Mount Waiʻaleʻale

nationalparkswitht

2 hours ago

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Aloha➢

My family and I took a cruise around the Hawaiian islands in 2019. We embarked in Honolulu on the island of Oahu. Prior to embarkation, we spent a few days on land and explored Oahu. Using Hilton’s Hawaiian Village as our base, we enjoyed visiting many interesting sites before boarding the Pride of America. We spent a week on board cruising the Hawaiian Islands. Our first port of call was Kahului Harbor on Maui, followed by the big island of Hawaiʻi. Our last port before returning to Oahu was Kauai.

We stayed two days in Kauai. We spent the two days touring the island with stops at Wailua Falls, Lihue Plantation tubing, ʻŌpaekaʻa Falls, Wailua River State Park, Mount Waiʻaleʻale, Fuji Beach, Moloa’a Beach, Kīlauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge, Wai’oli Hui’ia Church, Ninini Point Lighthouse, Waimea Canyon State Park, Kōkeʻe State Park, Russian Fort Elizabeth State Historical Park, Hanapepe Swinging Bridge, Koloa Heritage Trail and Nā Pali Coast State Wilderness Park.

Throughout our tour of Kauai, various guides and signs pointed out Mount Waiʻaleʻale. In the distance and shrouded by a constant cloud cover, it was tough to discern the mountain that includes Kauai’s highest peak, Kawaikini.

Waiʻaleʻale means ‘overflowing water’ in Hawaiian. Its watershed provided the water for the island’s once burgeoning sugar plantations via the irrigation ditches we tubed through during our island tour. At 5148 feet, Waiʻaleʻale receives over 450 inches of rain per year, making it one of the wettest spots on Earth.

The Kauai tourism industry touts it as THE wettest (or the second wettest), but in reality there are a few spots in India and China that get more rain. Regardless, it’s wet and provides much of the life-sustaining water on the island.