Embrace the beauty of Kauai�s secluded garden

You won’t find it in many of the guidebooks, and you might even have trouble finding it when you are looking for it. Na ‘Aina Kai Botanical Gardens doesn’t advertise. This secluded tropical paradise is appropriately located on the North Shore of Kauai, Hawaii’s sparsely populated Garden Isle. Only 58,000 people live on the island and it is easy to understand how such a treasure could be kept secret in this beautiful place.
Nature and art intwined
If Joyce and Ed Doty hadn’t decided to open their property to the public, you wouldn’t even know that it exists. The gardens just grew out of Joyce’s love and imagination and Ed’s desire to fulfill his wife’s dreams. Together they have created a stunning exhibition worthy of any nature lover’s visit.
“In the beginning of Na ‘Aina Kai, the challenge of creating the landscape occupied my enthusiasm,” said founder Joyce Doty.
“Then, like a painter who feels his work is still not complete, I realized that these already bounteous gardens could become even more alive if the art and culture muses were to share this space with nature’s extraordinary artistic creations.”
The Dotys left their native California in 1979 for early retirement in the islands and found the present site. They built a house and settled down to enjoy life in their new home, but they were not your typical retired couple. Joyce’s love of nature and art was perfectly matched to Ed’s conservation and building skills, and together they created their gardens with care and artistry.
“Lands by the Sea” in Hawaiian, Na ‘Aina Kai is a collection of 13 diverse and thriving gardens, surrounded by a hardwood plantation of 60,000 tropical hardwood trees, all raised from seed on the property. The 240-acre preserve includes a moss and fern-draped canyon as well as a pristine, sandy beach bordering a green, sprawling meadow as it opens to the blue-green waters of the Pacific.
Avid collectors, Joyce and Ed soon filled their home with art and then turned to the grounds. More than 70 bronze sculptures, one of the United States’ largest collections, decorate the gardens and wild areas throughout this once-private estate. Their former residence is now available for special functions, now that the Dotys have built a new home not far away.
On secluded Napali Coast
The growth of tourism on Kauai has brought more visitors each year to the North Shore.
Lihue, the gateway city of Kauai, is only a 25-minute flight from Honolulu. From the airport, the Kuhio Highway runs along the eastern side of the island to the rugged Napali Coast and the 3,000 foot high cliffs made famous in movies like Jurassic Park and King Kong.
At mile marker 22, turn toward the coast on Wailapa Road. The gardens await at the end of a half mile of blacktop. There is a small sign on the main highway that you are more likely to notice when you leave, than when you arrive. Only six and a half miles further up Hawaii 56 (Kuhio Highway) is Princeville, a planned resort community, complete with luxury condos and hotels, high atop the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The gardens are only open for tours Tuesday through Friday and because all tours are escorted, reservations are recommended. Costs ($25-70) are a bit more than most gardens because of this, but the visit is well worth the investment.
Hiking enthusiasts should consider the five-hour tour including lunch, which is the most complete way to see this marvel. Guests with limited walking ability can also see much of the gardens on a covered riding tour that takes three hours.
Ample parking is available at the Orchid House Visitor Center and all tours depart from the center. Nearby is the newly developed “Under the Rainbow” Children’s Garden, designed for children under 13. Also close to the Visitor Center is The Bog House, where temperate and tropical carnivorous plants are on display, including butterworts and pitcher plants, as well as orchids and a maidenhair fern wet wall.
Another short walk reaches the primary gardens and the former Doty home. Shower Tree Park and Ka’ula Lagoon are first announced with “stunning red hibiscus, kukui and paperbark trees, firecracker flowers, and fiddlewood trees with their aromatic, miniscule flowers and orange berries. These and the billowing bouquets hanging from rainbow and golden shower trees, are but a few of the botanical delights that adorn this setting,” according to the gardens’ guide.
A splendid, cascading waterfall feeds the lagoon, home to 200 colorful koi and equally brilliant water lilies. Nearby a Japanese teahouse stands sentry above the magnificent display of water and tropical vegetation, accented with several sculptures. Varieties of palm trees, exotic flowering plants, cattails and papyrus surround the lagoon. Footbridges lead to an island with opportunities to observe even more closely the fountain statuary central to the landscape.
Bringing a drawing to life
The Poinciana Maze dominates the grounds between the lagoon and the former Doty residence. Topiaries and sculptures populate the pathways through the maze of colorful trees and flowers. This was the beginning of the formal gardens in 1989 when Ed managed to take a drawing by Joyce and bring to life what is seen today. An overlook, from a nearby gazebo, gives you an opportunity to appreciate the sprawling creation.
While the residence is reserved for special functions and is not on the tour, several notable statues adorn the natural pool setting to the left of the house and the Hillside Garden to the back of the home offers some beautiful views of the Pacific.
The return route to the Visitor Center provides an opportunity to experience the Palm Garden and International Desert Garden, where succulents and cacti have been imported from around the globe. Inspired by Joyce’s short residence in New Mexico during her youth, this section was developed in 1991.
The hardwood plantation is dominated by teak trees, the predominant hardwood raised at the Kilohana Plantation. A variety of hardwoods including cedar, blackwood, rosewood, sandalwood, and mahogany are raised on the grounds. Among the more than 20 hardwood species are several prized in the making of fine musical instruments — pau ferro is used to make violin bows and cocobolo is a favorite for carving woodwinds.
The Wild Forest Gardens are densely foliated around natural springs, streams and ponds as the terrain rolls downhill into a canyon, opening toward the sea. Bronzes still dot the natural trails bordering the hardwood forests and disappearing into shaded crevices that ultimately embrace the Pacific. One trail along the ridge of the canyon leads to the southern extremity of the plantation where a natural bird garden has been created and a Polynesian Gazebo offers a stunning view of Kaluakai Beach below.
For hardy hikers the Ridge Trail is an interesting choice. It winds its way down the side of the canyon, then along a small marsh and across a boardwalk to Makai Meadow. It is the site of many special events, and doorway to a picturesque sandy beach. Here you may see humpback whales breeching offshore during their annual trek to the islands. You may even see a Laysan albatross, with its massive wingspan, soar overhead during its half-year visit to lay eggs and raise its young.
Joyce and Ed had not planned to have the gardens open during their lifetime, but established a non-profit foundation to operate the gardens after they departed. They provided funding through the cultivation of the hardwood plantation, so as to protect their legacy. But Ed noted how much Joyce enjoyed showing off her gardens on those occasions when they opened it for special guests.
Finally, late in 1999, they decided to open it to the public. In February of 2000, Joyce hosted all of the artists at Na ‘Aina Kai to see how their work was being displayed in the natural gardens and was delighted by their appreciation for what the Dotys had created.
It is still a work in progress — for as long as Joyce and Ed are alive there will always be another project, another place for a statue, another plant to display. Their combined energies and daily regimen are part of the appreciation guests have for this special place. Their gift will always be an inspiration.
Any visit to Na ‘Aina Kai is an experience to remember, but the longer you have to fully grasp all that it offers, the better.