TRAVEL FOR ISLANDS HAWAIIMauka/
W
HEN IT COMES TO MAP
directions on an isolated island,
north, south, east and west are
about as helpful as a paper parasol in a tropical
downpour. Mauka (towards the mountains)
and makai (towards the sea) make more sense,
which is why you’ll get instructions in Hawaii
like, “Go mauka to the end of the road, turn
right, and it’s on the makai side of the street.”
Mauka and makai have been part of Hawaii
for far longer than cars have. “Early Hawaiians
divided and managed the land by ahupua‘a,
basically watersheds running mauka to
makai,” says Jacob Causer, an Ohio-born
skipper and a six-year Kauai resident.
Causer is piloting a 24-foot rigid-hulled raft on
a wild and wet ride through ocean swells with
a dozen passengers aboard, myself included.Makai
We’re exploring the roadless Nā Pali Coast,
an astonishing spectacle of sea caves and
abrupt cliffs that jut heavenward from
the shore to heights reaching 1,200 metres.
Causer points out a pile of stones marking
the makai boundary between two of the
half-dozen ahupua‘a we pass along the way.
The most seductive of them all might
be Kalalau. Seen from the sea, this impossibly
green valley bordered by saw-tooth ridges
stretches mauka for 3km, from a golden-sand
beach up to the lofty plateau of Kōke‘e State
Park near Waimea Canyon, the 16km-long,
ochre and red chasm known as the Grand
Canyon of the Pacific.
The following day, from the park’s Pu‘u
o Kila Lookout at the edge of that plateau,
I feel pinpricks of cool mist on my skin
while gazing makai over the Kalalau’s deeply
forested ravines, evanescent rainbows and
gossamer cascades to the infinite lapis ocean
beyond. And I am at a loss to say from
whichperspective–maukaormakai–
thisShangri-Laappearsmorealluring.
Boat tours of the Na ̄ Pali Coast with Capt
Andy’s start from ` 1,000 (www.napali.com).