Leaving winter behind for a vacation break to Hawaii doesn'tnecessarily require going cold turkey on muscle-powered outdooractivities. Personally, I can relax on a beach with the best meatloafers on the planet - for about 30 minutes. Then, like a growingnumber of Hawaii visitors, I look forward to a hike, paddle, dive orother active pursuit beyond the manicured landscaping.
My restlessness was accelerated late last winter when myvacationing but watchful parental eyes noticed a young, musculargolden boy - I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and call him'Buddy' - had locked his radar on one of my teenage daughterswithin seconds of our arrival to one of the busiest beaches onKauai.
I looked at my wife, who was slathering a third layer ofsunscreen onto her winter-white skin, and said, 'I think I'll bemore relaxed when we get on the trail.'
All of the major Hawaiian Islands are ripe with active outdoorrecreation options, including great hunting for deer and wildturkeys and fairly good fishing if you want to go that route.
Even on the more heavily populated Oahu, our family has sampled asurprisingly extensive system of hiking trails, and you can get awayfrom the chaos of Honolulu and Waikiki with ocean kayak rentals.
Just a short air-hop away, however, Kauai has several standoutattractions for the tourist who wants to spice the tropicalexperience with outdoor adventure.
Only 3 percent of this versatile island has been consumed bycommercial and residential development. A good chunk isagricultural, while a full half of the island is forested and themajority is reasonably natural, partly because it's too wonderfullywet or rugged to mess with.
Kauai is smaller than the Big Island, Oahu or Maui, but it'spacked with opportunities, some of them unique.
For example, Kauai is the only Hawaiian island with navigablerivers for flatwater kayak paddling.
Kauai has some of the easiest access to areas where snorkelerscan swim with sea turtles.
None of the other major islands has a feature to compare with theNa Pali Coast and its spectacular, precipitous and undevelopedbastion of tropical wilderness for hiking or paddling.
The north side of the Kauai has no shortage of good beaches andis the best base for adventures on the roadless Na Pali Coast alongthe island's west side.
The east and south sides of the island have most of the river-paddling options.
For a spring break trip, we settled on the south side in thePo'ipu area, a good base for sea-turtle snorkeling forays and hikingaround Waimea Canyon - Hawaii's grand canyon. Po'ipu has the well-known additional benefit of being the sunniest and driest spot on anisland where rain is going to fall somewhere almost every day.
Time flies when you're having fun, and we found that spending alittle extra on conveniently located accommodations helped us makethe most of our week in paradise. Driving the crowded, windy islandroads can gobble up big chunks of precious days.
The Sheraton-Kauai is expensive but central to tons of activity.Sharing the same beach is a campus of condos at the Castle KiahunaPlantation, where active people who don't mind walking a short wayfor their ocean view can save some money with off-beach units.
Both are situated near Po'ipu Beach, distinguished in 2001 as thebest in America by Dr. Beach. (Check it out at www.drbeach.org.)
Hiking was high on our agenda, but we didn't come to Hawaii towalk away from the waves. As a fisherman, I learned long ago that itpays to hire a guide for an introduction to new waters beforeexploring them on your own. That same strategy paid dividends forsnorkeling.
By spending a morning with an Aloha Kauai Tours snorkel guide, wewere quickly tuned in to shy and camouflaged marine species beyondthe obvious colorful schools of fish. We learned to use the currentsrather than fight them. We got tips on where to go and areas toavoid, and closed the session in a mesmerizing swim with a group ofsea turtles.
Snorkeling is an active sport that appeals to tourists with awide range of physical abilities. Our guide pointing out thatoverweight people find unique freedom to exercise in the buoyancy ofsaltwater.
The sport is simple, too, once you master the basic theory that asnorkel is a big air hose, unless you tilt your head too farforward; then it's a giant straw.
With a beach experience behind us, we devoted the next day toseeing another niche of the island by foot. Being experiencedhikers, we had brought a few key items that helped us walk awaycomfortably from the crowds.
Among them: Daypacks for food, ponchos and two-liter hydrationsystems, plus trekking poles and light hiking shoes to handle ruggedand sometimes treacherously mud-slick trails.
Our teenagers initially resented being dragged away from thebeach, but their jaws dropped in awe as we hiked down a ridge westof Waimea Canyon and looked across to waterfalls and down almostvertically to the Na Pali Coast.
I knew the scenery was going to be spectacular even before webroke out of the forest canopy.
'Hear the helicopters?' I said. 'People pay a lot of money to flyover the best scenery on Kauai, and we're hiking here for free.'
Looking beyond their yawns and rolling eyes, I think the girlswere impressed in a teenage sort of way.
From one vantage on an open rocky slope where feral goatsfrolicked, we could see the ocean crashing on the beaches, thehelicopters tiny as bugs in the vast canyons where ribbons of waterstreamed down imminently green slopes.
The 12-mile loop connecting the Nu'alolo and Awa-'awapuhi trailsranks among the best dayhikes on the island, although 3 miles arealong Waimea Canyon Drive in order to get back to a vehicle parkedat the Koke'e Lodge.
My wife, Meredith, made a stab at sticking out her thumb and wasnot only rejected by the first few passing rental cars - theyactually sped up as they shot by.
She was fairly demoralized, noting that she had no troublehitchhiking last time she tried, although that was around 25 yearsago. But her daughters soothed her aching ego by pointing out thatshe surely would have been given a lift if it weren't for the 'Rambolook' from mud caked on her shoes and legs.
She even had splatters of red mud on her face from a couple of'whoopees' down trail sections that occasionally and naturally erodein this volcanic landscape into virtual tunnels of traction-defyingamusement.
Three other top Kauai hiking attractions:
-- The Kukui Trail, 5 miles round trip, drops 2,000 feet intoWaimea Canyon for the shortest route to the canyon floor and a largeswimming hole at the bottom.
-- The Kuilau Ridge Trail, 4.2 miles round trip, starts beyondthe University of Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station on Route580 and leads to intimate views of native flora and smallwaterfalls.
-- The Kalalau Trail, up to 22 miles round trip, is the originalHawaiian trail on the Na Pali Coast from Ke'e Beach into theisolated Kalalau Valley. It's the most celebrated trail in Hawaii,for good reason. Dayhikers can easily hike into a stunning beach andto 300-foot Hanakapi'ai Falls.
By planning ahead and getting a permit, you can hike in and camp.Just be aware that the trail can get gnarly and dangerous in wetweather.
Humility is one lesson I've learned from adventuring in differentparts of the world. Even experienced hikers should read and askquestions before venturing into new territory. Hawaii is noexception.
For example, showering under the spray of a waterfall after asweaty hike is risky, particularly in this eroding volcaniclandscape where rocks often are swept down over the falls.
Swimming in the pools of those photogenic waterfalls andfreshwater streams runs the risk of leptospirosis, a flu-likebacterial disease that's not uncommon in Hawaii. It can becontracted through cuts in the skin or by swallowing contaminatedstream water.
'The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook,' by Andrew Doughty and HarriettFriedman does a decent job of summarizing outdoor attractions andhazards, but no guidebook is a substitute for common sense.
And no guidebook will tell you everything.
'The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook' tipped us off to a nifty coastlinehike starting from popular Shipwreck Beach next to the opulent HyattRegency Hotel.
Serious hikers might overlook the hike, since it starts byskirting the Po'ipu Bay Golf Course, where admission apparently haseverything to do with your tax bracket and nothing to do with yourhandicap.
The guidebook, however, doesn't mention that you can extend thishike for miles, alternating from rock cliffs to sandy beaches.
We spent a marvelous four hours of discovery here, feasting onthe sights, ranging from wildflowers on shore to whales blowing inthe distance. Sea turtles often showed up spread-eagle in the wavesnear shore.
My wife struck up a conversation with a white-haired butotherwise very brown angler on a cliff over his honey hole in thesurf. He was fishing for mackerel and snapper, and, like any seriousfisherman I've ever known, he had serious opinions on how it's done.
He said he was fishing with a jig. 'That's all you need, anywherein the world,' he said. 'Even for the salmon in your neighborhoodback in Washington.'
We watched him cast and wished him well as we continued our hike.
'Watch where you walk,' he said, pausing and pointing to thecrumbling rock ledges over the roaring surf. 'So you don't go homein a box.'
While hiking was a great way to exercise and see Kauai up close,the ocean was more inviting than ever after we'd been in themountains.
Of course, the activity doesn't end at the beach. You can't askfor a better full-body workout than a few hours of learning how tosurf.
My daughter, Hillary, and I took a surfing lesson on Po'ipu Beachand had a ball catching waves after the lesson was over. I wastreading water where the waves were building so I could give Hillarya shove and get her started when I met another father performing thesame service for his teenage daughter.
Pretty soon, the other dad and I realized we'd been deserted outthere as we bobbed beyond the breakers, with a few 10-year-oldfledgling surfers zeroing in on our lull and asking for shoves.
The other dad spotted his daughter sitting on the beach with somelocal surf bums.
'I think I'd better go and get my family out on a hike,' theother dad said, referring to our brief exchange of islandactivities.
'Oh, and there's your daughter,' he said, pointing over to thecalmer water where Hillary was lounging on her surfboard as if herfather were asleep on the beach rather than snorting surf whilewaiting to launch her into another wave.
'Looks like she has a friend, too,' he said.
That's no friend, I thought, that's 'Buddy,' who apparently hadbeen slinking off from the action like a shark waiting for anopportunity.
I swam to shore and paged through the guidebook, saltwater stilldripping off my nose, and started looking for another hike.
SIDEBAR: CONTACTS Visiting Kauai Here's a sampling of resourcesand contacts to help plan outdoor activities during a visit to theHawaiian island of Kauai. -- The Ultimate Kauai Guidebook, byAndrew Doughty and Harriett Friedman, helps boil down the visitorsoptions on and off the beaten path. -- Hawaiian Airlines, for inter-island connections, (800) 367-5320 or www.hawaiianair.com. -- TryKauai, a Web site useful in sorting out available services acrossthe island and booking guided trips, www.trykauai.com. -- KauaiVisitors Bureau, (800) 262-1400 or www.kauai-hawaii.com -- Outfitters Kauai, guided kayak tours and other active adventures,(808) 742-9667 or www.outfitterskauai.com. -- Aloha Kauai Tours,guided snorkel tours and other active adventures, 800-452-1113 or www.alohakauaitours.com -- Po'ipu Beach Web site, great forplanning a base for Kauai exploration on the sunny south shore ofthe island, www.poipu-beach.org
