By Steve Weisman

Not long ago, my wife and I spent two weeks on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. What a wonderful vacation, and except for one mostly rainy day, the rest of our trip was 80-degree days with plenty of sun! That made the sunrise views from our ocean view condo at Pono Kai Resort perfect.

Narrowing down our itinerary took some doing. We wanted to take some tours, do some exploring on our own and just bum around the condo some, too. I had previously done a lot of background research and asked longtime friends, Bill and Mary Beardsley, who had been to Kaua’i several times, for their advice. With this information along, I turned to Valerie Owen, who has spent over 30 years working with visitors to help with the formal tours. Valerie spent a couple of hours listening to our thoughts and then went to work coming up with options for our activities and tours. We then met later that day to finalize the plans.

All of those movies

Our itinerary included a Roberts Movie Tour (80 movies filmed on Kaua’i). Oh my gosh, to walk on the very spots that South Pacific, Blue Hawaii, Jurassic Park, Raiders of the Lost Arc and even the very sandy beach that the S. S. Minnow washed up on the pilot for Gilligan’s Island. However,  my wife and I found the tour of the Coco Palms Resort to be an emotional trip back in time. You see, Coco Palms Resort was the first and probably the most famous resort on Kaua’i. In its heyday, it was known for its luxury, the lagoons, the torch lighting ceremony, Hawaiian-themed weddings, fantastic entertainment and movies such as Blue Hawaii with Elvis Presley, Fantasy Island, Death Moon, Jungle Heat and Miss Sadie Thompson were filmed. Many famous movies stars stayed there while they filmed movies on other parts of the island. Back in 1975, my wife’s parents and her younger sister and her aunt and uncle stayed at the Coco Palms. Many times, they shared their time spent and its impressive beauty.

Unfortunately, a devasting hurricane hit the island in 1992 with winds of at least 145 mph that destroyed the Coco Palms. Since that time, it has sat in ruin with only the main structure still standing and the memories for those who had played a huge part in its success. As Wendy took us through the ruins, we saw so many things destroyed yet the lagoons were still there, the place where the torches were lit every night, dining room, the dance floor and on and on.

(photo submitted) The author and his wife, Darial with Larry Rivera, a music legend on Kaua’i.

Then we met Larry Rivera, who is famous across Kaua’i for his singing talents. He still comes to what is left of Coco Palms to share its story and then sing and strum on his ukulele. The magic is still there. Our tour group applauded, and his laughter echoed through the ruins. Before we left, my wife and I went up to Larry and shared our story of my wife’s parents watching him back in the 1975. Yes, there was more than a little hint of nostalgia there for all three of us.

Our most incredible tour was the whale tour with Cap’t. Andy’s Sailing Adventures. . It was a morning excursion aboard a 65’ catamaran with a great view of the Na Pali Coast, which is a 15-mile stretch of some of the most rugged island coastline I’ve ever seen.  Simply put, it is 15 miles dramatically known as “the Cliffs.” In addition to the Cliff sights and narrated history, activities included snorkeling, a great grilled lunch and whale watching.

The scenery was incredible with long-ago dried-up waterfalls, a still running waterfall used by early natives to get water and the most majestically rugged cliffs. Whale sightings were ok, but the whales were usually several hundred yards away, so there was little opportunity to get any good photos. Snorkelers were rewarded with sea turtle appearances and schools of fish moving around. Even though we didn’t snorkel, the water was clear enough to see the schools moving through and even the shapes of the sea turtles.

Oh for the whales

Then about noon, IT happened. First a hammer head shark swam along the surface right in the catamaran’s wake. Then…there they were! Two whales appeared about 80 yards behind the boat, moving first to one side and then the other…and then 50 yards, and then 30 yards, and then 20 yards and, yes, even 5 yards behind and then off one side of the boat and then the other.

For over an hour, they entertained us all. Soon, it was 1 p.m., and the whales still stuck around: spouting, logging (appearing on the surface like a log), breaching and tail slapping…since they were within 100 yards, the law decrees that the boat stays put. For all of that time, the whales entertained a boatload of “whale groupies!” People cheered and roared their approval with the whales’ antics, and their spouting sound was so incredibly clear.

Photo after photo after photo. I’m sure I took 40 photos, hoping for the perfect one. Meanwhile, my wife went toward the back of the boat and started taking videos. Soon, she was taking a video of a whale that breached about 10 yards away from the back of the boat. Suddenly, the whale gave a huge tail slap and water flew up and landed right on my wife! Yup, she was drenched, laughing but drenched.

The captain was getting further behind all the time, because he had  to get the catamaran back to port for the next tour set to leave about 2 p.m. The trouble is it had to be cleaned up for the next group. And we couldn’t go anywhere…He kept saying to the whales in a joking, yet serious way, “Come on! We’ve got to get going. I’m going to be in real trouble if I don’t get this catamaran back!” Of course, we passengers just laughed and kept taking photos! Then he said reassuringly, “Don’t worry, I’ll just have to go a little faster than I usually do!”

Finally, the whales grew tired of us and swam off looking for better entertainment, I guess. And, yes, the captain cranked up the music starting with “Sweet Caroline” and ending with “Sweet Home Alabama,” that got all of us singing away.

In addition, we did our own exploring around the towns of Lihue, Kapa’a and then the south shore. We also scaled the winding road to the Waimea Canyon Lookout. Often called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, it is 14 miles long, 1 mile wide and more than 3,600 feet deep. On the way back, we stopped to see the intriguing Spouting Horn blowhole. It is here that as the waves hit the shoreline, the surf channels into a natural lava tube and when the surf is really coming in, releases a spout of water that can reach heights of 50 feet.

Throughout all of our tours and travels, it was obvious why Kaua’i is called the Garden Isle. The oldest of the Hawaiian Islands with its lush growth of trees, grasses, flowering shrubs along with spectacular waterfalls emanating from steep mountain cliffs and finally the many beaches reinforced to us its amazing beauty.

The only thing I didn’t get to do was ocean fishing. The day I had it planned, the wind blew 15-30 mph, and I just didn’t see how much fun fighting big swells would be…so I passed.

As we look back at our trip, my wife and I learned so much history of the island and the captivating stories of the development of Kaua’i leading to today and the struggle of how to save the island’s beauty, its history and the stories of the people that helped settle the island, while at the same time fitting into the ever changing and demanding modern day world. My hope is that the people of Kaua’i never lose sight of their values and their heritage. After all, that is part of the beauty of the Garden Island.