Frommer's Kauai - Jeanette Foster [52]
• The beach is not an ashtray—do not use the sand for your cigarette butts.
• Don’t approach turtles or Hawaiian monk seals resting on the shoreline. Both are protected by law—you must stay 100 feet away from these species. The good news is that efforts to protect these animals seem to be working, and their numbers are growing. It’s fine to watch and take photos, but stay back (some well-meaning visitors think they are injured and are trying to help, but usually they are just resting).
• If you plan to go fishing, practice catch and release (let the fish live another day). Ask your charter boat captain if they practice catch and release, if they say no, book with someone else.
• If you are environmentally conscious, we do not recommend that you rent jet skies, which have a significant environmental impact.
ON LAND
• Don’t litter (this includes throwing a cigarette butt out of your car).
• When hiking, wear comfortable, closed-toed, sturdy shoes with good soles, and scrub them (especially the soles) to get rid of seeds and soil you may have brought with you from home. Carry a small day pack with a garbage bag in it and be sure to carry out everything you carried in (including your litter and if you see other garbage on the trail, carry it out too). Stay on the trail. Wandering off a trail is not only dangerous to you (you can get lost or fall off overgrown cliffs, or get injured by stepping into a hidden hole), but you could possibly carry invasive species into our native forests. Do not pick flowers or plants along your hike. Just leave the environment the way you found it.
• Consider carefully what kind of car you rent. You will likely be doing a lot of driving as you explore the island. Unfortunately, hybrids from car rental agencies are not only hard to find, but extremely expensive in Kauai. Car rental agencies do have a variety of cars to rent and you can select a car that gets the best gas mileage. Also ask for a white car, as they use less energy to air condition than a dark-colored car.
Volunteering on Vacation
If you are looking for a different type of experience during your next vacation to Hawaii, you might want to consider becoming a volunteer and leaving the islands a little nicer than when you arrived. People interested in volunteering at beach and ocean clean-ups can contact: University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program at 80 8/397-2651 ext. 256 or Hawaii Wildlife Fund at 80 8/756-1808. For eco volunteering on land, contact: Malama Hawaii,www.malamahawaii.org/get_involved/volunteer.phpwhere (click on the box “volunteer opportunities”), a statewide organization dedicated to malama (take care) of the culture and environment of Hawaii. At this site you will find a range of opportunities on various islands from weeding gardens and potting plants in botanical gardens to restoring taro patches to cleaning up mountain streams to bird watching to even hanging out at a beach all day, helping with a reef project.
HOW TO FIT IN LIKE A LOCAL
Most visitors to Hawaii want to fit in and not stand out as an obvious tourist. The best way to do that is to be friendly and practice the same common courtesy that you do in your own neighborhood. If you smile and are polite to local residents, chances are they will smile back at you. There are a few things you might want to think about:
• Be super polite when driving. People in Hawaii do not use their car horn as a comment on other people’s driving. Most Kauai residents use their car horn only as a greeting to a friend.
• Another driving comment—you may be on vacation, but not everyone living here is on vacation so check out your rearview mirror. If you are impeding traffic by driving slowly, pull off the road. If you want to watch the sunset, pull off the road. If you have a long line of cars behind