Take a scenic Hawaii drive

If you’re going to Hawaii, take a scenic drive for a few hours or a day-trip. Here are some of my favorites: • Kauai: Hanalei to Ke’e…

By Gary Warner

The Orange County Register

If you’re going to Hawaii, take a scenic drive for a few hours or a day-trip. Here are some of my favorites:

• Kauai: Hanalei to Ke’e Beach: Drivers wind down the hill from the hyper-polished world of Princeville, across the one-lane bridge and then bounce along a two-lane road past horse farms, tropical gardens and wet caves before pulling into the lot at Ke’e Beach, where they can sunbathe, swim, snorkel or set off on the trail up the Na Pali Coast.

• Maui: Less famous than the road to Hana, the road across the western tip of Maui features the island’s top surf spot, a spooky cliff filled with stacked stones, tiny villages, one-way roads on steep grades, before popping out for the long drive down to funky Wailuku, the little touristed capital of Maui County.

• Oahu: The long way to the island’s North Shore, along the Windward Coast (the island’s east coast), takes in a Buddhist temple, passes a Marine base, and skirts coral-rimmed beaches, ramshackle markets, fruit stands and shrimp farms before popping out at the outskirts of the Turtle Bay resort.

• Big Island: The knobby thumb at the top of the Big Island is former sugar cane country, with the towns reflecting the plantation-era past with clapboard buildings and huge banyan trees. The road dead-ends at the cliffs above this North Kohala Coast. You can backtrack the same way or swing upcountry at Hawi and take the high road back to the Kona Coast through the rows of pine trees planted by settlers.

• Molokai: The most Hawaiian (and least-visited) island is best known for the dry Molokai Ranch area in the west or the Kalaupapa National Historical Park, better known as the leper colony founded by Father Damien.

But a drive along the southern coast takes visitors to pretty, lonely stretches of the island, past coconut tree groves at Kapuaiwa, the golden sand beach at Kakaha, the Kamalo Church (built in 1871 by Father Damien), and a collection of nice beaches around Maloo, before ending at the Halawa Valley lookout. It’s a wetter, greener, wilder antidote to the red dirt world of the other side of the island.