Frommer's Kauai - Jeanette Foster [155]
Lihui Heliport, office on Ahukini Rd. 80 0/326-3356 or 80 8/246-0136. www.safariair.com. 55-min. tour $229 ($161 with advance Web booking); 90-min. tour $329 ($247 with advance Web booking).
Sunshine Helicopter Ross and Anna Scott bought out Will Squyres Helicopter tours and have a range of tours from both the Lihue Airport and from the Princeville Airport. You can save a lot of cash by booking through their website, where you have a choice of a 30- to 40-minute tour or a 45- to 55-minute tour.
Lihue Airport. 86 6/501-7738 or 80 8/270-3999. www.helicopters-hawaii.com. Tours start at $199 for 30–40 minutes ($169 if you book on their website).
4 The Coconut Coast
The Kauai Historical Society ( 80 8/245-3373; www.kauaihistoricalsociety.org) sponsors a 90-minute Kapaa History Tour on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 10am. Your trained interpretive guide will take you back at least 125 years to a time when King Kalakaua came to Kauai seeking to make a fortune in sugar when pineapple was king, and learn about the various ethnic groups that make Kapaa what it is today. Cost is $15 for adults and $5 for children under 12; be sure to make reservations in advance.
Fern Grotto This is one of Kauai’s oldest (since 1946) and most popular tourist attractions. A 157-passenger motorized barge takes people up and downriver on an hour-and-20-minute cruise with a hula show on the return trip. At the Fern Grotto landing, you get off the boat and walk through the rainforest to the lush Fern Grotto, the source of many Hawaiian legends and a popular site for weddings.
Contact Smith’s Motor Boats for tours. 80 8/821-6895.www.smithskauai.com. Reservations recommended. Admission $20 adults, $10 children 2–12 (10% off if booked online). Daily 9:30am–3:30pm. Wailua Marina, at the mouth of the Wailua River; turn off Kuhio Hwy. (Hwy. 56) into Wailua Marine State Park.
WAILUA RIVER STATE PARK
Ancients called the Wailua River “the river of the great sacred spirit.” Seven temples once stood along this 20-mile river, which is fed by 5,148-foot Mount Waialeale, the wettest spot on Earth. You can go up Hawaii’s biggest navigable river by boat or kayak (see “Boating” and “Kayaking,” in chapter 7), or drive Kuamoo Road (Hwy. 580, sometimes called the King’s Hwy.), which goes inland along the north side of the river from Kuhio Highway (Hwy. 56)—from the northbound lane, turn left at the stoplight just before the ruins of Coco Palms Resort. Kuamoo Road goes past the heiau (temple) and historical sites to Opaekaa Falls and Keahua Arboretum, a State Division of Forestry attempt to reforest the watershed with native plants.
Make a Pilgrimage to a Hindu Temple
Believe it or not, a sacred Hindu temple is being carved out of rocks from India on the banks of the Wailua River. The San Marga Iraivan Temple is being built to last “a thousand years or more,” on the 458-acre site of the Saiva Siddhanta Church monastery. In the making for years now and expected to be completed in 2010, the Chola-style temple is the result of a vision by the late Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, known to his followers as Gurudeva, the founder of the church and its monastery. He specifically selected this site in 1970, recognizing that the Hawaiians also felt the spiritual power of this place. The Hawaiians called it pihanakalani, “where heaven touches the Earth.”
The concrete foundation is 68 feet×168 feet and 3 feet thick, designed not to crack under the weight of the 3.2-million-pound temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. The granite for the temple is being hand-quarried by some 70 stonemasons in India, then shipped to Kauai for final shaping and fitting on the site. The center of the temple will hold a 700-pound crystal, known as the Sivalingam, now displayed at the monastery’s smaller temple on the grounds.
Hindu pilgrims come