photo by gusto

Flights to Kauai arrive at the capital, LIHUE, which stands slightly inland of little Nawiliwili Harbor. It’s roughly at the midpoint of the round-island highway (prevented from completing a loop by the Na Pali cliffs), but as a base it’s pretty undistinguished. The population is just five thousand, and downtown consists of a few tired plantation-town streets, well back from the sea and surrounded by anonymous malls.

The small Kauai Museum at 4428 Rice St (Mon-Fri 9am-4pm, Sat 10am-4pm; $5) traces the island’s history from the mythical menehune (the most ancient Hawaiian people) through Captain Cook’s 1778 landfall and on to its sugar-growing heyday. Kauai was the one island not conquered by Kamehameha the Great; he spent six years amassing a fleet that never sailed, and settled in the end for accepting economic tribute.