The visual extravagance of Kaua‘i so overwhelms that some first-time visitors cancel their return flights to spend the rest of their lives residing on this speck of land roughly 33 miles long by 25 miles wide, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, gazing enraptured at their surroundings, believing they’ve found paradise.

The photography in this book proves such romantics aren’t delusional. Most islands this pretty have poisonous snakes. Kaua‘i doesn’t. Instead, it has more than 50 miles of uncrowded beaches, hundreds of waterfalls, masses of tropical flowers blooming year around, endless jaw-dropping vistas, a superabundance of nearperfect weather, and more natural beauty than could be measured in a lifetime.

Photographer extraordinaire Douglas Peebles, with an artist’s eye and an explorer’s pluck, takes his viewers to the island’s most frequently visited sites as well as to the most remote and least accessible. In the process, he reveals why this small green dot in the vast blue Pacific is such a wildly popular destination.

From its crystal-clear, warm, ocean waters inhabited by friendly sea turtles, curious Monk seals, playful porpoises and magnificent manta rays, to its cool, misty mountain forests sheltering rare and endangered birds and plants—Kaua‘i is like a secret magical realm sparkling with fairy dust.