“Bali Ha’i may call you, any night, any day
In your heart, you’ll hear it call you
Come away, come away”
Once you set foot on Kauai’s Tunnels Beach, you can understand why the musical “South Pacific” used these gorgeous North Shore beaches as its backdrop.
There are plenty of gorgeous spots in Kauai, but this blog post will focus on the Tunnels Beach area (also called Makua Beach) located at Ha’ena Point.
So why do I find this particularly beach more interesting than others? Sure it’s known for great snorkeling and surfing, but that’s not what peaks my interest. It is how this beach received its nickname that I find incredibly fascinating. The name “Tunnels” comes from the lava tubes that have formed underwater caverns along this crescent shaped bay.
This golden beach spans for about two miles from Ha’ena Beach Park and is surrounded by palms and Ironwood trees. As you lay on the shore, you are surrounded by lush mountainous peaks. Also, I have to mention that the Hawaiian word “Ha’ena” translates to “red hot.”
Haʻena State Park is often referred to as the “end of the road” because it literally is where the road (Kuhio Highway) ends. In this State Park, you can see some amazing sea caves estimated to be more than 4,000 years old.
After a short trek past the Limahuli Stream, we found the Wet Caves, which are called Waikapala’e Cave and Waikanaloa Cave. These caves contain freshwater pools. The freshwater travels down through the basalt layers, not from a nearby stream or river. Apparently at one time, a brisk swim through Waikapala’e would bring you to the Blue Room (a chamber where the light shines blue upon the surrounding cave walls). However, the water level now is too low to see this phenomenon and I would not recommend swimming in these caves- pretty scary looking to me, plus the water is not safe to drink.
We also stumbled upon the Manini-holo Dry Cave said to be where the chief fisherman of the Menehune dug the cave looking for supernatural beasts called akua who had been stealing their fish. Surprisingly, I heard he never found these these little creatures.
The floor of the Dry Cave is dry sand, which apparently shifted from the beach during a 1957 tsunami.
The wet and dry caves are former sea caves, which have been etched away by the ocean waves at a time when the sea level was higher. Another Hawaiian legend has it that these caves were dug by the fire goddess, Pele.
There really are so many magnificent sites to see in Kauai and these are just a few of my fun little adventures on this small but picturesque island.
