TRAVEL
Irrigation ditches adventure added to Kaua'i attractions
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Drifting on an inflated tube in the darkness of an old plantation irrigation tunnel.
Kaua'i Backcountry Adventures
There are just three points of light: the dwindling glow of the upstream entrance, the gleam of the exit downstream, and the bobbing yellow circle on the walls from the beam of a headlamp.
Shana Vilas and son Blake float the rapids midway through the ride on Kaua'i's irrigation ditches, which wind through forests and tunnels.
These Lihu'e Plantation tunnels were dug by hand, and the individual marks of the picks are still visible. In one spot, the rusted chunk of an old pick sticks out of the tunnel ceiling.
Some 50 miles of irrigation ditches snake out of the forests below Mount Wai'ale'ale, their sides draped in ferns and mosses, legacies to the immense engineering effort it took to support the era of sugar cultivation in the islands.
The Lihu'e Plantation ditch system is a historical footnote now. The crop for which it was developed is no longer grown on the slopes of East Kaua'i.
The ditch system is being maintained for its potential to irrigate other crops, even as a political and environmental discussion proceeds over whether the ditches should be abandoned and their water returned to the stream beds.
For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.kauaibackcountry.com or phone (808) 245-2506.
The system's owner, Steve Case's Lihu'e Land Co., has leased out some of the old sugar lands for cattle, bananas and other purposes. For the uplands around the ditches, the firm has turned to tourism.
More about tube rides, etc.
Kaua'i Backcountry Adventure has an agreement to use some of the mountain country for various activities, the first — launched in January — is an tube ride that takes participants down part of the old Hanama'ulu Ditch.
The originator of Hawai'i ditch rides is on the Big Island's Kohala Ditch Trail, where passengers ride in boats.
The Kaua'i operation uses big, blue tubes the shape and size of inner tubes from truck tires. Participants are outfitted with gloves to protect hands while pushing off the ditch walls, and with helmets that have battery-powered lights attached.
Kaua'i Backcountry Adventures
The lights are for the five tunnels through which the water runs during the two-mile, hourlong float.
The Vilas family tubes down the Hanama'ulu canal. Lihu'e Plantation's ditch system meanders through 50 miles of forested mountains.
The three-hour tour, including land travel, starts at the company headquarters in Hanama'ulu, where you're likely to run into one or the other of the firm's owners, siblings Kelley Carswell Haneberg and David Carswell. Their father, engineer Donn Carswell, helped build sugar plantation irrigation ditches and tunnels during his early career.
Participants pay $85 per person for the tour, which includes travel inland during which you might ride on a restored 6-wheel-drive, 14-seat Pinzgauer Swiss army vehicle. Participants get a briefing on the history of the region, and then a safety briefing before the tube ride.
The float is far from rigorous, although there are a couple of spots where the water speed picks up. Mostly it's about drifting, looking at the sights, and chatting with fellow tubers.
At the end of the ride, the group wanders to a shelter by a swimming hole for a picnic lunch before the ride back to Hanama'ulu.
Kaua'i Backcountry plans to expand its tour offerings, adding all-terrain vehicle tours in a few months.
