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A little about Kauai

Unwind and let the oxygen-rich air of Kauai's Wailua River invigorate your spirit as you kayak to a cascading waterfall. Or breathe deeply at the edge of the time-swept Waimea Canyon as it speaks to you without words. On Kauai, native fishponds amaze with 1,000-year old forward thinking, while legends of the Napali Coast transport you back in time. From the small towns of Hanapepe and Old Koloa Town to sunny Poipu Beach, this is truly "Hawaii's Island of Discovery."

The history of Kauai

In 1778, Captain James Cook arrived at Waimea Bay, the first European known to have reached the Hawaiian islands. He named the archipelago after his patron the 6th Earl of Sandwich, George Montagu. During the reign of King Kamehameha, the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau were the last Hawaiian Islands to join his Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Their ruler, Kaumualiʻi, resisted Kamehameha for years. King Kamehameha twice prepared a huge armada of ships and canoes to take the islands by force, and twice failed; once due to a storm, and once due to an epidemic. In the face of the threat of a further invasion, however, Kaumualiʻi decided to join the kingdom without bloodshed. In 1815–17, Kaumualiʻi led secret negotiations with representatives of the Russian-American Company in an attempt to gain Russia's military support against Kamehameha. After it was revealed that they did not have the support of Tsar Alexander I.

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