As the wheels of my car pound the wooden planks of the one-way bridge into Hanalei Valley, all signs of modernity seem to fall away. No crowds, no traffic lights, no foreign noise. Just a carpet of shock-green kalo (taro) and the Hanalei River, wide and placid, gently gliding toward the sea. Traveling down the […]
The Hawaiian Islands claim 10 of the world’s myriad climate zones, the only place on earth with so many concentrated in one small area. You can visit all of them on Hawai‘i Island, or find a few scattered throughout the Islands. Ready to zone out? Here’s your guide. Hawaii has 10 of the world’s 14
Helena’s Hawaiian Food doesn’t open for another hour, but the kitchen, at 9 a.m., is already bustling with activity. Just beneath 250 pounds of its famous pipikaula (salted dried beef), hanging in long strips above the stoves, a pair of chefs stir massive aluminum stockpots filled with bubbling beef stew, squid lū‘au, chicken long rice
To inhale a butter-and-garlic sautéed shrimp plate lunch or sip a Tropi-Kale smoothie? That is the question. Kahuku Farms’ roadside farm café—home of the aforementioned smoothie, made with kale, apple banana and vanilla grown on adjacent acreage—sits just outside its namesake town on Oahu’s Windward Coast. It looks friendly enough, its bright yellow façade presenting
Chances are good that you’ve never been to Waimanu Valley. The largest of a string of remote valleys along a dozen miles of rugged, windswept Hamakua coastline between more accessible and well-known Big Island valleys Waipio and Pololu, Waimanu is not an easy place to visit. There is only one way in—by foot on the
I can’t remember a time when I’ve visited Kauai and someone—a coworker, a neighbor, my mom—didn’t ask me to bring back a brick of kulolo. You can find kulolo—a Hawaiian dessert staple made from mashed kalo (taro), coconut milk, sugar and little else—for sale on just about every Hawaiian Island. Most local grocery stores sell variants of
If you didn’t know who she was, you would think Carissa Moore was just another surfer girl—white bikini top under a black tank, rocking a trucker hat, greeting regulars at her favorite Oahu south shore surf break, Kewalo’s. But Moore is not just another surfer. The smiley Honolulu resident is the reigning two-time Association of
The smell of freshly baked cinnamon scones wafts from the kitchen and down the front stairway of the unassuming two-story house I wait outside at Kukaiau Ranch, a 10,200-acre working cattle operation in the tiny village of Umikoa on the northeast slopes of Mauna Kea volcano. “Hey there!” calls a voice from the top of
Squinting into central Maui morning sunshine, I survey blue skies directly above a Hike Maui van and worry about the waves of cumulus camouflage rushing toward our alpine hiking destination: the summit of Haleakala volcano. My heart sinks a bit at the sight. I begin wishing that the warm, sunglasses-and-T-shirt weather in the sea level
“If you drive too fast, you’ll miss it.” That was the sage, if succinct, advice I received from a friend several years ago when I mentioned I was headed to the small farming town of Hanapepe on Kauai’s south shore. She was describing a worn-down, faded green cottage on the biggest bend of the town’s
There I stood, hugging a rudraksha tree. Hugging it like it was one of my parents. And I wasn’t the only one. Several visitors from the mainland U.S. and a local horticulturalist were doing the same—all of us, for the moment, literal tree-huggers. A few hours at Kauai Aadheenam, tucked amid the breathtaking verdure straddling
Just as certain as there are surfers flocking to Maui’s best surf breaks when waves are up, when the weather is clear in the dense forests of Upcountry Maui, outdoor adventurers are headed up the slopes of massive Haleakalā volcano. Here, high above the island’s vast central plain, upland pineapple fields, former sugar land and
