Wow! What an adventure we had in Kauai! It all starts at our hotel, the Hanalei Bay Resort in Princeville, which is on the North Shore of Kauai. The lagoon pool was always a favorite, especially with its two waterfalls. The scenery around the hotel was some of the best on the island – a beautiful combination of mountains, jungle, and beach. Lily had stayed home with the grandparents, so Brian and I were in for a week of serious adventuring!
One of our first adventures was a nice little spot called Queen’s Bath. It was really just a lava shoreline with a few natural pockets where water would come in and was perfect for swimming and snorkling!
What a unique experience! Swimming with lava rocks beneath our feet! And the water was super salty, making it super easy to float and watch the fish swimming below. Unfortunately, this is also where Brian lost his contact and had to go one-eyed for a few days…
There were several fish in the swimming hole with us, and new water would occasionally splash in from the ocean!
Our first hiking adventure was on the Hanalei Okolehao Trail. It was only 2 miles each way, but climbed a vertical distance of about 1000 feet. So it was a real sweat breaker but led to some sweeping views of the valley below and ocean in the distance.
In addition to panoramic views, there was also lots of nice wildlife to enjoy. The island gets so much rain and sunshine that the plants just love it and create a lush jungle-like atmosphere. And due to the mountainous terrain ,waterfalls are very common as well.
We even saw a giant centipede on the trail! And banyan trees were everywhere, often the above ground roots made great hand-holds during the steeper parts of the trails! Of course many brightly colored flowers decorated the trail adding to the natural beauty of the island.
After a hard afternoon hiking we decided to cool off in the swimming pool. Brian especially liked sitting under the waterfall… Later we went down to the beach and did some snorkling.
Our second hike was on the Kalalau Trail. This is a very popular hike in Hawaii and to do the whole 11 mile trail generally requires a backpacking trip. We opted just to do the first two miles to Hanakapi’ai Beach, which was still a treat! Views of the Na Pali coast were prominent, with the ocean glistening hundreds of feet below us.
Like most hikes on Kauai there was plenty of lush vegetation to look at. It was a fairly steamy day so we had to take several water breaks along the way…if only there was a place to go swimming and cool off…Along the trail there was a nice view of the Na Pali coastline, which is the only part of the island inaccessible by car.
Ahh! What do you know… there is a place to go swimming and cool off! We arrived at Hanakapi’ai Beach to the welcome sight of the cool ocean! The terrain was such that a small stream collected on one side of the sand but eventually flowed into the ocean, making for a calm swimming spot. There was also a cave at the other end of the beach.
On the road up to the Opaeka’a Falls Lookout there was a place called Poli’ahu, which had an ancient Hawaiian religious structure called a heiau. There was also a lookout to the Wailua River here.
While in the area we stopped at Lydgate State park to do some more snorkling. There was a nice boulder enclosed area which kept out the rather angry ocean but still let in a good number of fish.
Making use of our new water-proof camera case we tried to catch some shots of fish. Unfortunately it is hard to see what you are taking underwater and the lighting isn’t always the best, but we still managed to get a few good ones! It was one of the most relaxing things we did, all that was required was breathing in the dense (easy to float in!) water!
The Kilauea Lighthouse was a wonderful area for viewing wildlife, especially birds, which loved to soar over the rocky shoreline! We even borrowed a pair of binoculars to get a close-up view of many of them as well as the opposing shorelines.
After another day of exploring, we decided to wind down at the beach. The view of the mountains of the other side of the bay continued to amaze us. A walk farther down the beach took us underneath several large trees… while still in the ocean!
You have to search sildenafil rx for a right medicine to treat their ED issues. As our main focus is on the symptoms and the imposed restriction over these malfunctions can effectively save you from getting captured by any undesired occurrences like cheap cialis 5mg ulceration and cancer. Also medicine excessively packed with nitrate is undeniably perilous to cialis no prescription cheap man s health. Psychological and emotional issues can also affect a man’s sexual function. generic viagra online We did one more snorkling outing (no pictures this time) then turned in the equipment at the beachside hut where we had rented it three days earlier. We had racked up quite a bill but the fun was well worth it!
Safari Time! We went on a day long expedition called the “Kipu Falls Zipline Safari.” The adventure started with a little kyacking down a river. A little akward at first, but we quickly got the hang of it and often had to pause to wait for others to catch up!
Once we reached Kipu Falls there was a very big rope swing into the pool! (There had been a much smaller rope swing earlier) Brian was brave and went off the rope twice, but Jaime opted to stay on the shore this time…
And of course the highlight of the safari – the Zipline above a stream! This was a blast – a feeling of total freefall for a few seconds until the harness caught us, then an exhilirating swing over the water! I actually takes more guts to jump off the platform than I had thought – but it was worth the courage!
Next adventure – Wailua Falls! Just looking at it from the lookout spot on the top wasn’t enough – we wanted to experience the full power of 185 feet of falling water! So we climbed down the make-shift trail (ignoring the signs that forbid such foolishness) and went for a swim. Brian even swam over and crawled up the slippery bank right under the falls!
Our next hike was on Nounou Mountain (also known as the Sleeping Giant – the source of a Hawaiian legend) Another steep climb, but rewarded us with more excellent views and wildlife to enjoy! Near the end of the trail we came to the “chin” of the Sleeping Giant – a rocky place with good views, but also required a bit of sense not to get ourselves someplace we couldn’t get down from!
Poipu Beach was supposed to be one of the best on the island, so we decided to check it out. We didn’t have our snorkling equipment, but it was still nice swimming, and we had a nice lunch on a picnic table on the beach! This was a good swimming beach because it was somewhat sheltered but still had enough waves to make for some fun bouncing!
We found an unusual spot along the shore, called the Spouting Horn. When waves crashed up on the rocks, water would shoot up out of a blowhole, making a loud groaning noise. There was also an open air mart there where Jaime bought a Kauai bead necklace.
Luau Time! We drove down to Waipouli Beach to the Courtyard Hotel. They put on quite a show with hula dancers and of course, a roasted pig and huge feast! The grand finale was a fire dancer who was amazing. (Unfortunately they didn’t allow photographs during this part)
The vacation is nearing an end, but we still have one big adventure left – Waimea Canyon on the far west shore of the island. It reminded us a lot of the Grand Canyon, but of course we could still see the ocean in the distance! First we stopped at the lookouts, then ate lunch and got ready for some hiking around the canyon.
One of the most fascinating lookouts gave a view (although very faint due to the haze) of the island Ni’ihau, which was 17 miles away. This is a small, privately owned island with about 200 inhabitants who still speak Hawaiian and continue many of the ancient Hawaiian traditions and culture.
Some scenery from our hike. Our first attempted hike attempt failed, and we almost got totally lost in the woods.. guess we should have listened to the book when it said it was easy to get off the trail. But we found an easier one that was also very pretty… and much more obvious to follow! The canyon looked different from every angle, but almost always the ocean was still visible in the distance.
The hike ended at a nice little waterfall, which the signs told us not to swim in. Did we listen? Of course not, afterall adventure is always more important than common sense, right??? The water felt nice and cool, very refreshing after a long hike. The ground was quite squishy though, and there were several large freshwater crabs along the bottom.
On our last day we decided to go back to Ke’e beach, which is where the Kalalau trail starts. We were too busy hiking to enjoy the beach that day, so we went to check it out. We were glad we did, because it was one of the best swimming beaches we had been to. And there were some great views of the Na Pali coast if you went out into the water a little way.
Just down the road from the beach was a small cave filled with water. This time common sense did prevail and we decided not to swim in the very murky “liquid”.
It was almost time to head to the airport, but we stopped for one last walk along a trail that went beside the beach for a way. The waves were quite intense so we didn’t go swimming, but we enjoyed the view. Anxious to see Lily, but not wanting to leave our island paradise, we headed out. What an amazing vacation adventure.. as they say in Hawaii, “Until we meet again”!
