"Nawiliwili, Kauai" a Nawiliwili Travel Page by seagoingJLW

Miscellaneous Information

Lihue is the county seat of Kauai. Nawiliwili was established as Kauai's principal port in 1930. Kauai is the legendary home of the Menehune, an ancient race of mysterious "little folk." The Garden Island, as Kauai is nicknamed, is the oldest and most northerly of the Hawaian Islands.

The official flower is Mokihana (Green Berry). The area of Kauai is 552.3 square miles. The average temperature is 71.3°F to 79.1°F. The summit of Mount Waialeale is among the wettest spots in the world with an annual rainfall of 444 inches. The average rainfall at Poipu Beach, for instance, is 35 inches per year.

The population of Kauai is 55,603 making it the least populated of Hawaii's four counties. It is 25% Caucasian, 17% Japanese, 19.5% Hawaiian/part Hawaiian, and 14.5% Filipino. Lihue's population is 5,536.

At 5 million years Kauai is the oldest of the inhabited Hawaiian Islands. It is also the greenest and the wettest.

History

Kauai Island was the first island visited by Captain Cook. It was also the last independent kingdom. It was at Waimea Bay that Captain Cook first set foot in Hawaii in January 1778.

Hoping to seize Kauai for his Tsar an employee of the Russian Fur Company of Alaska built the Russian fort, Fort Elizabeth near the mouth of the Waimea River in 1817.

In 1835 the first successful sugar plantation was established.

Since the Mokihana berry grows only in Kauai, this fact gave rise to the tales of the Menehune living here.