Hawaii Vacation 2000

Chapter 5: Kauai

January 28: Poipu

The flight took us over Molokai and Oahu in clear weather, so it was possible to recognize various features of the islands, especially Oahu, which we had already visited.

After we landed, we searched around for a decent hotel with reasonable rates that still had a vacancy. We were a little worried that that might be a tall order for a Friday night, but we found a place called the Garden Island Inn in Nawilili Harbor, right next to Lihue which met our needs and had an opening.

Since we only had a partial day to explore Kauai, because of the time lost to traveling, we drove to Poipu to explore the beach. Poipu is a nearby beach on the leeward south side of Kauai. There are many fancy resort hotels there.

To get there we drove through the "Tree Tunnel," two parallel rows of planted Eucalyptus trees. The Hotel Clerk had suggested that we use the public beach access just past the Sheraton Kauai, so we did. We had a beautiful little walk along the beach. Shortly, we came to a chain-link fence, behind which there appeared to be a resort hotel which was in some stage of demolition. We found this very puzzling, because some of it was whole, but much of it was torn apart, with gaping holes showing, and yet there was no heavy equipment to indicate people working on this property.

Then we realized that this was one of the remaining properties that had been demolished by the force of Hurricane Iniki, but had not yet been rebuilt. We had read about this. By now, much of the area was back to normal, but it had taken a long time for this area to recover from the hurricane, and there were obviously still some properties that had not been rebuilt. The amount of damage on this one property was quite staggering.

On the beach, we found what appeared to be a dead seal. It was surrounded by cordons, and a sign revealed that it was not dead. It was a Monk Seal, and these seals like to come on the beach and just lay there for hours without budging. It was really hard to tell that the seal was alive, but eventually we did see it twitch once or twice. As you can see from the picture, it was close to the water. We figured if the tide came in a little, it would probably inch its way up the beach, but we didn't stay to watch it, because it would be like watching grass grow.

We had a great time at Poipu, although the only picture we took was of the Monk Seal.

January 29: Na Pali

Beyond Hanalei, the road goes over a number of one-lane bridges until it can go no further. The road ends at the Ke'e beach parking lot. the next 11 miles of coastline consists of high cliffs and deep valleys, so it is inaccessible to vehicles. There is a trail that begins here, the Kalalau Trail, which traverses this rugged coast. We planned to go as far as the first beach on this trail, Hanakapiai Beach. Beyond that point, a permit is required, and the trail becomes very difficult. This would be a half-day hike. We also had the option of going up the stream at Hanakapiai to Hanakapiai Falls, which would double the distance and make it a day hike.

The trail was steep and rocky. It climbed high over the Pacific Ocean. After a while, we got a great view of the rest of the Na Pali Coast, and we took this picture of it. As we continued along this trail, and then started down again, we could hear the waves breaking on the rocks far below us. The waves were really crashing hard, and sometimes sounded almost like cannon, but we could not see any of it, because the drop-off was too steep.

Eventually we came down towards the beach. We took this picture from above the beach. There is little sand on the beach at this time of year. It's mostly rocks. The stream was high, so we climbed over a lot of boulders and rocks, looking for alternate places to cross, but found none that would not have posed a risk for us of getting wet. We didn't really want to go any further anyway. We stayed there for a while and enjoyed the view. While packed with great scenery, the trip to this point had been more tiring than we had anticipated, so we decided not to try to go further upstream, but rather to return to Ke'e Beach and save the rest of the day for other things.

After lunch at Ke'e Beach, we found Wakanaloa Wet Cave. It was easy to find, right by the road near the entrance to Ke'e Beach State Park. We put Steffi in this picture so you can see the size of the opening, and then took a second picture to get a closer look at the inside. There are many other wet caves, but this one was the easiest to find.

On our way back, just after Hanalei, we took a detour into the Hanalei Wildlife Refuge. Access here is limited, but cars are permitted as long as you stay in your car. It is in a broad flat valley. There is one place where you can stop and hike on a short trail up to a high point overlooking the valley. We did this, and saw a number of interesting birds in the distance, but nothing close enough to take a picture of. The Hanalei Valley is beautiful. We did see the large spider web while going up this trail, and took a picture shown here along with an enlargement. The picture did not provide sufficient detail to identify the spider, unfortunately.

We continued our return trip, and took the side road that goes to Kilauea Point. There is a lighthouse here, and a bird sanctuary. We arrived just before 4 PM, and unfortunately, they were just about to close. This is a great place to come for unusual birds, but we only had enough time to take two bird pictures and a picture of the lighthouse. The birds enjoy this area because most of it is off-limits to people. We are only permitted in the area right around the lighthouse on the promontory, but most of the birds stay on a hillside in full view, but not very close to this area. Fortunately some birds fly over the lighthouse area, and we were fortunate to be able to get some pictures in the short amount of time we had.

The albatross is very graceful in the air, but not when landing. We only saw it in the air though. The Great Frigatebird is distinguished by its black humped wings, forked tail, and long wingspan (7 feet). It also soars gracefully.

The lighthouse has the largest lens of its type in the world, but is not longer in service. A smaller light now serves to warn ships of this point, but the modern light is not very interesting to look at. Since we had to leave almost right after we got there, we promised ourselves to return another day.

We had dinner of local fare at the Barbecue Inn in on Kress Street in Lihue. We needed the guidebook to find this one. This restaurant is in an unusual location, a warehouse district, and is not much to look at from outside, so it doesn't attract a lot of tourists, but is a local favorite. It was excellent. Steffi especially loved the colorful garnishes.

January 30 Waimea Canyon

Here we found a magnificent vista. Waimea canyon is called the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific." It is decidedly not as grand in size as the one in Arizona. However, it is quite impressively large, and it does have some notable similarities. The horizontal striations of the rock here do not represent layers of sediment as they do in Arizona, but rather layers of distinct volcanic eruptions. While the coloration is similar in the upper part of the canyon (first picture), the coloration in the lower part is much more vibrant and tropical than anything that can be seen in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.

There were not many tourists there this early, but there was a camera crew in the parking lot, filming a commercial for a company that takes tourists in vans to the top of the canyon and lets them ride bicycles down. This is the same concept as the ride down Mt. Haleakala that we saw on Maui.

All over Kauai, but not on any of the other islands, there are is a substantial feral chicken population. We found out later that this was the only island that had not had mongooses introduced, so chickens flourish here in the wild. There were quite a number of them in the parking lot, and their crowing was intermittent, but loud. This poor camera crew did take after take of their commercial for the bicycle tour, only to have each one ruined at some point with a loud "cock-a-doodle-doo."

We continued up the road, and after leaving the canyon, we came to the Kokee Lodge. It was just opening for business. the road goes beyond that, though. It finally ends at a lookout over the Kalalau Valley. This valley is the last valley of the Na Pali coast that one can reach by hiking the Kalalau Trail from Ke'e beach. We were now looking down from the top, about 4000 feet above the ocean, beach, and valley floor. This is a most impressive sight, and well worth the drive all by itself.

From here the Pihea Trail goes roughly level, but with a lot of ups and downs, along the rim of the valley. Unlike a ridge trail, this one pays back with beautiful views from the very first step. As we followed this trail, the Kalalau Valley lay before us on our left, and the Alikai Swamp on our right. The footing along this trail is a bit problematic though. It is muddy, and hilly, and often there are narrow steps cut into the dried mud. After a while this became tedious to traverse. We did go as far as the Pihea lookout, where the trail gets one last view of the Kalalau valley before going down into the Alikai Swamp. We took another picture of the Kalalau from this vantage point, and then retraced our steps. We had a beautiful drive down along the Waimea Canyon Drive as we returned to the highway.

Yesterday, we had been frustrated by having so little time at Kilauea Lighthouse and Bird Sanctuary. Even though it was on the other side of the island, we still had time to drive around to it and have plenty of visiting time before they closed, so we did this. Perhaps it would have been more efficient if we had planned our activities so that we did not have to drive halfway around the island each time, but Kauai is fairly small, and this trip took only about 45 minutes. This was a Sunday afternoon, though. Had it been a weekday, especially during rush hour, and we would have been ill advised to do this. Perhaps surprisingly, on a paradise island like this, the highways on either side of Lihue get really clogged at rush hour, and should be avoided if at all possible.

Upon our arrival at Kilauea, we had the immediate opportunity to photograph a new bird, the Red Footed Booby (whose name in Hawaiian is the letter "A"). This unusual bird is pointed at both ends. We are particularly happy with this picture, which catches the coloration of the wings. While there, we also found a whole family group of Nene, including some goslings, and took a picture of the hillside, which was covered with Booby (Boobies?), although they are so far away that they look like white spots.

Again we left at 4 PM when they closed, but this time we were satisfied with our viewing, not frustrated. It was 9 PM back in the eastern time zone, and this was Superbowl Sunday. While we didn't really care which team won, this year, we were interested enough to turn on the radio to see what was going on. What luck! We were just in time for the fourth quarter, and a very exciting quarter it was. As the game played out, we drove back to the south again. This time in search of a pretty sunset at that beach in Kekaha that we had spotted this morning. Again, this alternating of north and south was not particularly efficient, but we had the football to listen to, and plenty of time before sunset.

When we got there, some clouds had formed near the horizon, so we weren't sure if the sun was going to be able to shine through as it set, but we waited for it anyway, to see what would happen. While waiting, a native fellow came by riding a donkey.

As we feared, the sunset didn't pan out. the sun could not be seen anywhere near the horizon. it did leave its trace by coloring the clouds as it went down, and we had to be satisfied with that for now.

We drove back to Poipu for a wonderful dinner at the Kiahuna Plantation Resort. This is definitely a fancy place. The grounds and walkways were lit with Polynesian style torches. It was expensive, but delicious, and a very pretty and romantic setting.

This story continues with more of Kauai with the next chapter.

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