(all pictures are low res, for high res click here)
Ellen and I have started a tradition of visiting someplace warm
every New Year's holiday. Last year we went to
Nevada and the previous year we
visited Los Cabos; and this year we chose the
garden isle of Hawai'i, Kauai.
For our stay on the island, we chose to stay in
Poipu at the beautiful Poipu Beach
Club.
We had a terrific room
with a magnificent view of the ocean
.
If you happen to go to Kauai, I highly recommend staying at the Poipu Beach Club
Bed and Breakfast -- Chuck and Deb are awesome, and you won't get stuck dealing
with a huge bill (every resort charges over $500 a night to stay there, Chuck
and Deb are well below that.) To get to Poipu, you need to drive
from Lihue airport
past some incredible views
thru a
tree tunnel
past
Old Koloa Town
down to Poipu. We stopped in Koloa Town on numerous occasions to shop
,
drink coffee, shoot weird photos
,
and rent snorkel gear.
As we found out at breakfast the
first morning, our hosts, Chuck
and Deb Tomesko are originally from the same part of the country as me. Chuck,
especially, who is originally from the
hell hole,
we commonly refer to as Youngstown, Ohio.
Chuck and Deb are great, besides knowing
midwest jokes,
they are really knowledgeable about the island. For our first trip, they
suggested we visit the western part of the island, which included more
incredible views
,
a stop in
Hanapepe to visit a suspension bridge
and then a long drive
to the top of
Waimea Canyon
(large pic). At the top, we stopped at the lodge at the top for lunch, but then the
weather turned inclement (which would become an omen for the week) so we decided
to forgo visiting
Kalalau Lookout and began hiking the
Honopu Ridge Trail instead. That night, we drove back to the B&B, but we
knew we'd return to this part of the island because there were a bunch of shops
and sights we didn't get to visit. That night we were treated to a Hawaiian
trademarked sunset right outside of our room.
.
The next day we wanted to visit the northern part of the island,
so we began the long drive north. Eventually, we arrived at
Kilauea Lighthouse
,
took in the views
,
and looked at some
...ahem... birds. :-) Further north, we passed the yuppie place of
Princeville as well as
the quaint touristy village of
Hanalei, which boasts magnificent views of the
Bali Hai (made
famous in the movie,
South Pacific). At the end of the road is the trailhead for the famous
Kalalau Trail - 11 miles of hard hiking along the Na Pali Coast. Ellen
didn't really want to hike for a second day in a row, and I wanted to get
exercise, so we decided to just go
snorkeling at
Ke'e Beach
instead. We spent most of this day
snorkeling (which was surprisingly good given the strong rip tides) and laying
in the sun.
That night the weather started to change on us, and thus began
the wet part of the vacation. Given that we were going to be stuck in rain, we
decided to check out
Spouting Horn (check out the video -
remember videos take a long time to load, so be patient) which was next door to
our B&B and the
National Tropical Botanical Gardens
(home
of McBryde and Allerton Gardens).
Fantasy Island, Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Jurassic Park were all filmed
there. We really didn't feel like seeing the gardens, so we stopped at
Koloa Fish
Market where I picked up some
laulau
and Kauain pulled pork (Ellen got
ahi poke) to take with us on the
Maha'ulepu Beach Trail. That pretty much consumed the rest of our day.
That night, all hell broke loose. I
played with a gecko (who thankfully didn't try to sell me
insurance)
as I watched a mild tropical storm attack the island.
I say mild (video) as the storm only
had 50 mph wind gusts.(video)
The storm caused flooding all over
the island, and water poured out of the rivers at a furious pace causing
erosion. Here you can see the stream next to our little bay had caused the water
outside the B&B to turn red.
We felt it was prudent to take advantage of this weather event, so we chose this
day to visit some of the great waterfalls of Kauai, since each would be flowing
well above capacity. As expected, we were not disappointed. Our first stop was
the famous
Wailua Falls, however traveling there was tricky. Every road was flooded,
including the parking lot
.
We spotted the falls and were shocked at the volume of water flowing from it.
For perspective, check out
this
external link to pictures of the falls prior to a rain storm then watch this
video. Notice the red dirt erosion found in
the falls. Ellen noted that we would have to tell our kids that the
waterfalls in Kauai are
made out of chocolate, ala
Willy Wonka and the
Chocolate Factory. This mud is so strong they dye T-shirts with it.
Oh I forgot to mention this was the point at which we had our fill of these god
damn wild chickens
which followed you everywhere on the island!
Our next waterfall stop took us to
Opaekaa Falls
which is right off of Route 581 outside of Kapa'a. Again note the volume of
water coming off the falls!
There's even waterfalls forming off the adjacent mountainside.
...then I put on my Ansel Adams hat and
took another picture of the Wailua River.
...and
with color.
We continued our waterfall quest north to see if we could reach
Hoopii Falls, however all the roads were washed out. As luck would have it,
we did happen to pass another hardcore Steeler
fan
.
Since we were this far north, we felt the need to make a pilgrimage to
Duane's Ono
Char Burger, which is a staple on the island.
If you ever stop there, I highly recommend getting the teriyaki burger.
The next day was our last full day on the island, and the weather finally cleared, so we decided to seek out a secluded beach to sunbathe and snorkel. Well, we found the secluded beach we were looking for -- ironically its called Secret beach which is found off a hidden dirt road and requires a steep 10 minute hike to reach. The beach is famous for encouraging nude bathing, so needless to say I don't have any pictures -- sorry Chuck :-) -- I'll leave it up to your imagination as to what the beach looks like.
The riptides at Secret Beach were
very strong, and it wasn't very conducive to snorkeling, so we left this beach
after a couple hours to visit
Lydgate Park where they have a rock wall that protects the swimmers. Much to
our surprise the storm from the previous nights ravished this park and the
swimming area was closed.
Finally we decided to head back to Poipu, to snorkel there.
The water was still very cloudy but you could still see some fish. For our last
meal on Kauai, we chose to eat at The
Beach House -- we drank a bottle of wine, ate a LOT of food, and had more to
drink. After our walk back to the B&B we were both still tipsy so we began
taking photos of each other - yes, I was still drunk as you can tell by the
photos. I don't think any of them are in focus.
Then Ellen took the camera and I acted like my idiot self.
.
Ellen gave me the camera back and I tried again.
-- not too bad for a
drunk guy.
On Jan 3rd, we had plenty of time
to kill before our flight, so we drove back to the western side of the island,
to visit a few more shops we missed earlier in the week. We started at
Aunty Lilikoi
where we basically bought one of everything. Then we headed across the street
for an incredible shrimp lunch at the Shrimp Station.
I had the Thai Garlic Chili shrimp and Ellen had the "Got Garlic?" shrimp, holy
crap we burped garlic for the next 2 days. YUM! A stop in Waimea is not complete
without a stop at Jo-Jo's Shaved Ice
-- another Kauai staple. I got the #2, tropical rainbow with Guava, Papaya and
Lilikoi syrup on top of macadamia nut ice cream.
.
Our last fun stop of the trip was another obscure beach known as
Glass
Beach. The beach received its name because it is located by a nearby trash
dump which causes the glass to be washed by the ocean and thrown ashore,
creating this incredible beach.
Notice that the sand crystals are actually tiny particles of glass!
We didn't do anything too exciting the rest of the day and then headed to the airport for our flight home. Ellen and I simply loved Kauai and would love the opportunity to go back yet again.
