Kauai The Garden Island

Kauai The Garden Island

Wednesday morning I got up early at 5 to catch my plane to Lihue, Kauai. This is the westmost island, at least the one available to the public. The reason it is called the garden island is that is is by far the greenest island. That of course means that it is often raining here, in fact this island has the wettest spot on earth with 440" (11,18 meters) of rain. The first day it rained pretty hard all day so that day was just spent relaxing at the hostel, planning my trips here and getting to know some people here.

Next day it was time for a long hike 8 miles for the Hanakape'ai beach and falls. Definitely not the easiest hike but it is still quite doable as long as you bring enough water. The scenery is absolutely beautiful and it is probably the best way to see the Nāpapli Coast, unless you take a helicopter ride. Every mile the scenery changed tremendously, and the stone beach with all the stacked rocks seems almost surreal. Going back I reached the beach just in time for the sunset. Which isn't all that spectacular here on Hawaii as there is no dusk and it goes dark immediately.

I got the shuttle back to Hanalei and discovered the busses weren't running anymore due to a local holiday. So I decided that the only alternative was to hitchhike. I had already seen a lot of people doing it here and it's a accepted and safe way to travel on this island. I ended up having to get a ride from three different cars but got back to the hostel in the same time the bus would have taken as I never waited more that 5-6 minutes for a ride.

On friday I got together with Jeff, a guy trying to move to this island. We drove up the Wailua river for a while to a waterfall, then we hiked to the Ho'opi'i falls. Afterwards we drove to Lydgate park, a beach with an enclosement to stop the waves which makes it ideal to go snorkeling, the variety of fish was a bit disappointing compared to Hanauma bay on Oahu though. All in all a relaxing day.

On saturday Jeff and I drove north again, first stopping at a lighthouse. The lighthouse was packed with Northern Gannets. Supposedly there are Albatrosses here as well but unfortunately I haven't seen any yet. From there we headed to Queens bath, here there were at least a dozen turtles and a pool of salt water that is filled at high tide and stays filled at low tide. It was a great place to cool off from the heat of the sun.

Next we visited both Hanalei beach and the caves at the very end of the road, before we finally found what we were looking for: Tunnel beach. This place is famous for great snorkeling and on the beach was an Hawaiian monk seal, an endangered species, just basking in the sun. Once under water the marine life was absolutely stunning. Thousands of fish everywhere and a five meter drop with a reef hanging over it. Absolutely stunning. Both of us were getting cold and the sun was starting to set however so after about an hour we had to get out of the water and back to the hostel. When returning it was time for dinner and some relaxing this evening. I was told there was a Kava bar serving free kave two blocks over and was curious to try it. I hadnt heard about it before but sounded interesting. Kava is a green cold brew made from the roots of a pacific plant and basically tastes like mud. It is supposed to have healing and relaxing properties though so why not try it when I get the opportunity. Though it your senses might not like it, it was kind of relaxing and I got a good nights sleep.

Today I'm headed to Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific.