Hawaii Twentyten

Wailua River State Park, Kaua’i

On April 26, 2010 we went to Wailua River State Park. It took us only some 30 minutes to go by car from our Lokelani Garden Cottage to the place where Wailua River flows into the ocean. We even stopped at the Heiau. I forgot to take pics of the Heiau but I took some of the ‘Opaeka‘a Falls.

They shot “Outbreak” with Dustin Hoffman partly on Kaua’i and you can even see some locations like that village that was supposed to be in Zaire.

You can rent kayaks (i.e. Kayak Wailua, Wailua Kayak Adventures) to paddle on the Wailua River. We wanted to make that later on the Hanalei River - but it rained on that day :-)

Sometimes we enjoy to lean back and behave like bloody tourists :-) so we did Smith’s Fern Grotto Tour. They do some Ukulele and some Hula on the boat and on the platform where you can see the Grotto. It was okay especially because the boat hat only few tourists :-)

Fern Grotto is a fern covered, lava rock grotto located on the Wailua River on the eastern side of Kauai in the Hawaiian archipelago. It forms a natural amphitheater which greatly increases the acoustics of the many bands that are hired to perform live music, which has traditional themes. Several boat companies give river tours which lead to the grotto. On April 24, 2006, the Grotto was closed by the Hawaii State Department of Land and Natural Resources for safety reasons. Heavy rains in March, 2006, caused a number of rocks and boulders to fall from the ceiling of the Grotto onto the viewing area below. The closure was expected to last three weeks. Access to the Grotto is by boat on the Wailua River as part of the Wailua River State Park. Tour boats ply the waters of the park and the Grotto has long been a popular stop on the tour.

[ Wikipedia: Fern Grotto ]

The Grotto is still closed and you can only have a look at it from the wooden platform they build. The tour was relaxing and those Smith’s guys were very friendly so we had a pleasant time.

[ Flickr photo set ]