This new series of articles will explore the issue of beach access across Kaua’i throughout June.
The first beaches to be explored are those in the Wailua-Kapa’a area.
It’s always been pretty easy to get onto any beach in the Wailua to Kapa’a area. Unlike other areas of this island where development, gates and “no trespassing” signs keep people out, there are 11 public accesses on the nearly five miles from Lydgate Park to Kapa’a Beach Park.
The 48.85-acre Lydgate Park encompasses the most facilities of any beach on the East side, with dozens of pavilions, bathrooms, showers, a playground and areas for fishing and snorkeling. Lydgate has two boulder-enclosed swimming pools constructed in 1970, making it one of the safest and most popular spots on Kaua’i.
Of these 11 beaches with official public right-of-ways, only Wailua River State Park, Lydgate State Park, Kapa’a Beach Park have permanent restrooms, but it’s really no problem to find a nearby porta-potty (or naupaka plant) at other beaches.
Finding public right-of-ways is simply a matter of stopping where it looks like the road leads to the ocean; many times, access is marked by signs.
Passing Wailua Bay and heading toward Kapa’a, there are six beach access paths within a mile of each other. People can still park their vehicles at the beach entrance near the old Sea Shell restaurant; Coco Palms’ land next to the roadway, or the area just under the Wailua Bridge; however, boulders were placed to dissuade people from driving on the beach itself.
Behind the Kapa’a Sands condos is “Turtle Beach,” a fishing spot nicknamed for the number of sea-green buddies seen surfing nearby. “Horners,” another surf spot, is accessible behind the Lae Nani condominiums on Papaloa Road.
The surf spots in the Wailua area are mentioned in the legends of Mo’ikeha, the Polynesian navigator who settled at Wailua over 700 years ago, in part to enjoy the rolling waves of Wailua. Kamehameha cited taking control of the surfing spots at Wailua as one of his major desires in conquering Kaua’i in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Horners is named for the beachfront estate of the Horner family. Albert Horner Sr. , and Albert Horner, Jr. were involved with pineapple plantations on Kaua’i, especially the Hawaiian Canneries Company at Kapa’a. In 1929 the family built a 20-room home on a four-acre lot overlooking the beach. The home was featured in the 1950 film “Pagan Love Song,” the first major Hollywood feature film made on Kaua’i. In 1976, Pauline and Mel Ventura purchased the property, moved the home to Wailua Homesteads and built the Lae Nani condominiums on the same land.
Construction of condominiums and hotels like the Lae Nani, Kapa’a Sands and Kaua’i Sands have opened access. But to view the remnants of a Hawaiian fishing village, one would technically be trespassing on the Lae Nani property.
Waipouli Beach stretches from the Coconut Plantation Marketplace to Kapa’a town. A pedestrian trail follows the ironwood trees along the coastline to Waika’ea Canal in Kapa’a near Pono Kai and farther, to Mo’ikeha Canal behind Kapa’a Library. There is a partly-paved pedestrian trail; each hotel along the beach leases land from Niu Pia Farms.
Ann Leighton, secretary of Niu Pia Farms, said that the concrete path was put in as a courtesy by each hotel, except for the empty lots between the Aston Kauai Beach Boy and the Kauai Coconut Beach Resort.
“Some people have an expectation that they should be able to drive to the beach…driving access is a whole different thing. Historically we’ve had vandalism problems, vagrancy problems, and it became a liability issue,” she added.
Waipouli Beach ends where the Waika’ea Canal begins, but one can keep walking along to Kapa’a Beach Park, behind the Kapa’a Library.
A buildup of sand over the years in the Waika’ea Canal, especially after Hurricane ‘Iniki, has forced the larger of the small fishing boats to use other boat ramps. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources, Kaua’i Boating Division maintains that the channel will be dredged soon; they are still awaiting shipment of a new navigational system including buoy lights and signage.
Fujii Beach and Baby Beach in Kapa’a are popular locations for teaching kids how to swim. Kitesailers – whose sport requires strapping into boots on a snowboard-sized surfboard and launching oneself from a 10-foot-long kite used like a boat sail while tethered to 30-foot strings – have been using Fujii beach as a launching area.
Not that anyone’s complaining about the kitesailers’ new home: “On this side. It’s no beach, it’s all rock, so nobody cares where you go,” said “Don Don” Tipaldi, a local kitesailer. Tipaldi said that he and other kitesailers have cleaned up a lot of beer bottles and litter from the beach over the past three or four years.
The Mo’ikeha Canal, one of the island’s former sugar cane train junctions, is another popular spot for fishermen, who climb out onto the rebuilt jetty and try to catch anything that dares swim too close.
“The only thing that disturbs fishing access is that there’s more tourists going in the water … that’s good for them but not the fishermen; we gotta pack up and move,” said Howard Toki, a Kapa’a fisherman.
It is possible to walk along the shoreline from Lydgate Park all the way to Kapa’a Beach Park without having to swim too far or get kicked out by security guards.
Possible reasons for the easy accessibility of these East side beaches? – The great number of visitors who vacation on the East Side patrolling for a secluded suntan spot; the lack of undeveloped shorefront property and local lifestyle of the area; and the lack of a major resort destination like Princeville or Po’ipu, and the military bypassing the area for the location of a base or training grounds.
Staff Writer Kendyce Manguchei can be reached at kmanguchei @pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 252).
