The Polynesian adventure

The Garden Maze

Seasport Divers, Kauai

So far this dive, I’ve moved a grand total of about 20 feet. I’m hovering under a volcanic arch at Kauai’s Sheraton Caverns. Under a ledge in front of me a green sea turtle naps, completely oblivious to my presence. The reason I haven’t felt compelled to move is that in the 20 minutes I’ve been in the water, I’ve watched a parade of green sea turtles descending from the surface, rising and cruising under the arch like stunt planes in a movie. None of them seems the least bit bothered by me. In fact, they barely give me a sideways glance unless I make a sudden move. They slip past me, head into one of the many passages, lava tubes and overhangs and settle in. Like the Sheraton hotel that watches from the beach (and lends the site its name), Sheraton Caverns is place to crash, rest, catch a few Z’s and then carry on with the business of life — if you’re a turtle.

While green sea turtles are a big draw along the south coast of Kauai, near the beachside town of Poipu, they’re just the gatekeepers at most of the sites. After a few more moments of sea-turtle reverie at Sheraton, I decide to fin around a bit just to be sure the divemaster from Seasport Divers doesn’t think I’ve fallen asleep.

I ease into one of the many lava tubes, a school of bluestriped snapper polarizing as I pass, and I take a stab in the dark with my dive light. The shadowy walls pop to life. Loads of eyes reflect back from the walls as several species of shrimp retreat into crevices. A massive tiger cowrie sits between rocks on the seafloor with its leathery-looking mantle wrapped around its spotted shell. About that time, a slipper lobster reveals itself and confirms my explorer fantasy. But then everything about Kauai seems to exist in an ether of fantasy. With the surreal folds of the Na Pali Coast, waterfalls by the dozen and Waimea Canyon all nearby, it’s hard to know where to begin to fill your topside time.

But I make my choice. Between dives, I sneak off and explore the nearby National Tropical Botanical Garden, one of Kauai’s many topside diversions. This place is rife with things I’d like to spirit away to my own backyard. I particularly covet a massive angel’s trumpet plant, tiny orange blaze epindendrums and bright-yellow cassia fistulas. And I’m always mesmerized by the fleshy and gothic-looking Dutchman’s pipe flowering vine, with its delicate heart-shaped leaves and two-foot-long purple blooms that fill the air with the unexpected scent of lemons.

I come back to sea under the influence of my botanical interlude. It gives me a fresh appreciation as I explore the volcanic fingers of Fast Lanes, with its black coral trees that hide 7-11 crabs, spiny lobsters and zebra and snowflake morays. Redfin and ornate butterflyfish flit through the growth like their terrestrial namesakes, and slate-pencil urchins and pincushion sea stars look like flowers against the dark substrate. Later, I roam the aisles of General Store; there’s a cleaning station for more green sea turtles, where their shells get a wash and wax by yellow and Achilles tangs. It seems a fitting silent moment of bliss in a place where fantasy is so much a part of reality.

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