Historic Waimea Town

Life on Kauai is heavily influenced by its lack of anything close to a city. Its small towns — really more like neighborhoods — are slow-paced, interconnected and unassuming. Waimea, at the gateway to Waimea Canyon and roots deep in the past, is all that and more.

Just far enough from major visitor destinations and the seat of politics and commerce in Lihu'e, this community tends to fend for itself. Sugar and taro are still cultivated and thrive along side tourism, genetically engineered crops, rocket launches at the nearby naval base and high tech industries housed in the West Kauai Visitor and Technology Center on the outskirts of town.

Waimea is the site of one of Hawaii's most significant events. It was here, in 1778, that British navigator, Captain James Cook, came upon Kauai and discovered the Hawaiian Islands for the western world.

New England missionaries arrived in Waimea in 1820 to set up Kauai's first mission station. Many of their homes and churches still stand, as do the restaurants and shops built by Chinese, Japanese and Norwegian immigrants. You can find out more about the history of these buildings on a tour conducted at 9:30 a.m. each Monday morning by the West Kauai Technology and Visitors Center. Reservations 338-1332 are required.

A good way to get to know Waimea is to attend a community event. The grandest of them all is the Waimea Town Celebration, held each February.

Catch a movie at the Waimea Community Theater, an old plantation theater built in 1938 and renovated after Hurricane 'Iniki in 1992. Feature films are screened Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings.

Hang out at the West Kauai Craft Fair held every Saturday at the old Waimea Sugar Mill site or try a shave ice. But by all means, don't head straight for the canyon. Take the time to visit Waimea.