Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [435]
Outfitters Kaua′i (Map;742-9667, 888-742-9887; www.outfitterskauai.com; Po′ipu Plaza, 2827A Po′ipu Rd; Na Pali Coast tour $185; reservations 8am-9pm) Located in Po′ipu, but it offers tours islandwide.
* * *
YOGA
Yoga Hanalei (826-9642; www.yogahanalei.com; Hanalei Center, 2nd fl, 5-5161E Kuhio Hwy, upstairs; per class $15) is good for Ashtanga yoga; try Bhavani Maki.
Tours
Ho′opulapula Haraguchi Rice Mill Tour (Map;651-3399; www.haraguchiricemill.org; Kuhio Hwy; 3hr tour incl lunch per person $65; tours 10am Wed) The Haraguchi family, which also owns the Hanalei Taro & Juice Company, offers tours (by appointment only) of its historic rice mill and wetland taro farm. See the otherwise inaccessible Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge and learn about Hawaii’s immigrant history. Tours are limited to 14. The family helps run the biennial (even-numbered years) Hanalei Taro Festival, all about growing and cooking this surprisingly tasty native staple.
Sleeping
MIDRANGE & TOP END
Ohana Hanalei (826-4116; www.hanalei-kauai.com; Pilikoa Rd; r per day/week $95/615) It’s amazing how cheap this studio is given the location, a mere half-block from the beach. It has its own kitchenette, private entrance, phone, cable TV and convenient parking.
Bed, Breakfast & Beach at Hanalei (826-6111; www.bestvacationinparadise.com; 5095 Pilikoa Rd; r $105-$120) The location is ideal, but the owner can seem a bit picky (no groups of two or more; one couple per reservation). That might not matter, though, if you plan on spending much of your time across the street at Hanalei Bay. Homemade breakfast sweetens the deal.
Hanalei Inn (826-9333; www.hanaleiinn.com; 5-5468 Kuhio Hwy; r $119; ) With four studios to choose from, each with kitchen and a killer locale, this place is a steal. Stay for a week, pay no taxes.
Maluhia Hanalei Cottage (415-382-8918, 415-310-1919; www.hanaleivacationrental.com; Pilikoa Rd; 2-/3br ste per day $150/235, week $1050/1600) This cottage has a kitchenette, posh decor and is centrally located. There’s a partly refundable security deposit of $500.
Pine Trees Beach House (826-9333; www.hanaleibayinn.com; 5404 Weke Rd; r $199/$259; ) On the frontage road of Hanalei Bay. Four people can fit comfortably in the upstairs rental, replete with two queen beds and one futon; a downstairs studio apartment can sleep two with its queen bed and a pull-out couch.
* * *
HOMAGE TO KALO
According to Hawaiian cosmology, Papa (earth mother) and Wakea (sky father; who also gave birth to the Hawaiian Islands), gave birth to Haloa, a stillborn and brother to man. Haloa was planted in the earth, and from his body came taro, or kalo, a plant that has long sustained the Hawaiian people and been a staple for oceanic cultures.
Kalo is still considered a sacred food, full of tradition and spirituality for Native Hawaiians. The North Shore’s Hanalei is home to the largest taro-producing farm in the state, where the purple, starchy potatolike plant is grown in pondfields known as lo′i kalo (Hawaiian wet taro fields). After crossing the first of several one-way bridges in Hanalei, to the left you’ll notice the kalo growing.
Kalo regained the spotlight in the ’70s thanks to the ‘Hawaiian Renaissance,’ a time during which some aspects of the Hawaiian culture enjoyed a modest, long-overdue resurgence and reclaimed practice. Though dismissed by some outsiders as little more than a glorified, garnet-colored potato, kalo is rich in nutrients. It is often boiled and pounded into poi, an earthy, starchy and somewhat sweet and sticky puddinglike food.
Families enjoy poi, defined as the ‘staff of life’ in the Hawaiian dictionary, a number of ways. Some prefer it fresh, while others prefer sour poi, or poi ′awa ′awa (bitter), possibly from the method in which poi used to be served – often it sat in a bowl on the table for quite some time.
All traditional Hawaiian households show respect for taro: when the poi bowl sits on