And guests at the Pali-Hotel on Melrose Avenue can order up chicken cracklins and melted raclette from Kris Tominaga and Brian Dunsmoor's The Hart and the Hunter, rated by Los Angeles magazine as one of the best restaurants of 2012.

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When we did cruise during the day, on one resplendent afternoon prior to returning to Honolulu, we were afforded views of the majestic, ravine-studded Na Pali coastline of Kauai, which drops precipitously from around 4, 000ft to the ocean.

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Numerous helicopter companies (most based in Lihu'e) offer up-in-the-air jaunts over waterfall-striped Mt Wai'ale'ale, the island's central shield volcano and one of the wettest spots on Earth, and the sheer-hewn sea cliffs of the Na Pali coast, accessible otherwise only by ocean kayak.

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