LIHUE, Hawaii -- The last seven miles of highway 56 from the town
of Hanalei on Kauai's north shore is narrow, winding up and down
hills around the coast to Haena.
After Hanalei Bay there are Lumahai Beach, made famous by the
movie "South Pacific," and a series of one-lane bridges, lookout
points for the magnificent ocean views and rental cottages.
There is now one big reason to take on this 20-minute stretch of
driving, often missed by those rushing to sightsee on the
island.
Just before the road ends at Ke e Beach, before the high Na Pali
Cliffs, is a gem of an attraction -- Limahuli Garden and
Preserve.
Opened to the public in 1995, the 17-acre garden, with its
surrounding 988-acre preserve, is dedicated to research and the
preservation of native Hawaiian plants and trees.
One checks in at the visitors center, which includes a small
gift shop.
For $10 visitors are admitted, receive the use of an umbrella
and a 50-page guide on Limahuli.
The guide, with a map on the inside back cover, is for those
taking self-guided tours (guided tours, costing $15, are also
available, but they depend on demand, so call for times).
The visitor then begins traversing a three-quarter-mile loop
trail rising several hundred feet into the once-populated Limahuli
Valley.
The first part is in the open, through rock terraces.
Varieties of taro grow as they did in ancient days.
Polynesians, probably from the Marquesas, first settled Hawaii
around 200 A.D., with a second major wave from Tahiti arriving
between 1200 and 1300.
They brought taro, breadfruit, ti (leaves that were used for
thatch, rain capes and sandals), bananas and sugar cane.
They also brought a variety of ginger for use as a shampoo and
the kukui (candlenut) tree with its nut serving a range of
purposes, from making candles to medicines.
Interpretative signage describes the plants and trees, and each
species rates a page or more in the guide.
By now the visitor is well into the forest.
There is Limahuli Stream, described as nearly pristine, and an
archaeological site (the rock remnants of a home).
Towering above the valley is Makana Mountain, commonly called
Bali Hai (the peak in the movie "South Pacific").
Even if the visitor is not using the guide, the signs alert him
to the garden's message: Everything brought in after Captain Cook's
arrival in 1778 is a weed.
The banyan, swamp mahogany, Java plum, strawberry guava are all
weeds.
The signs even dub the useful kukui, Hawaii's state tree, an
invader.
Many of these trees are the result of the territory's
reforestation efforts in the first half of the century, aimed at
protecting the watershed after cattle grazing had cleared land.
Native plants are here, too.
They include hibiscus found only in Hawaii and the loulu,
Hawaii's only native palm with 20 species (the one here is found
only at Limahuli).
There is a remnant of a native ohia forest that once flourished
in the valley, and there is the prized hardwood koa, once common on
Kauai's north shore. Conservation efforts include the replanting of
ohia and koa trees.
"What is missing is the ancient canopy," said Chipper Wichman,
the garden's director, who would like to see it return.
"Our primary focus is the preservation of endangered species,
but education and interpretation are also important," he said.
The guide, he said, was created for people to take home "to
relive their experience."
He pointed out that the garden has 15 species on the federal
endangered species list.
And the adjacent 988-acre Limahuli Preserve, which is not open
to the public, for example, has the last three plants left in the
world of a variety of lobeliad.
Limahuli is part of the National Tropical Botanical Garden, a
private nonprofit group that specializes in research and the
preservation and study of tropical botany and which operates four
other gardens.
Some years ago, National Geographic showcased NTBG's work.
A documentary called "Strangers in Paradise" showed NTBG
botanists rappelling down the Na Pali Cliffs, checking the rare
alula plant, which is found growing in the wild only on Kauai's
cliffs.
For two decades, they have pollinated and collected seeds of the
plant, which looks like a cabbage on a stick.
Today Limahuli and NTBG have more alula than there is growing in
the wild.
Limahuli dates to 1976, when the garden acreage was donated to
NTBG by Wichman's grandmother, Juliet Rice Wichman, a descendent of
a Kauai missionary family, so that future generations could see a
remnant of ancient Hawaii.
Wichman joined NTBG the same year as a gardener at its Lawai
headquarters on Kauai's south shore.
In 1994, he donated the 988 acres for the preserve.
Work on Limahuli Garden began in the early 1980s, but the
lengthy process required to receive a permit and 1992's Hurricane
Iniki delayed the opening until the spring of 1995.
The visitor center and gift shop opened a year later, and the
guide, written by volunteers, came out early last year.
Last year, Limahuli had 18,000 visitors -- more than the
expected 15,000, and up from 14,000 in 1997.
Limahuli won the American Horticulture Society's 1997 award for
the best natural botanical garden in the U.S.
Plans for the future include the opening of more trails.
The garden is open for both guided and self-guided tours,
Tuesdays through Fridays, and Sundays, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Guided tours, taking two hours or more, cost $15; self-guided
tours are priced at $10.
Groups of up to 12 persons can be accommodated.
Limahuli Garden, Phone: (808) 826-1053, Fax: (808) 826-4759