Kauai- the Saga

Day 01:
After spending the night at Mom's place, we woke up early to fly. Luckily, there's not too many places you can stop on the way to Hawaii, and I brought a Game of Throne book to keep me company on the plane (Thanks Ilana).

A short 5 hours later we were in Hawaii. When we located our rental car company, the "compact" car we rented turned out to be a Dodge Caravan (the only cars they had left). So feeling reminiscent of my past (my first car) we set off to our beach rental in Poipu, a mere 1/2 hour south of the airport.

We arrived in time for sunset, however, the code the rental company gave us the incorrect passcode to access the lockbox that contained our room key (and never returned our voice messages for the entire vacation). But our hero...me, decided to do the honorable thing and break into the apartment...which I did. Now, with Room keys in hand, a 24 pack of beers, we were ready to start our vacation in earnest.

Day 02:

We started out the morning on a short hike down the coastline on a trail that went 5 miles each way and ended up taking the entire day. The Kauai marathon just happened to be occuring that morning on our path, so we joined in on the finish-line festivities that included free food and beer...yes, beer at 9am. The perfect breakfast for our first full day in Hawaii.  On the trail, the views were stunning, the sun was bright, and we quickly became sunburned.

Before the day ended, we donned our sexiest snorkeling gear and tested out the waters. Amazingly enough, right as we dropped in we were surrounded by green turtles the size of car tires. We thought we were soo lucky...until everyday we saw turtles. I kid you not, every....single... day. They were everywhere, right on the rocky shores, getting rolled up on the rocks as they dined on seaweed dangling off the shoreline. None-the-less, pretty damned cool....and they had no fear of people. You could swim right up and pet their shells.

Day 03:

We woke up early and headed up the west coast to Waimea valley; Kauai's Grand Canyon. The drive was picture perfect, the canyons were incredible and knife-edge steep, and the hike was brutally hot.

  One leg of the loop we planned was closed, so we jumped the fence and bushwhacked through the unmaintained portion.

 Exhausted after the long hike, we headed to Polihale beach, a 5 mile stretch of burning-hot sand brutal waves. The locals crowded the far side of the beach, driving trucks out almost to the water to avoid the uncomfortably hot walk across the beach.

As the sun set, we snorkeled on the southwest shore. It was very sparse. Hawaii's corals had been killed off a decade or so ago during a hurricane; so the fish colonies were incredible, but it wasn't even close to the underwater rainbow of corals that I remember of the Caribbean.

Day 04:

Our "rest" day. I tried my hand at surfing and got my a$$ handed to me on a platter. The hardest part was getting out to the break, but then once you're there, it takes forever for a wave to break right where you are sitting. And for a person as patient as me, sitting and waiting for 10 minutes for each attempt was less than desirable.

After a day of beach-bumming we headed to a golf resort restaurant for some live music. The musician never showed up, and the food left much to be desired. But it was very nice to sit back and enjoy the view from an almost empty patio, sipping on Mai Tai's and making an a$$ of myself....as per normal.



Day 05:

The most beautiful hike I have ever taken. Kalalua trail has over 22 miles of trails, straight up and down the cliff-strewn ocean edge. The waters were azure crystals and the landscape morphed dramatically and we waxed and waned between shoreline and inland.

 The hike culminated to a large waterfall, whos waters were too cold for a sissy like me to partake in.

 Another amazing thing of the hike were the fruits. Mountain apple, as the locals called it, along with a yellow guava-like fruit gathered in abundance along the trail-side. The entire valley smelt reminiscent of fermenting wine.  They were deliciously sweet.

 Of course we ended the day snorkeling. Eating poke (raw cubed ahi tuna) from the local fish market watching the sun melt behind the large expanses of taro fields.

Day 06:

We loved the north coast so much we decided to spend the next day there too. Alex rented a Kayak in Hanalei bay (and I a paddleboard), and we coasted down the tranquil Hanalei River surrounded by tall grass and towering bamboo.
 

I noted to Alex it was strange not to see any fresh-water turtles, and then, on cue, they lined the shore; small painted turtles like we had back east. After a morning of rowing we headed to the best snorkel spot in Kauai and it was by far. 

 

"Tunnels" is a reef of 10-40 feet deep reefs jutting between shallow intertwining caverns. It snaked its way through the entire beach-front. After long hours of swimming throughout the maze of fish and coral, we relaxed on the sparsely populated beach watching the gentle waves caress the tips of the exposed reef.

We changed at a nearby beach park and explored caves that graved the base of the cliff-face.

Day 07: 

We remained at our homebase, Poipu (the south) to relax and pass the morning on the beach before heading to a luau that afternoon. It was a huge production, complete with earthen pig roast and hula ceremony. After an expansive buffet dinner of local cuisine we enjoyed the show, complete with pyrotechnics. Although made for tourist, it was a blast.

Day 08: 

On our last full day we decided to explore the east side of the island, kayaking up the Wailua River to "secret" fall, which was ironically the worse-kept secret to the most pathetic falls I have ever seen. We passed by it, thinking it must be somewhere beyond the small trickle that greased the side of  earthen pit.

Although it rained on the hike, it was beautiful, lush, and eclectic.





 
We ended the hike back at the Kayak and paddled out into the bay, breaking through the luke-warm waves.

Our last night, we headed to a hula show at the neighboring resort, sipping pina coladas and kicking our feet back as the stars came out from beyond rows of silhouetted palm trees