Kauai, Hawaii

(Read part one in Maui first)

We arrived in Kauai almost at midnight Monday night and were so tired that we just nibbled on store-bought chicken wings straight from the box and shortly thereafter headed to bed. I was completely creeped out having arrived in pitch-blackness and didn’t know what was surrounding us but was pleasantly surprised waking up the next morning to the ocean about 50 yards away from our condo. Being in the north of the island near the Napali Coast, our condo was located on a cliffside with a dramatic drop off down to the water. Again, it just looked like something right out of a postcard. I never wanted to leave.

Our condo was located right next to Hanalei Bay, where the poem/song Puff the Magic Dragon was based on (“in a place called Hanalee”). Of course when a tour guide later pointed out the exact landscape that was meant to be the “dragon” my mom exclaimed, “So they were definitely on something when they wrote that!” Granted, one did have to have a bit of an imagination to see a dragon out of that mountainside.

Our first full day there (Tuesday) we just followed the (very) steep path down to the hidden beach and then drove into Hanalei to check it out. We drove to the end of the road where you can’t go any further because then the national park/Napali coast begins. At the end of the path is Ke’e beach where some famous movie was filmed. We hung out and watched the sunset, which didn’t quite meet my expectations from the ones I had seen in Costa Rica, but was still really awesome.

We decided since we had a kitchen we were not going to pretend to be high rollers like we were in Maui and cooked our dinners at the condo for the most part. Since it was Tuesday, of course I suggested we have Taco Tuesday! It was yum.

Wednesday we drove back to Ke’e beach and headed off on a hike into the national park to a waterfall. Along the way we had awesome views of the Napali Coast ahead of us and the ocean to our right. There were some pretty tricky stream/river crossings that we had to jump from stone to stone to cross and I question how my mom did that when she was 5 months pregnant with me when they did that hike the last time they were in Hawaii. I think we had some sort of grilled fish for dinner that night?

Thursday we drove practically around the entire island, stopping at a beach in the south on the way, to get to Waimea Canyon. Waimea actually isn’t located all that far from Princeville, but due to the Napali Coast, the road doesn’t connect around the entire island. It was a pretty drive, though. Waimea is referred to the Grand Canyon of the pacific, or something like that, and although I have never been to the Grand Canyon, I imagine Waimea looks very similar. The mountainsides dropped of very dramatically with an array of red/brown colored rock into different valleys and forges.

There were a couple different viewing points that we drove to, and the last couple spots offered beautiful views of the Napali Coast loping off down intro the ocean.

Friday we decided to sleep in and just hang out around Hanalei. My mom went off on another snorkeling excursion, while my dad and I rented kayaks and kayaked up and down the river. We met up for lunch and had fish n’ chips (YUM) and then rented a paddleboard in addition to the two kayaks and headed down the river to Hanalei Bay. I had never paddleboarded before but it was pretty simple to pick up, on the calm part at least.

When we got out into the bay, my parents kayaked over to the beach in front of the St. Regis while I attempted paddleboard surfing. It’s actually quite a bit harder than regular surfing in my opinion. Not only do you have a paddle in your hand, making your balance harder to maintain, you also are supposed to paddle while standing straight on, but then switch stances sideways when you catch the wave. I almost fell off (and did once or twice) quite a few times while trying to attempt this and finally caught a mini wave into shore. We just hung out at the beach for a couple hours and then headed back up the river to turn our rentals in. Before heading out though I tried paddleboard surfing one more time, but quickly gave up and I realized I was surrounded by rocks everywhere and didn’t want to have a real-life Blue Crush experience (the movie where she hits her head on the rocks while surfing and almost DIES, yeah that). Once heading back up the river, we saw another sea turtle! It dipped its head in and out of the water a few times. One of the times it came up like 3 feet away from me and made the strangest sputtering sound that I was almost a bit frightened until I turned around and saw it was the turtle.

Saturday morning we took a zodiac boat up and down the Napali Coast. A zodiac boat is basically just a giant inflatable, but much sturdier, raft. We sat along the edges, securing our feet in the rope along the bottom and sitting sideways while holding on the outer rope. It was awesome to get to see the coast from a different angle; when we hiked it we were up on it looking down, but from the boat we got to see the dramatic landscapes rising up out of the ocean as if from nowhere. There were a bunch of cool little caves we dipped in and out of on our way around the coast. We stopped after about an hour and snorkeled a bit. I saw THREE more sea turtles! Woot woot. Although they were a bit harder to see this time since it had rained the day before and the water was a bit murky.

After lunch we headed back to the outpost spot, but this time we were against the wind and wavebreaks. Somehow I ended up at the front of the boat and along with the girl across from me in the front, got sprayed with water everytime we dipped over a wavebreak. It was so much fun, though. We were holding on for dear life, zipping along the coast, getting sometimes 5 feet of air when we went over a wave. They slowed down a bit before we were about to hit a wave and I actually wished they wouldn’t have! We stopped on the outer edge of Hanalei Bay so our guide could point out the dragon and all of a sudden we were surrounded by a pod of dolphins! I’d seen a handful of dolphins before, mainly at the zoo, but never had I seen so MANY! There had to be at least 20. Our guide told us that they were in hunting mode, though so not really in the mode to be playful and ride along with us. I may have been imagining it, but I could have sworn a couple of times they were just skimming below the surface as we continued back.

That night we decided to be fancy and went out to dinner at a place my Google Local app said had great Zagat reviews. Along the way, it was drizzling a bit and we saw a DOUBLE RAINBOW! The main rainbow was so huge and so bright; I’ve never seen one so clearly. It also did a complete half arc and you could see right where it started out of the ground on one side and ended in the ground on the other side. The restaurant we ate at was called Bar Acuda (clever) and I somehow completely missed the part in the reviews about it being a tapas place, at which we were first surprised about, but then decided we liked better since their menu had so many mouth-watering dishes we ordered a bunch of different ones to try.

Yet again we experienced problems with Go! on our way back to Maui the next day. The first thing the guy at the ticket counter says to us is, “just want to let you know, the plane is delayed about 2 hours.” So we said SCREW THAT, especially since that meant if the plane left and the new scheduled time (which we found out later it didn’t – big surprise) we were risking making our connecting flight out of Maui. We headed straight over to Hawaiian Air and rebooked with them. The woman at the ticket counter even told us that this was the 5^th day in a row that Go had canceled and delayed flights. The FAA really needs to shut them down. So think twice before you book on an island hopper. I don’t know about the other ones, but Go definitely sucks.

On our new itinerary we stopped through Honolulu again. On our first flight we were actually booked first class since they were the only seats available, so we enjoyed free drinks. Although in reality since it was such a short flight, we only had time for one drink and I actually had to chug my Heineken at the end to finish it (this was encouraged by the flight attendant).

All-in-all, it was an awesome trip and I definitely recommend going. As we only went to Maui and Kauai, I don’t know what the other islands are like but I LOVED both. If I were to recommend one over the other I would say go to Kauai. It is less developed a bit more “wild” than Maui- less resort-y and more natural beauty (Napali Coast, Waimea Canyon, etc). I would also definitely recommend staying in the North like we did since we were so close to the Napali and the famed Hanalei Bay. Also, in driving around the other parts of the island to get to Waimea, we didn’t think anywhere else was as beautiful as where our condo was.

I look forward to going back!