We have been out of bed for almost every sunrise. A lot of the days start out a bit cloudy, but then the sun breaks through.
Our condo is about 2.5 km from Spouting Horn blowhole. A guardrail blocks the area from climbers and a sign warns of the danger.
Funny thing is…when we were in Maui, the blowhole (Nakalele), was a lot more fierce (and impressive), and you could climb down the rocky hill to get as close as you wanted. Some people got stupidly close. Kauai seems to be a lot more cautious than Maui.
On one of our road trips, we headed west to Waimea Canyon, known as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. The canyon is about 16 km long and 1100 m deep.
The colours are stunning.
To give you a scale for how big the canyon is, see if you can find the two helicopters in this shot Todd took looking down into it!
Elevation here is approximately 1035 m. Todd did great, walking up to the viewpoint, with his “boot” on. He overheard some woman say to her husband “I don’t know how he does it…”
We continued the drive up to an elevation of just over 1200 m to the Kalalau Lookout.
A fine rain began as we looked at the Kalalau Valley and the Na Pali Coast.
We returned to Waimea (the town) another day for their 40th Anniversary Festival. As you enter the town, a monument of Captain James Cook stands in the small park a few miles from where he first landed in the Hawaiian Islands.
The festival is a weeklong celebration including sporting events, craft and food sales, and contests.
We arrived just in time for the ice cream eating contest.
Also on the western side of the Island is Salt Pond Beach, named for the Hawaiian sea salt produced in the salt flats near the beach. No salt was being extracted today as the season is in the drier summer. Interestingly, the salt flat beds are divided and owned by 17 families. The rights to extract the salts has been handed down generation to generation and no one else is allowed to extract the salt.
The weather on Kauai has definitely been cooler and windier than our times on the other Hawaiian Islands (about 5°C cooler than Kona on the BI). That said, we have had good weather with hardly any rain where we are staying….sure beats winter back home…
We have been here almost 3 weeks, and I finally got to eat some Kalua pork – bought at the Fish Market in Koala. After doing some research, who would have guessed the recommended place to get the pork would be at a fish shop? Todd has enjoyed their Korean Ahi Poke a few times.
We finally got to go on our Na Pali sunset cruise. We were originally booked for Valentine’s Day, but the company (Holo Holo Charters) cancelled due to extremely high winds. Two other times we chose to cancel as the choice was given knowing it would be rough waters.
The Na Pali coast is stunning – the ridges are so severely eroded, that they appear to stand upright and look like a curtain with vertical folds.
Cliffs here exceed 1200 m above sea level.
The pounding of the Hawaiian surf against the land (up to 12 m in the winter) create sea arches and sea caves.
Apparently the first Polynesian people who landed in Hawaii (300 AD to 800 AD) lived in this area. In the 1860s, the Kalalau Valley was the area people afflicted with leprosy were sent. By the early 1900s, most Hawaiians moved out of the area to safer, less remote areas of Kauai.
As a bonus, we were even entertained as a mama whale was teaching her calf how to breach.
We were so glad we waited for calmer waters (actually the swells were still pretty high, so can’t imagine what it would have been like on the tours we didn’t go on).
We did one last road trip north…towards (literally) the end of the road. On our way, we stopped at Haena Beach. A few fearless souls braved the waters, but most just sat on the sandy beach enjoying the weather.
Across the road is Maniniholo Dry Cave.
The cave goes back about 45 m. Legend has it that the cave used to be part of a tunnel to Waimea Canyon until it was deliberately collapsed during a conflict.
After reaching the end of the road, we turned around to head back. The area was packed and there was no parking. We did see one more cave, so I jumped out and got pictures.
We stopped in Hanalei for lunch and to take a look at the church that has caught our eye each time we have passed it. Waioli Huiia Church was founded in 1834 and the stained-glass windows are magnificent.
The last few nights have seen some bigger waves, so surfers are out taking advantage of the ocean conditions outside our condo.
Every night hundreds of parakeet birds flock to our area to sleep in the trees. Some people come here just to photograph them. They are an invasive species that were originally brought to a B&B for a novelty…until they escaped and reproduced. They are responsible for destroying a number of farmers’ crops, and the state is looking at how to get rid of them.
Our last day on Kauai was a wet one – torrential downpours. We went for a drive west and ended up at Big Island Brewing Company for a late lunch. The place was packed because all the boating tours (companies located across the street) were cancelled. Back at the condo, the amount of rain was evident as an additional pond formed in the park across the street.
Although cloudy and rainy our last day, most evenings end with a beautiful sunset. Dozens of people gather each evening to view the sunset…each one different, each one beautiful.
Now onto Kona on the Big Island….to meet up with Aline & Dave and some local friends.