Air travelers to the Hawaiian islands now have more options. Hawaiian carrier Aloha Airlines has announced their new interisland service on two routes starting in September.

Aloha has scheduled nonstop flights between Kahului on the island of Maui and Kona, Hawaii; and Kahului and Lihue on the island of Kauai.

Fares are estimated at $59 each way, excluding additional taxes and charges.

Aloha is one of the three major carriers to offer flights among the Hawaiian Islands. The other interisland carriers are Hawaiian Airlines, and new start-up company Go!.

Conservationists have started out on a five-year plan to replant 30 acres on Kauai with native forest species.

About 200 local Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts dug holes on Grove Farm land, planting a total of one-thousand plants.

The troops will return to the site every two months to repair damage from feral pigs and remove weeds.

The native plants included koai’a, lama, naio, olopua, mamaki, and pokalakala.

The Grove Farm Ecological Restoration is a joint project by landowner Grove Farm, the National Tropical Botanical Garden, Kauai Community College and the Makauwahi Sinkhole project.

Resorts will live and die by ratings. Consequently, congratulations to Indonesia’s Bali! “Travel and Leisure Magazine” has named it the best island in the world. So what, you might ask, does Bali have to do with the Hawaiian island of Kauai?

Kauai actually ranked second in ratings, and more importantly, it has much better golf. In fact, Wayne Freedman’s Golf Addiction declares Kauai to be the world’s number one island GOLF destination! How about that!

Kauai boasts five of the top fifteen golf courses in Hawaii, and several of the world’s top 100. The island has 43 white sand beaches, and attractions like Waimea Canyon, which is 3,000 feet deep, and four miles wide. AWESOME!

Williams has been working “on and off” on this 3,200-acre parcel since 1974, when Alexander & Baldwin, parent company of Kauai Coffee, still operated a sugar plantation on the site.

One week after the peak of this year’s coffee harvest, he comes to work around 4:30 or 5 in the morning, when the day shift comes on.

It’s the month when every decision made throughout the year comes to bear: fertilization, pest control, tweaks to the machinery. Every cherry collected impacts the quality of the coffee — the hinge on which the Kauai Coffee name hangs.

The contest has ended. We will select the winner from those who have entered. Thank you for your participation

County lifeguards closed the beach at Salt Pond on Kaua’i’s west side on October 5th due to shark sightings.

County Ocean Safety Bureau officers said two sharks have been identified in the area, one about 10 feet long and the other a six-footer. Beachgoers were urged to use other beaches.

Its times like this that you’re glad your Kaui vacation rental has AC and a great home theatre system.

The median price of a single-family home on Kauai dipped in September, but condominium prices continue to rise.

The median price of a house on Kauai last month was $665,000, a 12 percent decline from the median price in September 2005, when it was $757,500, according to data released by Hawaii Information Service on Wednesday.

The median price of a Kauai condo in September was $450,000, an 11 percent jump from the same period last year, when the price was $405,000.

Year-to-date, the number of single-family homes sold was down 33.5 percent, with 351 homes sold during the first nine months of 2006, down from 528 houses sold in 2005.

The north shore of the Hawaiian island is a paradise of botanical gardens and natural beauty.

It’s not the sandy beaches or dramatic mountain peaks or perfect weather that keeps luring me back to the island of Kauai.

It’s the colors.

The blue is first to command my attention. Kauai’s sky and sea blend in a spectrum of cobalt and azure, turquoise and ultramarine. At times there is so much blue on the horizon, you can’t tell where the ocean ends and the sky begins.