The Rise of Canal Tours in Hawaii

At the end of 2016, Hawaii’s last sugar cane plantation closed on Maui, marking the end of an era.

The closing had far-reaching impacts across Hawaii, evoking all kinds of emotions from people whose lives it shaped. I read reflections about its rise and fall, recounting landmarks like the 1875 treaty that gave Hawaii duty-free access to the U.S. market in exchange for Pearl Harbor, or sugar cane's role in ancient Hawaii, before its commercialization. Most people forget that it was one of the original canoe plants brought here by the Polynesians some two thousand years ago.

Though one era of sugar cane has ended, rest assured a new era has started off in earnest. Other uses for the cane itself have sprung up. Manulele Distillers, for example, turns native strains of sugar cane into single-varietal rum, made without the use of molasses. The old sugar cane railway on Oahu’s west side has become a historic, scenic railroad tour.

Perhaps the most creative uses of the old sugar cane infrastructure can be found on Kauai and the Big Island.

The industry might be gone, but it left behind a myriad of tunnels and irrigation canals, built over the last century and a half to bring water from the high mountains to the fields along the coast (sugar cane is a very thirsty crop that requires a lot of water). When sugar cane companies closed down in Hawaii, they abandoned these canal systems. Here in the last few years, adventure companies have begun floating the old irrigation ditches, offering guests guided kayak or tube tours that provide both adventure and education.

Flumin’ Kohala on the north shore of the Big Island takes visitors on a four-man kayak through the extensive, 14.5-mile irrigation network of the Kohala Ditch that was built by Japanese workers more than 110 years ago. The Ditch features 45 tunnels and 20 flumes in total, and the tour takes you through a portion of them over the course of the two-hour adventure into the remote backcountry of the Kohala volcano.

Kauai Backcountry Adventures’ Tubing Tour on Kauai is a similar story, although instead of kayaks, visitors use tubes to explore the tunnels of the Lihue Plantation, built back in 1870. The waters on which you ride come from the top of Mount Waialeale, one of the wettest spots in the world.

Because of the combination of historical significance and modern-day exploration, these canal tours have caught steam in recent years, revived by the publicity and examination that the end of the sugar cane era brought.

For more information, visit Flumin’ Kohala on the Big Island or Kauai Backcountry Adventures Tubing on Kauai.