Beyond Kaunakakai, the two-laned Kamehameha V Highway (Route 450) curves along the southern shoreline past coconut palm trees, dense mango groves, an ancient heiau, churches, a few condos and a 20-mile string of fishponds. Along the way are spectacular vistas that take in Maui, Lanai and Kahoolawe as well as the fringing coral reef that is visible through the crystal clear water. The beaches along this coast front muddy waters silted by the runoff from rainforest streams.

Hawaiians perfected aquaculture in 1400, building gated, U-shaped stone and coral walls along the shore like corrals . They caught specific fish on the incoming tide and raised them in captivity as food. The ponds stretch for 15 miles along Molokai's south shore, and at one time, there were more than 60 of these ponds. Some have been silted over by the red dirt runoff from the south coast gulches or by tidal action. Others are being repaired and reconstructed and are used for raising fish and seaweed.

The road ends at Halawa Valley, one of Hawaii's most beautiful valleys. Once the agricultural center of Molokai, the valley was planted in taro as recently as the 19th century. One visitor in 1877 noted that there were 1,032 patches. In 1946, a tidal wave scoured the valley and wiped out the taro terraces. A second tsunami in 1957 doomed agriculture there.

Hiking up through the valley was once a popular visitor activity, but the private landowner, on advice from lawyers, closed the trail and the valley. Its two waterfalls (including 250-foot Moaula Falls), ruins of 11 heiau (temple platforms) and fish shrines dating from 500 A.D. are now off-limits.

Offshore, the turtle-shaped island of Mokuhooniki is a seabird preserve.

On the outskirts of Kaunakakai, the land rises gradually from the coastal fishponds up to the 4,970-foot summit of Mount Kamakou, the island's highest elevation, and the soggy Molokai Forest, long ago stripped of sandalwood for the China trade. All that remains of this part of Molokai's history is Lua-na-moku-iliahi, a pit dug into the earth during the 1830s which served as a measure for the amount of sandalwood needed to fill the hull of a sailing ship. There are no more sandalwood trees. Within a few years of the digging of the pit, the sandalwood had disappeared. Some say the workers tore up the saplings in order to spare their children the backbreaking work.

The Molokai forest is the source of 60% of Molokai's water. Close to the nearly mile-high summit, it rains more than 80 inches annually. Nearly 3,000 acres from the summit to the lowland forests of eucalyptus and pine is now held in preserve by the Nature Conservancy, which has identified 219 Hawaiian plants that grow here exclusively. The preserve is also home of the endangered Molokai thrush (oloma'o) and Molokai creeper (kawawahie). Hawaiian pueo (owls) and brilliant red 'apapane flash in the forest.

On the other side of the summit, beyond Halawa, is the northern Pali Coast, where breathtaking 3,500-foot high sea cliffs stretch 14 miles along Molokai's north shore, laced by waterfalls and carved into five valleys -- Halawa, Papalaua, Wailau, Pelekunu and Waikolu. All of these valleys were inhabited by early Hawaiians at one time. There are remnants, still, of their stone terraces and taro patches. Except for Halawa, the valleys are accessible only in calm seas during the summer months when small boats can run up close to the wide sandy beaches at the valley mouths.