Earlier this year, I found "cheap" tickets to Kauai and decided to give it a whirl. The week after Labor Day is slow at work anyway, so it would be the perfect time to go. I hunted around for a cheap place to stay for months and months, but it's crazy expensive over there. One day, I got lucky and found a condo in Kapa'a for $60/night. I booked with free cancellation in case something better came along, but there wasn't anything for less than $200 anywhere on the island...including Airbnb's. It turned out that we kind of got what we paid for...it wasn't that great, but it served it's purpose. I wasn't really prepared for not having air conditioning, and that made things interesting. We had to have all of the windows and patio doors open for some cross breezes, allowing us to listen to the waves crashing all night...but also the roosters crowing and the rambunctious kids on Saturday evening playing in the pool. Luckily, they were just there for the one day.
We drove to Phoenix the night before our flight and were on a plane to Oahu by 7:30. It was a long flight...just long enough to watch the entire Season 3 of Narcos. The cheapest flight I could find included a 6 hour layover in Honolulu, and not one to miss out on a golden opportunity, I decided to rent a car and spend that time exploring the island and showing Brian around. It was at this point that I realized that I'd grabbed the wrong charging cable for my camera and had one little bar of battery for the whole trip :( We got lunch, drove the scenic highway to the North Shore, and walked around, enjoying some down time on the beach before driving back down to the airport to catch the remaining flight to Kauai.
I assumed that, with the 3-hour time difference, I'd be an early riser, but the next morning, Brian had to wake me up for the sunrise. Our motel was right on the water, so we walked along the beach and splashed in the waves before heading out for breakfast on the way to the southwest side of the Island.
I figured that we'd explore the first day, get our bearings, and try to cover the entire coastal road from one end to the other. At the far end of the highway, we found a beach with not a soul in sight. The road in was rough and rugged and we rented the tiniest car on the lot, so it took a minute to get to the water. It began to get sandy, so we stopped and hoofed it the rest of the way. Out on the breaker, you could spot a couple of surfers, but other than that, we had the place all to ourselves...the perfect opportunity to go topless and evade those pesky tan lines :) After a bit of sunning and a walk along the coast, we made our way back to the car and it was totally sunk in the sand. The best part of driving a Lego car is that Brian could push me out. I think he was convinced for a second there that we'd die on that beach, but within 10 minutes we were back on the road.
We got lunch at a local spot and then drove up to Waimea Canyon, stopping along the road to hike out to the rim and took in the scenic overlooks along the way. It was sunny and clear, apparently a rarity in the area. Humid as all get out, though. I was drenched.
We got lunch at a local spot and then drove up to Waimea Canyon, stopping along the road to hike out to the rim and took in the scenic overlooks along the way. It was sunny and clear, apparently a rarity in the area. Humid as all get out, though. I was drenched.
We grabbed a slice of pie before heading back towards the motel and spent the afternoon on the beach and the evening in the pool.
Saturday morning, we drove up to Hanalei for breakfast and then grabbed some snorkeling gear from a local rental shop before hitting up the bay and then Anini Beach. I layed out on the beach for a while and then, once the clouds rolled in and it began to rain, I went out on the reef with Brian to see what I could find. Within about 5 minutes, we spotted 2 Sea Turtles chomping down on the sea floor. I've always wanted to see one in real life and never in a million years thought it would be then and there. They were so adorable. Brian went back to grab the camera so we could use up the last bar of battery life capturing the moment and we spent about an hour following them around. In total, we figured that there were about a dozen of them in the area, he saw about 7 at one point, and I saw 5. A dream come true!
Sunday was the day for checking another item off of the ol' bucket list...Hiking Kalalau Trail. I discovered too late, that you have to have a permit to hike the entire trail, and I couldn't get one in time. We woke up early, grabbed coffee, and drove to the trail head. It started out as quite a climb through the jungle, climbing rocks and roots straight up to a ledge along the Na Pali Coast. We wove through the valleys and the trees with the sea crashing to our right and it was incredible. We didn't encounter many other people the whole way in and I wanted to make sure we took our time to take it all in. It seemed like with every step I took, it became more and more beautiful, so I'd stand there in awe, snap a few pictures, take another step, stand in awe, snap pictures, over and over. I probably should have done a post just of that hike because I took about 1000 pictures, but I just can't describe it...I really need to go back, get a permit, and do the full hike. It was unbelievably humid and luckily, we started early enough to have shade pretty much the entire time. That didn't stop me from sweating out about 15 gallons though...I'm not sure if I've ever sweat more in my life. We eventually made it to the point where you needed a permit to continue, and although the urge was strong to see if we could just sneak in and play dumb when we got caught, I wanted to start heading back before the sun was high. I'm glad we went back when we did, because there were hoards of people passing us on their way in.
At the end was a big stream leading up to a waterfall and a secluded, pristine, private beach with only one other couple on. There were 3 little kittens running around too, which was unexpected and just made us miss Jasper and Bugaboo.
The water was a little rough and we were a little nervous to get too comfy there, so we hiked back to the parking area and spent some time snorkeling along Ke'e Beach.
The next morning we opted to take a helicopter tour of the Island which was incredible. Unfortunately, I couldn't use my camera, my phone didn't have hardly any storage left, and Brian's phone kept overheating, so we didn't get as many pictures and videos as we'd liked. The one's we got have a lot of glare, but we tried :)
If you're really curious and want to see what we saw, just Youtube videos...it was so beautiful. We lucked out weather-wise as it was sunny and clear with a nice mist topping the peaks and then started pouring rain later in the afternoon when we were considering doing a sunset cruise around Na Pali Coast.
From there, we went back to Anini for some more beach time and snorkeling and then went out to dinner in Kapa'a.
