What Is Kauai, Hawaii?

Kauai, Hawaii, the fourth most visited vacation islands in the country, is filled with endless activities and beautiful sights. It’s amazing scenery and relaxed personality are the factors that attract vacationers (Derrick 1). Yearly, the rate of visitors is 1.2 to 1.3 million (Derrick 1). “It is also the fourth largest landmass in the Hawaiian Island chain that includes eight major islands and 124 islets” (Derrick 1). The island of Kauai lies about 105 miles over its channel, which is northwest of Oahu. It’s round in shape encircling a land area of 533 square miles, so 25 miles in length by 33 miles wide. The highest point of the island is 5,243 feet above sea level (Derrick 1). My aunt has visited Kauai before, and she stated that it only
takes about three and a half hours to drive a full circle around the island. Based on all of the good stories and details she has told me, I’ve decided to definitely make it to Kauai someday.
Kauai began to form centuries ago due to a volcano underneath the ocean floor. Overtime, it broke through the surface. After several eruptions over hundreds of thousands of years, the lava pillows built up over the water level. Eventually after enough eruptions, the island of Kauai was created. Out of the main islands of Hawaii, Kauai is the oldest, going back about 5.1 million years ago (Derrick 1). Kauai’s nature conservancy protects as much wildlife as possible, including coral reefs, summits, parks of lava, rainforests canyons, beaches, and state parks.
Some of the state parks that they strongly protect are the Waimea canyon and Napali Coast. They also protect the water and the life under
it. One historical landmark is the statue of the founder, Captain James Cook, and he discovered Kauai was in 1778 (Derrick 1).
This statue stands in the Waimea Canyon today (Hawaii Tourism Authority 1). There is no known meaning why the island was named Kauai besides the fact that the founders son had this name (Derrick 1). The largest city is on the southeast coast called Lihue. “Kauai’s distant past is filled with legends, the most well known tells of the Menehune, a mythical race of small people talented in construction and engineering who created Kauai’s aqueducts and fishponds, often in a single night” (Hawaii Tourism Authority 1). In 1835, an old town called Old Koloa town built their first sugar mill. You can explore the Koloa Heritage trail to learn about the past of the island’s plantation (Hawaii Tourism Authority). There are also explorations of exhibits, artifacts and portraits of stories about the history of Kauai, and it’s neat culture that you can observe in the Kauai Museum (Hawaii Tourism Authority). The population of Kauai is a large amount of not only citizens, but vacationers too. Most of the tourism occurs at volcano national parks, memorials, pearl harbor, Napali coast, secluded beaches, and canyon state parks. The Napali coast is a stretch of black lava shores, and is one of the most visited sites in Kauai. The volcano state parks would be cool to visit because they were how Kauai, and the other islands of Hawaii, formed to begin with. Waimea Canyon is also
a top visited place to. This canyon consists of scenic treasures, colorful and deep gorges, nature trails, and beautiful picnics.
Kauai has multiple activities to participate in. You can explore isolated beaches, springs, forests, canyons, state parks, plantations, see waterfalls, go on hikes, surfing, mountain tubing, hang gliding, parasailing, shopping, eat at seafood restaurants, go deep sea fishing, snorkeling, scuba diving, swimming, bike rides, and cruises.
After researching what Kauai, Hawaii is like, I think it’d be extremely enjoyable. The island is calm and thrilling all at the same time. The variety of things to do there makes me want to visit more. The island is unique because of the variety of terrains it contains. I’ve always dreamed of going hang gliding and surfing. I know you can do both of them things at another place besides Hawaii, but who wouldn’t want to go there. The only deal breaker would be the cost of going and participating in all the activities. Other than that I would visit Kauai any day.