On our balcony, as the ship docked in Nawiliwili |
Kauai, March 18, 2017. This island is the westernmost US
territory. Any further west (such as some of the Aleutians) and you are in the
eastern hemisphere.
We landed at the island's only port, a small town with the improbable name of Nawiliwili. It had a small beachfront with two hotels, a little strip mall, and a Walmart at the top of the hill.
There are several options for tours on this relatively
undeveloped island, but we chose one of the least time consuming. We deferred
on a trip to Waimea Canyon, which is called the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”.
That’s because the trip across the island would take the whole day and it was
likely that there would be clouds at higher altitudes, just as you reached the
best picture opportunities.
The plantation railway. |
The main part of our tour was the Grove Plantation, a sugar
plantation maintained by an early settler family. The most prominent manager of
the plantation was a bachelor named George Wilcox. George was educated by
tutors on Kauai until he went to Yale to get an engineering degree. He was
responsible for the development of most of the island’s infrastructure,
including the electricity, telephone, and transportation networks. Our ship
docked in a harbor that had a plaque honoring Wilcox for designing and
financing the harbor at Nawiliwili.
Grove Plantation |
We followed the morning tour with an afternoon ride on the
Plantation Railway. This is a tourist train (not an original sugar cane
railroad) that passes by all manner of cultivated fruit: avocado trees, orange
groves, pineapples, breadfruit, mango, sugar cane, etc. It also moves through
pastures with goats, pigs, donkeys, geese, and horses. It made for a pleasant
afternoon in a tropical paradise. After a walk along the pier we were ready for
another four-day voyage back across the Pacific.
There were several beautiful views, as Hawaii struck a pose to help us remember her by.
Our arrival, with hula dancers in background. |
Cook Pines were planted by Capt. Cook to supply masts for sailing ships |
Rows of pineapple from the train. |
Our train stopped to feed the pigs. |
As we departed, we could see water bursting through a blowhole. |
The tug did a little dance for us as we began our journey back across the Pacific. |
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