June 8, 2008

The view from Kauai

by Suzanne Condie Lambert, The Arizona Republic

There isn't much nightlife here. Unless you count the chickens. (More on them later.)

Although the island lacks attractions for the fast-lane crowd, it's perfect for hikers, surfers, birders, divers, kayakers, photographers, young families, old families and anyone looking to curl up on the sand with a good book.

Nearly every vista on the 550-square-mile island is a postcard, whether you're looking outward toward the swelling surf or inward toward the jagged mountain peaks, impossibly green to desert eyes.

No wonder the tourists flock.

Tourism is the main industry on Kauai, with about one in every six people among the island's 60,000 or so just visiting. The business replaces agriculture (read: sugar), which left a legacy of plantation architecture and a diverse ethnic mix as workers imported to work the fields stayed to make a life.

Tour packages will take you into the backcountry, out to sea to view the rugged Na Pali coast or zooming over the jungle dangling from a zip line. You can even get married Elvis-style.

Visitors eager to arise to the soothing sound of the surf may get a ruder awakening.

That's because of the chickens.

Hurricane Iniki struck Kauai in 1992, loosing untold numbers of birds, many bred for cockfighting, a favorite but illegal sport. Chickens now range freely through most of the island, pecking, laying eggs, teasing stray cats and crowing. Mostly, it seems, at 1 a.m.

We got a good dose of rooster song through the louvered windows in our cottage at Kapaa's Fern Grotto Inn, named after the nearby Fern Grotto, a verdant cave accessible only by boat up the Wailua River.

Ours was the only cottage at the recently renovated 1940s property on the Coconut Coast that lacked air-conditioning, so we left our windows open to catch the constant breezes. Eventually, we noticed less of the chicken noise and more of the nearby sea, the daily bursts of rain and the odd coconut dropping into the canal behind our cottage.

The property is just a stone's throw from the Wailua River, which flows through neighboring state parkland. Canoes and kayaks frequently skim the river's calm surface a few hundred yards or so from where it empties into the sea. Further upriver is Wailua Falls, which appeared in the opening credits of Fantasy Island. A short distance up Kuamoo Road are the Opaekaa Falls and an educational Hawaiian village built on the site of former royal vacation property.

Our host, Paul Juma, told us the buildings he rents out -- three one- and two-bedroom cottages with various degrees of kitchenette and the Ohana ("family") house with three bedrooms, three baths and a full kitchen -- were built by a Japanese widow in 1942. The buildings were used as vacation or long-term rentals over the years, until Juma and his wife, Nausheen, bought them -- in considerable disrepair -- in 2005, then set about the renovation.

Each building is individually and comfortably decorated in the spirit of the islands with casual modern and antique furnishings, spiced with Indian pieces reflecting the Juma family heritage. The parklike grounds are a good place to set kids loose while you sip a cool drink on the lanai or grill a burger on one of the barbecues.

The Fern Grotto Inn is across the two-lane Kuamoo Road from the decaying brown hulk of the Coco Palms, the island's first hotel, which featured sinks made from the shells of giant clams and attracted mid-20th-century movie stars and jet-setters.

Like the chicken pens, the Coco Palms was destroyed by Hurricane Iniki, and the effects linger.

Although most other hotels were rebuilt in the nearly 16 years since the storm, the Coco Palms remains in ruins, victim, depending on the teller, of economic obstacles, miscalculating developers, an unyielding planning commission or the site's culturally sensitive location, the home of royalty since the 13th century and the last queen of Kauai, Deborah Kapule, whose reign ended in 1821.

Not all of the Coco Palms was lost.

Surviving furnishings, including a purple velvet chair said to be from Elvis Presley's cottage (No. 56), were sold at auction. The velvet furnishing now serves as the husband chair at the TLC consignment store a few miles away in Kapaa. The shopkeeper is happy to tell the tale, but quick to discourage offers for the King's vacation throne.

The wedding finale in 1961's Blue Hawaii was filmed on these former royal grounds, with Elvis singing The Hawaiian Wedding Song to Joan Blackman aboard a double-hulled canoe in the Coco Palms' lagoon.

Although the rest of the property lies derelict, couples still can exchange vows at the Wedding Chapel, which MGM donated to the hotel after filming Rita Hayworth's Miss Sadie Thompson (1953).

The Palms' 2,000-tree coconut grove is the largest of three in the state, and the original proprietors invited many of their notable guests to join in replenishment ceremonies to add more.
Famous people who planted trees include Olympic swim champ and surf legend Duke Kahanamoku, the Von Trapp Family Singers and Bing Crosby, their names and planting dates on plaques that were displayed throughout the property and now are just ghosts among ghosts.

Details: Fern Grotto Inn, www.ferngrottoinn.com or 808-821-9836.
Copyright (c) The Arizona Republic. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Gannett Co., Inc. by NewsBank, inc.
Record Number: pho104593447