Member-only story
Kauai Vacation Fun Part II: Tubing Down Sugarcane Irritation Ditches
There are some activities you just can’t do anywhere other than in Hawaii!
When the sugar cane industry folded on the island of Kauai, some ingenious locals, turned the irrigation ditches into a family friendly vacation activity.
We tubed the ditches in July of 2013 when we visited Kauai. It was a blast!
A Little Sugar Cane History
Sugar cane was a cultivated crop on Kauai for centuries. Captain Cook saw the cultivation of sugar cane in 1778. In 1835, the Ladd & Company Sugar Company started large scale production of the grass-like crop where sugar and molasses were produced. This was in Koloa, Kauai (Source).
Over the years, more plantations started growing sugar cane and refining the crop. The Ladd & Company closed for production in 1845 and was repossessed by the Hawaiian Government, who in turn sold it to someone else. Political tensions on the island were strong, having weathered labor strikes in the early 1940s. Under new ownership several times over the plantation at Koloa operated until 1996 (Source).
Other sites of sugar cane production included the Lihue Plantation on Kauai. This plantation started in 1849 and by 1851 was…
