by. The pilot, Vince, sitting right behind you, gives you instructions—‘nose up, nose down, now move the stick to the left, that’s good…’
When it’s time to roll, he says simply ‘hard left, hard left, hard left’ and over you roll!

It was terrifyingly wonderful and that was with jet-lag—I’d just gotten off the plane from California a few hours before. Don’t miss this chance to be a stunt pilot. Vince is an amazing coach and you can do it!

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Diane Convington 2010

Denver, July 23 – 25, 2009

I’ve had the pleasure of being a speaker at several of these travel writing workshops. It’s always a pleasure to work both with the students and with the AWAI staff, most of whom I consider good friends, and some of the most talented writers and teachers of ever met. The most rewarding part is when I see students succeed. This isn’t some “lost weekend” of boring talks that lead nowhere. If you have the desire, this workshop can be the start of a new career.
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