[I hope to scan in pictures that go along with this shortly - please check back...]
I had a follow-up trip in October of 2000 for Matt and Lora's wedding on Maui.
In early 1998, I finally talked a good friend of mine, Matt, into finally taking a vacation. He was working ridiculous hours (you know them Silicon Valley lawyer types) at the time and had sufficient vacation time saved up. I had been to Hawaii once, seeing each of the four main islands for a couple of days (Hawaii, Maiu, Oahu, Kauai), and wanted to pursue a couple in more detail. Matt had never been, so we agreed to go.
The trip took place from March 14th until the 22nd, 1998. We settled on two islands for the trip - the big island of Hawaii and the garden isle of Kauai. Travel books were read (Fodor's Hawaii which had nice photos and color maps, and Hidden Hawaii which had good descriptions and details though was sometimes off on its choices of activities, restaurants, lodging), travel agents called, tickets acquired, and off we went!
There were far too many things that we wanted to do on the trip, but with prioritizing and going for it, the vacation seemed to stretch beyond the chronological week it occupied. One of the big bonuses was that Matt found the time to complete his SCUBA certification before the trip. I already had mine, and practiced in Monterey, Australia, and Cozumel. So that was definitely on the list. Bringing our tennis gear assured that if courts were found, they would be used. Given that we both try to be outdoorsy given the opportunity, that is what happened. Had I not acquired a cold shortly before the start of the vacation, which was to last for the duration, the outdoors would have been even more pleasant.
This is a day by day account of what happened. Details and pictures will get filled in as time and laziness breaks allow...
Given that this is not a couple of well-prepared folks traveling, but rather Matt and myself, packing was completed around 3 am the night before. Our flight was at 8:40 am this morning. Sleep can be had any time - we will be on vacation, right? :) Jay, a mutual friend and Matt's roommate graciously volunteered to give us a ride to the airport. Actually, there was some arm twisting involved, but we won't go into that here.
Getting up sufficiently early (though not too early), I prepared, broke fast, and was ready to go. Just to see how close to on-time they would be, I called up Jay and Matt - and woke them up! Not a good start. I can only imagine the frenzy that must have taken place in order to get ready in time for the flight. Fortunately, they did shortly show up at my house in a slightly dishoveled condition. After racing to the airport, we arrived with almost 20 minutes until take-off. Jay drove through the arrival level (we gave him a break - it was way before his waking time), then made another loop of the airport, this time on the departure level. The sign for Hawaiian Airline, which we were to take, could not be located. After a full sweep of the airport, Jay dropped us off in the middle of the airport, and Matt and I went wandering with rather large packs.
As it turns out, Hawaiian does not have a counter at San Francisco International Airport, but boards through the Northwest counter. Unfortunately, nobody bothered to tell us that. We did eventually figure this out, but by the time we got to the counter, they had "closed" booking our flight (less than 10 minutes until air time). Whose idea this silly policy is, I still do not know. Despite threats of being left behind, we made it onto the plane. The down side is that we got middle seats for the flight. If you have never flown true middle before - don't. There are two folks to either side of you, so getting in and out is a hassle (at least one of those people is guaranteed to be asleep on each side when you want to leave). The windows are small specs in the distance, so any thoughts of a view can be left on the ground. To boot, the TV screen was about 10 miles in front of us so it looked about as big as a postage stamp, providing no entertainment. Not to be outdone, the seats themselves managed to prove to be the most uncomfortable airline seats I have ever had the displeasure of using. My back was crying out for mercy by the conclusion of that flight, as was Matt's. Last mistake - I eat vegetarian and seafood only, but forgot to specify that for the flight. The upside is that I didn't have to endure the airline food - and hunger is a small price to pay for that...
We finally landed in Honolulu with a huge sigh of relief. Changing planes for a short flight to Kona, Hawaii, we made it to an earlier flight than planned, stand-by. The seating was pleasant enough (exit row - yes!), and we tasted for the first time the splended pinkish liquid that is served by Hawaiian on all inter-island flights. It was meant to remind us of a tropical fruit juice blend - but was rather tasty sugar water instead. Yum! No Hawaiian flight would be complete without the complementary breath freshener at the end of the flight. This, my friends, was Paradise.
We arrived in Kona just one flight ahead of our luggage. It did eventually materialize, so we rented a Mustang convertable, checked in to our Uncle Billy's Kona Bay Hotel and unpacked. The paradise life had started. We booked our SCUBA trips for the big island for the next two days with EcoAdventures - a nice ship-launched operation for minimal hassle. Then it was on to dinner, and given that it was late, tennis was the chosen activity of the evening. We did find some courts which were close to a well-lit baseball field, but we could not find lights for them. After hitting away in near darkness for about 45 minutes, some kinds came by to play handball-tag using the tennis courts, and they turned on the lights! Being able to see the ball should improve one's game dramatically, but given the lack of skill posessed by yours truly, the nagging cold, and Matt's obvious superiority at the game, I was almost wishing for the dark again. The kids finished their game, and decided to fulfill my wish by turning off the lights when they left - even though we were on the court still playing. After fumbling around for a few minutes, we managed to reproduce their light-creation magic, played out some more rallies, and called it a match.
Playing tennis in a hot and humid environment is rather tiring, and rather than taking a mere shower, we decided to go for an evening swim in the ocean. A beach was found, a frisbee was brought, and the water was used. There was nobody else swimming, and in fact few other folks around at all. This was about the first time we noticed the distinct lack of people, and the complete lack of people remotely our age. Still, the water was refreshing (aka - darn cold to get into), and tossing a frisbee while wading is quite fun!
On the way back to the hotel, we decided to inquire at a place that advertized "volcano information" about where to see lava flows. We did not realize that rather than offering information, the sleazball was really trying to get us to listen to timesharing propoganda and indicated that the only "good" way to see the lava was to book a helicopter tour through him. That waste of time was the first and last sales talk we got stuck in on the islands.
To finish up the night, we went out for karaoke or some other kind of night scene. We again discovered the forementioned lack of people, and further the utter lack of night life in Kona, to our surprise. This was especially surprising since we were afraid to be mobbed by coming during early spring break. Resigning in our quest for night life, we turned in and called it a day.
On the first day in paradise, we allowed ourselved to sleep in late. Actually, we would be so privileged for most of our mornings, but I'm getting ahead of myself. One fact I had not considered in our timing was that the NCAA men's basketball tournament was being played while we were on vacation. I did not know that Matt is a hard-core Stanford basketball fan. I too went to Stanford, and enjoy the sport. So, setting a tone for much of our vacation, we spent the morning watching Stanford win. We would continue to listen to basketball on the radio for most of this and future days as we drove around the islands.
After managing to get out of the hotel, we stopped by the farmer's market to pick up some papaya (the ripe ones were 10 for a dollar, so we got a buck's worth). These papaya would last most of the trip - it takes a while to eat 10 of them! After that, we were overjoyed to discover a 24-hour WalMart and Safeway just up the road from the hotel where we stocked up for the day. As Matt put it upon seeing the 24-hour marts - "This really IS paradise". We have both traveled in Europe and know the true value of finding such places during travel.
We set off to travel around the island, heading south from Kona. The first stop was snorkeling Napoopoo Beach, where we were told that the fish is great, and dolphins frequent the cove. The only explaination we could come up with for this advice is that the locals are suffering heat stroke. It is a large cove, with no coral there, steep banks, and a sand bottom throughout. In the hour we were snorkeling, Matt did not see a single fish, while I managed to catch a distant glimpse of two. Not quite the snorkeling we had in mind - though the water was nice, and it was rather relaxing. But soon we were back on the road - from the ocean up to the top of a large mountain (volcano) and the Volcano National Park.
Volcano National Park's visitor center was our first stop, where we learned all about volcanoes and saw a well done video on what "live" volcanoes are like. They had some scary pictures of molten rock spewing forth, and silly scientists waiting very nearby for a large chunk of magma to be thrown close to them so that they can get it "fresh". I was wondering if they happen to be standing in the wrong place, and get to experience some fresh magma first-hand - OUCH!
With that inspiration, we went off to see some volcanoes on our own. We stopped off for a late lunch at the edge of a large volano crater, looking over what looked like Martian terrain - no plants in sight, rocky terrain everywhere, and many sulfur gas spouts coming out of the ground. Truly a unique lookout for a picnic.
After lunch, it was off to Jaggar's Museum to see how this land was first studied, by whom, and progress that was made in volanology over the years. It was a good exhibit, with the museum perched up high offering splendid vistas.
From the museum, we drove around Crater Rim Drive, which, as one would expect, circumnavigates the crater. It really did feel like we were part of the Pathfinder mission to Mars (the timing was right), especially when we stopped to take a walk in the crater. The sulfur coming out of the ground is a hot gas, which was in contrast to the cool surrounding air at this height. We proved emperically that the gas is too hot to stand over for more than a few seconds.
The walk reinforced our opinion that we had arrived during the low tourist season. The parking lot at the crater's edge was reminiscent of Disneyland in its capacity, and there were about 4 cars parked there. It's rare to see such concrete football fields in touristy areas I would think.
Crater rim drive veered a few feet away from the edge of the crater inland, and the terrain changed very abruptly. From the barren Mars-like rocks, we entered a very dense jungle, complete with birds chirping, other strange noises, humidity, and fog. It was almost unbelievable that these two zones are a hundred yards apart - you simply could not believe that the terrain was so different outside the jungle. The lava created soil must be very fertile.
We parked in the jungle and proceeded to head down Thurston's Lava Tube. This tube formed when lava around it had cooled and solidified, while a tube remained for the hot lava to flow through. It was about 10 feet in diameter, and about 300 yards long, lit with floor lights at regular intervals. It really seemed like an amusement park ride entrance, except longer, less crowded, and much more natural. At the end of the lava tube, there was a way out, and a fence indicating that an undeveloped section lay ahead and to enter at our own risk. I had a small flashlight, so we did.
The second section was not lit, and was much smaller in diameter, so Matt the giant had to be careful not to hit his head on the ceiling (especially since I had the light and did not always point it to where he wanted... :) After just a couple of turns, the darkness was complete, which I confirmed by turning off the light. Proceeding further, this cave wound around for 300 yards. My batteries in the flashlight were running weak, and this was not the place I wanted to be stuck without it. Total darkness and difficult terrain would have meant many bruises and possibly twisted ankles emerging. The only way to know you were getting out would have been to follow a wall with your hand. Fortunately, the light held out long enough, and I managed to gather a small rock from the very end of the tube (it got very narrow in the end, and eventually ended completely in solid rock).
We then drove down the volcano's other side towards the water, and where we had heard there was live lava flow. It was getting on towards dark now, so we had to hurry (while evading the police car that passed by twice). We stopped off at an overlook where the view would have been even more gorgeous than it was if not for the clouds below us. We had read that there were some ancient petroglyphs (rock etchings) worth seeing down there, but time was short and darkness descending. There was a couple that was emerging from the Petroglyph trail when we got there, so through a grilling they releaved that it was about a half hour hike from the road to the Petroglyphs and that it was worth it. Grabbing my wimpy flashlight, we ran for it. The petroglyphs were pretty cool, no doubt much cooler in the daytime when you can see them well without using a flashlight. An added bonus was that we got to see the red glow and smoke coming from the live lava flow, which did not seem too far away. We ran back to the car in darkness and drove on.
A few miles down the road was, quite literally, the end of the road. This road used to go through until a lava flow took out about a 20 mile section of it. There were actually a few folks down here, so we parked and joined them. Hardened lava makes for difficult hiking terrain, especially in the dark, as it's black and very hilly. We hiked out past several "Do not go past this sign" signs to get a better view of the lava flow. As an aside, if you have a "Do not go past this sign" sign, why put another one further on? If the people read the sign, they would have not have made it to the second one; if they ignored it, they will likely do so again. But I digress... We wanted to make it to the edge of the lava flow, but given the condition of my flashlight, the rough terrain, and the fact that it was about 4 miles each way from where we were (small specs of light from flashlights of hikers could be seen in the distance on the mountain), we decided to get on a high perch and enjoy the red glow from afar. This was definitely something that should have been at day time. Next time, we'll know... One perilous step was when I put down the flashlight to take a picture of the lava glow, the flashlight fell into a crack in the lava. This was really bad as getting back in the now complete darkness would have been rather dangerous. Amazingly, I managed to locate the flashlight by feel, sticking a couple of fingers in the 2 inch crack and pulling it out. If it had not gotten caught on the tiny ledge there, I could not have retrieved it.
As it was, we hiked back to the car, drove the 2.5 hours back to Kona, stopped off at Safeway for food (it was late and restaurants were closed), and called it a day.
This was our day of the morning scuba, so we got up at 6:30 and actually made it to the boat with a few minutes to spare before departure. The gear checked out, and we sailed off into the sunrise (well, actually we powered off, and it was already an hour or two past sunrise, but the phrase works!).
Our first stop for scuba diving was at the "Acquarium" - a spot renouned for a multitude of different types of colorful fish. As we were preparing to go, a school of dolphins materialized, and made it clear that they wanted to play. Not being ones to disappoint friendly dolphins, we restarted the boat's engine and proceeded to race the dolphins down the coast line. It was pretty cool laying on one's belly on the boat, sticking your head over water to see the dolphins swimming below you, surfacing to breathe once in a while where you could touch them by simply holding out a hand.
The scuba company we went with had a camera-man from Dolphin Dreams on board to do underwater filming, but he also filmed the dolphin swimming with the boat. I will try to get the video on this web site at some point...
Eventually, we did have to make the dive, so we lead the dolphins to a group that was already making a dive, hoping the dolphins would play with them, and that would fulfill our one good deed for the day requirement. Then, returning to the dive spot at Acquarium, we set off into the water. It was a bad sign that Matt's air tank was leaking through the O-ring, which worried us at the beginning, but the leak was minor, so no Challenger O-ring mishaps took place. The fish were amazingly bright - it really was like swimming in an acquarium! As opposed to Monterey, a spot both of us dived more by feel than by looking through the merk, visibility was excellent. We saw many kinds of fish, a large eel, severl octopi (which we got to play with), and various reef critters.
After lunch, we moved on to the second dive spot near the "Caves". Here the tank worked as required, we saw more octopi, several large sea turtled, more kinds of fish, and got to swim through several caves. Actually, only one was a cave, with the rest being tunnels, but the guides called them caves, and who were we to argue?
The boat brought us back to Kona where we crashed for a little while (remember, we don't get up at 6:30 am very frequently). After showering and a bit of rest, we were feeling more human, and decided to take off for a drive north, up the West Coast of Hawaii. This drive was intended to see Hawaii's pre-western temples built from stacked lava rocks with no mortar - Haieus. We stopped by the first Haieu at right around closing time, but the guide there was still waiting for his ride, so he let us in to look around for ourselves, and gave us a brochure describing this Haieu. For an island with so much lava rock, it must have taken a lot of effort to drag it to this place, where there was no lava, to build this relatively large structure. The island did not have very many people, so it must have been quite an accomplishment for them. On the walk to the Haieu, we saw several whales surfacing nearby - even better when a friendly elderly couple lent us a pair of binoculars for observation.
We continued up the coast towards the next, largest Haieu, which was located a few miles off the main road behind a small air strip. What the map did not indicate was that the side road to the Haieu was barely suitable for a sports utility, and we were going there in a low riding Mustang convertable. With a few ground scrapes, we managed to traverse the miles to the Haieu, and found ourselves to be the only people there (or on the road for that matter). This was a very big site, with several partitioned sections (rooms?) inside what must have been an impressive structure. Some of the locals hold the place sacred, so they weave necklaces from flowers, leaves, and vines, and leave them all over the site. They had to be fresh (not dried up), and there quite a few around.
Near that Haieu was the perported birth stone of King Kamehameha, one of the more celebrated kings of the islands. If I'm not mistaken, he was the first to unify all of the islands under one rule, which entitled him to have a road named after him in the present. I felt sorry for the mother - both because he was reputed to be a rather big guy, and because the birth stone looked a lot less comfortable than, say, a bed.
Looking out over the ocean, we could see Maui, with but a few miles of water separating us from it. The sun was going down, and we got a couple of splendid photo shots (or, as Matt put it, we got "Maui'd"). I also wanted to get a shot of Matt in front of the setting sun on the rocks, with a wave crashing behind him. The waves were crashing hard, but refused to do it for the longest time when I was ready (is the ocean camera shy?). Finally, a huge wave crashed over, and I was extatic with the timing of my picture, only to find out after development that the camera decided to focus somewhere totally random for the shot. Very frustrating...
Evening had settled in by the time we traversed back to the main road. In order not to retrace our steps, we drove inland to Waimea for dinner. Waimea offers some very nice views of the coast from high up, when you can see the lights of the few settlements scattered around against the blackness of night. We ate at a highly rated restaurant called Merriman's in Waimea, and it's stellar reputation was well deserved. This ended up being by far our best meal on the islands.
After such a wonderful meal, what is there to do but head back to Kona, do the perfunctionary visit to Safeway, and crash for the night.
Unlike yesterday, we got to sleep in and made time for a real breakfast. We then saw Hawaii's oldest church, the most interesting feature of it being the huge unreinforced beams of the local hard wood that spanned it. The wood is harder than oak, and they had to work at the pieces for quite a while to chop a large tree into long beams. The wood still looked new.
We desired some hiking, and a fellow in town recommended going up to a horse ranch in the mountains and getting permission there. We drove to the place, finding one horse, 3 dogs, and no people there. The dogs seemed friendly, the horses didn't care, and no people came. So we decided to ignore the "Private - NO TRESPASSING" sign, unlocked the gate, and went on through. The hike was quite nice, and we managed to avoid stepping in horse droppings for most of it. The local flora and fauna was a bit different from what we know in Northern California, but not exceptionally so. When we returned from our hike, there were quite a few more dogs that came running at us from behind a neighbor's fence. The rottweiler and doberman looked particularly menacing, but fortunately they only wanted to compete for petting rights. As with the other natives, they proved to be very friendly.
After the hike we went back to Kona to eat and get ready for our twilight / night dives, which we set off for at 3:30. This was one of the few times we actually saw a woman of about our age not as part of a couple. Of course, Renya (that was her name) was working as our scuba instructor and not just there to enjoy the fish. Oh well.
Our first dive was a twilight dive. You go in while the sun is still up, and stay down through sunset to emerge in darkness from the water. I enjoy twilight dives as you get to see the day critters turn in for the night, and the night critters come out to play. The changing of the guard makes for an interesting dynamic in the coral. We saw several eels and a huge turtle that I wanted to play with, but as I got close it gave me a very mancing look of "I'm tired and going to rest here, so leave me alone you silly scuba diver". There were also several stone fish which hide on the bottom blending in to the terrain, but somehow I managed to actually spot 3 of them. This was also my first encounter with a flat fish - literally a fish about a foot in diameter and half an inch high that lays on the bottom of the sea, burying itself in sand so as to be totally invisible. One of them decided to move, so I got to see this floating disc manuever - pretty cool!
Not nearly cool enough to prepare me for the night Manta Ray dive. For this dive, the photographer entered the water first with very bright lights. The lights attracted plankton, and the mantas which eat the plankton come to the light as they know it will be a good meal. Then they circle above the lights eating plankton. We settled in on the ocean floor and braced against the current watching the mantas swim inches above us. They are huge creatures, and when eating, they open their enormous mouths, which would scary as one is swimming towards you except that you can see the manta ray has no teeth, is collecting plankton, and the whole innards are almost as big as the outside - it's nothing more than a big stomach bag. Holding up our own flashlights we can attract plankton and with luck, the manta's pass right over us (I had quite a few close encounters). After the mantas, we went out to explore the surroundings and see the night critters before emerging from the dive. As opposed to my Great Barrier Reef night dive, this one was reasonably warm (I felt fine in a 3 mm shortie wet suit).
Returning to shore, we freshened up, I had a sashimi dinner (there are no cooking accomodations at the hotel, and I just had to try some of the fresh local fish, so it was sashimi with lemon), and we went off to find some food for Matt. We were also hoping to find a place that was "happening" since it was St. Patrick's Day. The green in our attire went to waste however, as we went to the only bar open late in Kona and had some food - but there was no action to speak of. Giving up on finding night life, we called it a day.
This was our day to transfer from the Big Island of Hawaii to Kauai, and we did not expect to do much else. We checked out, had our last breakfast on the beach, and set off for the airport. The long line at the airport was an unexpected surprise, so we missed our flight to Honolulu (a connection on the way to Lihue, Kauai). Fortunately we were able to make the next flight stand-by.
Upon arrival in Kauai, two things stuck us the most:
Our first destination on Kauai was the Menehune fish pond, which was supposedly built by dwarf-like beings in a night. It was rather disappointing - we couldn't figure out where it was, and when we saw a sign that we were there, the mutual reaction was "this is it?"
We checked in to our hotel where Matt discovered that his backpack was missing. We returned to the airport where, fortunately, the security guard had picked it up. Back at the hotel, we spent 2-3 hours arranging for a kayak rental. This should not have been the case, but we wanted a full day of kayaking, and apparently all the rivers are too short for such an adventure, and the ocean trips are only done as guided tours, which we did not want. We tried to secure ocean kayak for rental only, but failed. So we reserved standard kayaks instead.
In the evening, we managed to play tennis in the court of the neighboring hotel. The court was due to be repaved the next day, so we caught it just in time. Again, Matt procceeded to demonstrate his tennis supriority to me, and I duly bowed.
The guide book recommended a Mexican place nearby for their good food and generous portions. We were hungry after a day of flying and tennis, so we decided to give it a try. It was neither good nor generous. The conclusion drawn was that the guide book was written by a petite woman, and what is a huge portion for her may not seem so for us. So, yes, on the way back we stopped by Safeway (our saviour for food!).
We wanted to go for an ocean swim near our hotel, but the water was too rough and the entry was down a steep rocky grade which we did not want to try in the dark. Fortunately, another neighboring hotel had a lit pool where we went after getting thrown out of our hotel's unlit one. The water was refreshing, and throwing the frisbee back and forth while treading it was rather tiring. We switched sides - one would stand in the shallow end throwing the frisbee to the one treading water in the deep end, and vice versa. This wore us out to the point where we easily fell asleep.
This was the designated day of kayaking, and we started it early at 7 am. Kayaks were quickly rented and we were among the first people at the launching spot on Wailua River. This was the longest river, and we decided to make the most of it by seeing every nook and cranny, paddling to every place that was accessible by kayak.
First, there was a side tributary which had not been disturbed for a while judging by the state of the water (overgrown, sediment on top). We took our kayaks from end to end, past several cows and assumingly a coffee plantation. Back on the main river we had to stay clear of large tourist boats cruising up and down the river twice an hour. There were a few fellow kayakers we passed by, and a powerboat dragging a boogie boarder.
There is a fork in the Wailua river, heading off towards a waterfall one way and the Fern Grotto the other. We decided to try the waterfall first. We took the kayaks as high as they would go in the river (it was white water beyond), tied them up and went hiking towards the waterfall. There were no others making the hike at the exact time, and the trail is not well marked, so we got lost, hiking up a lush hill occupied by a large number of chickens and bugs. Matt had more evidence on his body of the bug infestation than I, but neither of us fared too well. Eventually, we figured out that we were lost, got back to the trail and did find the waterfall.
The fall was great - starting from very high and raining down to a pool at the bottom, amidst very green surroundings. There was about a dozen people admiring the view of the falls, and we joined them, but none were going to the fall itself which entailed swimming through the cold pool of water. I really wanted to go stand in the falling water, so I braved the water and got a nice water massage as a reward. After I came back alive, Matt was assured enough to try it himself. The water was cold, but bareable for the relatively short swim. The hike back to the kayaks was much shorter (without getting lost), and we were on our way again.
Up the other branch of the river, we went to the end and then back tracked to a rope swing. There are two ropes - one somewhat higher than the other - that you can swing out on and jump off into the water. Matt got on the lower rope, and I got on the higher one ready to go. The upper rope is about 15 feet high, and it's not immediately clear how deep the water is, so I was sizing things up when a group of kayakers paddled up and a particularly obnixious woman yelled out "Don't think about it! Just do it!" I had only been there a few seconds, and in a few more, Matt jumped and then I picked my spot and jumped. It was a lot of fun other than the fact that I was whooping on the way down, and the force of entry caught my upper lip and pulled it up vigorously, ripping the little connector in the middle of the upper lip. I consider that a rather unfortunate and improbably diving injury. After Matt and I got back in our kayaks, the woman from the annoying party got on the high rope swing, so we simply had to stick around to see her jump. She must have spent 5 minutes standing there, declaring "Here I go" and the like. Matt echoed her encouragement - "Don't think about it! Just do it!" That did no good. She decided to jump on 3, and had a couple of counts "1..2..", "1..2..". On the third count, Matt helped her out by yelling "3!" after she stalled out once more. In the end, she did jump, and upon emerging said that it was so much fun that she wanted to do it again, but we simply didn't have the time to wait for a repeat performance.
The next stop was a Fern Grotto, which we timed perfectly. We arrived just as a large tourist boat was leaving, and as we were leaving, another boat-load arrived. The Grotto is an almost enclosed natural amphitheatre with good acoustics, and ferns growing everywhere. It was cool enough that we decided to toss a frisbee a few times, admire the views, and head back.
We got back to the head of the river around 3 pm, having covered as much of it as was possible. We had lunch, and decided that in order to keep kayaking for the rest of the day, we had to go to the ocean. There was a sand bar separating the ocean from the river, which we dragged our kayaks over and went into the ocean. The plan was to kayak parallel to the shore for a while, but the waves were pretty large, so we decided to try kayak surfing instead. That turned out to be a lot of fun! We got flipped out a lot, but got better with each wave we rode, picking up technique points. Neither had surfed before, so it was a new experience anticipating the waves, naming the big ones, and enjoying the exhiliration of being moved fast by a force of nature. Matt caught a particularly large wave and rode it for a bit before getting his kayak's nose too low and flipping. It was a great way to end a day of kayaking!
After returning our kayaks we settled in to watch the NCAA tournament, had some dinner, and called it a day.
This was to be our day of rest between the demanding full days of kayaking and hiking. We got our hiking permit for the hike to Kalalau for tommorrow - completing the only "must do" for the day. The activity for the day was to be fishing, so our first adventure was trying to rent fishing gear. Most shops had none, except for one place that had them, but only had one pole in (the others were already rented). We decided to keep looking, but came back to that place. The guy working there offered to go home and get his dad's pole to rent, and we took him up on it. He was slow even for Kauai time, taking well over an hour to get a pole even though he lived all of 15 minutes away. We had plenty of time to get our bait (frozen octopus) and throw a frisbee around. The only thing lacking was a portable radio to listen to the NCAA playoffs while fishing - Matt did eventually find a radio in Hanalei, but all it picked up was static.
Fishing equipment in hand, we set off for a scenic drive up Kauai's coast. The drive offered lots of great scenic views to stop and gawk, and the radio picked up the basketball games through the traffic to entertain us further. One thing that should be made clear about the NCAA tournament - we are both Stanford alumni, and this was the first time in 50 years that Stanford made it to the final four (they were on their winning way there at the time). After rounding the North-East corner of the island, we drove along the north coast, stopping at Princeville to enjoy the view and look over the meticulous golf courses and big resorts for those travelling much more up-scale than us. We then headed up to Hanalei, the land of Puff the Magic Dragon. The view from Hanalei was awesome, but the town itself was a few touristy store fronts along the road - rather unimpressive. Our final desination was Haena, where the road ends. Beyond are sheer cliffs of the Na Pali coast, where we were to do our hike the next day.
Fishing poles in hand, we tried our luck at Ke'e Beach in Haena. Neither of us is a fisherman, and we discovered many things that interfered with fishing on this day. On Ke'e Beach, we first tried an out-of-the-way location over some rocks where it seemed there was a good chance of fish being around. There might have been, but the waves were rather rough as we were on big rocks, and they drove out hooks and weights into the rocks, where they got stuck. Many weights and hooks were lost, so we eventually gave up on this as a fishing location.
Desiring calmer waters, we moved to the calm portion of Ke'e Beach. Casting and retrieving over sand was relatively easy, but we chould see in the water, and there were no fish in the shallow sandy cove. It's okay if you don't catch anything, and we were pretty much resigned to that end, but at least having the remote possibility of some fish being near your bait is needed.
The next attempted fishing spot was Hama Beach, which was rocky yet shallow, allowing us to get into the water where there was potentially some fish. Climbing into the water, I discovered that the rocks present a different problem - they cut up your feet as you try to manuever in the current. I would try not to move, but after reeling in a toss, the bait and hook would frequently get lodged in the rocks on the bottom. Hooks were in short supply, so I couldn't just cut them loose each time, and retrieving the stuck hooks forced me to walk through over the sharp rocks cutting up feet further. Matt had the right idea - going to car to listen to the basketball game instead, and coming out to fish in his water booties. The casting was a lot more difficult here too, as with no cliffs around us, the wind was high and carried the bait where it wanted.
After that disheartening experience, we decided that we wanted to fish from something like a pier. On the drive back we spotted a rocky ledge extending into the water a fair way and decided to try our luck for the last time. It was starting to get dark, so we knew we had only about an hour. We climbed out there with the waves crashing against the rocks we were standing on, and began casting with the wind. Getting wet and just standing there in the wind was pretty cold, even in Hawaii. Some waves were small, while others were obviously put there for the explicit purpose of soaking us from head to toe. As we were about to quit and warm up in the car, a miracle happened. I caught a fish. It was a spiny critter - the closest match is that it's a lion fish. This stunned us both and gave us strength to stay out there for a bit longer. Amazingly, I caught another of the same variety. Matt, alas, did not fare so well... The darkness and cold eventually forced us out, but at least we had 2 fish to show for our day of effort.
In retrospect, twilight was probably the right time for fish to feed, so we were lucky we tried fishing late. After returning our gear, we asked for where we could cook the fish in our hotel, and they could not help us out. So we decided to set the fish free (we kept them alive and reasonably well in a bucket of water) and decided to have a non-home-made dinner. The evening didn't last long as we knew that next day was to be an early one.
This was the day of the infamous hike up the Kalalau trail on the Na Pali coast in the north-west corner of Kauai. Clearly it is futile to describe beauty such as that in words, but I shall give it a try... I hope to get a chance to scan in some of the pictures, but for now this will have to do.
Our adventure started at 5 am. We had to get up that early as we wanted to do the entire trail in one day. Our permit only allowed us to go in 4 miles, but we wanted to do the full 11. It is very difficult terrain, so hiking is slow and dangerous, so we would need every minute of daylight to make it. The plan was to start the hike right around sunrise. On our drive up, we stopped in Hanalei for breakfast, where the "early morning" breakfast place was still closed. Fortunately, we found the proprietor and he was kind enough to sell us a couple of pastries. With that, we went on to Ke'e beach and started our ascent up Kalalu trail.
Not surprisingly, we were the first ones on the trail. This gave us the distinct pleasure of being the ones to clear all the spider webs strung accross the tail by diligent spiders overnight with our faces. While we liked being the solitary trail goers, we celebrated encountering the first party heading the other way (it was about 3 hours into the hike!), as we knew that no more webs would be coming out way.
Kalalau trail winds for 2 miles from Ke'e Beach to Hanakapi'ai Beach, the the delta of the run-off from Hanakapi'ai Falls. It then winds for 4 miles to Hanakoa Valley and Hanakoa Falls. Then there's 5 more miles to Kalalau Valley and finally to Kalalau Beach. Here is a rough map, but we did this in and out in 1 day...
The trail starts out moderately challenging (steep), though we were to discover that this was by far the easiest part. The entire trail is carved into the side of very steep cliffs, so you're spending your time ascending from the beach to the top of a cliff, admiring the view from the top for a few seconds, and then descending into the next valley / beach. Once at the bottom, there was a river to cross and then start on the next up hill. But the views out to the ocean were gorgeous, and as the mountains rolled back as you round each cliff to reveal a valley more beautiful than the last. I was disappointed that we did not spend more time there - next time, I would recommend making reservations to camp there for at least 3 nights and just enjoying the wonderous scenary.
The trail was full of strange and colorful birds, weird trees (some that looked like bean stalks tall enough for Jack to climb to the giant on, others that had a natural mesh canopy above them), large above ground root systems (not sure if the ground was washed away or if they just grew that way), and lots of mountain goats. While I feared for my life much of the time due to the poor footing and the sheerness of the cliffs, the goats seemed to run along 80 degree cliffs with not a care.
Fortunately for us, the weather was overcast, with a bit of drizzle. If it had rained, the footing would have been truly trecherous. If it was sunny, we could not have hiked through the mid-day sun. As it was, conditions were just right for a full-on hike. We walked over the famous red dirt, to magestic waterfalls, and over non-trivial rivers. One of the rivers got the best of me, and after my foot slipped off a rock into the river, I spent many minutes wringing the water out of my socks and shoes (with only moderate success).
We were very close on time as we were going up the trail, if we wanted to stop at the end for lunch and still make it back with some daylight to spare. So about 2/3 of the way towards Kalalau, I went ahead of Matt, determined to make it all the way. There was a fork in the trail at the entrance to Kalalau - left towards the waterfall, right towards the beach. It was not obvious which way to go, so I left a small note for Matt by the sign and went off to the beach. The beach was great - large, soft warm sand, few people, whales swimming off-shore, beautiful green cliffs inland, and a waterfall and sheer cliff at the end of the trail that left no doubt that this was as far as you could go. I had lunch on the beach, threw the frisbee around, and took in the place for about half an hour. Then it was time to head back.
I figured that Matt had turned around earlier fearing insufficient time and that I'd have to catch up. Hurrying back, I saw my note untouched by the fork which confirmed my suspicion, took it down and kept going. However, I did not catch Matt for quite a while, and as I encountered a party going the other way, I asked if they had seen him go by, which they had not. The cliffs at Kalalau are very steep, and the footing rather poor, so I was pretty worried for Matt. I spent most of the trip back wondering if Matt had slipped somewhere on the trail, thinking about how I would go about dealing with the authorities (especially given that our permit did not allow us to wander past 4 miles out), and worrying if he would have enough daylight left to hike out. I didn't know if he had his flashlight. After not catching him after a few hours, I decided (hoped) that he must be behind me. So I left a prominent note on a napkin at Matt's eye level (about 6' up) that I went to the car.
Eventually, I did make it back to Ke'e beach, and rested there on the sand watching the sun go down, relaxing my tingling legs, and waiting and worrying for Matt. After an hour waiting, I was getting more worried, so I grabbed a flashlight and headed up the trail. The trail from Ke'e beach is rather steep up, so it was a challenge after 22 miles. Still, I knew Matt did not have camping gear, so I had hoped he would not stop for the night. I definitely did not want him attempting the rough trail in the dark. Fortunately, less than a mile into the trail I saw Matt coming the other way. He did not see my note at Kalalau, and went left towards the waterfall. Climbing for a while, the trail got harder, and Matt decided that he must have gone the wrong way. He turned around, and headed back to the beach. This must have been at the time I had finished lunch and started on my way back, so we just missed each other.
Everything worked out for the best, we climbed down the trail with a few minutes of dim sky left before darkness and celebrated by rehydrating. Pictures were taken, and a fellow traveler that took our picture was amazed when we told her that we went the whole way in one day, assuming we had just hiked out the 11 miles. When we told her that we did the 22 miles in and out, she said that she simply had not heard of anyone doing that. I'm sure others have, but a little ego boost doesn't hurt now and then... :)
After the hike, we drove back to the hotel, briefly stopping at Waikanaloa cave to take a peek. A filling Mexican food dinner was had, with Mai Tai's (we simply couldn't leave Hawaii without trying Mai Tai's), and that was the day.
More playoffs on Sunday - Stanford is playing for a spot in the round of 8! It happens to be that the game is about the same time as our flight from Kauai to Oahu. We watched the first game in the morning, packed, and set off for the airport. Determined not to miss the flight due to a late arrival this time, we got there early. At the airport, Matt spent most of the time with one ear glued to his pathetic little radio trying to discern commentary of the game over the background noise, mostly in vain. During half-time, we decided to toss the frisbee in the airport, and managed not to hit any planes or people. I consider that quite an accomplishment.
As it turned out, the flight was timed just about perfectly. After enjoying the pink drink for the last time on our flight, we rushed to the nearest television in the airport. We found it, and were rather disappointed to see Stanford behind by 8 points with about a minute to play. No mere words can compare to the elation of watching the last minute of the game in which Stanford instrumented one of the greatest comebacks I have ever seen. Okay, so I exaggerate - but that's the point when your alma mater wins, is it not? In any case, much celebrating was done, and we settled in to wait for our flight home to watch the other playoff game. Not nearly as exciting, of course... :)
That's about it - flew home (window and isle seats this time!), and tried to integrate back into life - back to work on Monday. Sigh. A most excellent adventure!