Jungle Valley Adventure

Jungle Valley Adventure Kapaa, HI

Kapaa, HI

This morning we had a late breakfast at a nearby restaurant called Eggbert’s. I had the banana pancakes, and they were amazing!

This afternoon we went up to Princeville Ranch for a Jungle Valley Adventure. It had a little bit of everything – kayaking, hiking, zip lining, and swimming. Thankfully they had All Terrain Shoes that we could rent, because I forgot my water shoes. And we really needed them because it was definitely a wet tour.

We started off being driven into the ranch, and then we hiked through a cow pasture down to the river where we would be kayaking. It wasn’t really much of a river, it was more like a large stream. But it was very pretty and serene. I’ve only ever done ocean kayaking before, which is very ******* your arms and requires lots of paddling. But the river was very calm, and the paddling was easy. Although we did get our butts wet as soon as we got in the kayaks. I wasn’t expecting that.

After kayaking for about 20 minutes, we then hiked through the jungle, including several stream crossings where we had to wade up to our knees. Thankfully they had ropes across all the streams, because all the traffic made the water muddy and we couldn’t see what we were walking across.

We soon arrived at the top of a ridge with a beautiful view of the jungle valley. And then it was time to zipline! We only did two ziplines, one out across our swimming hole, and one back. I’ve been ziplining twice before, so It wasn’t that incredibly exciting. I didn’t get nervous at all. But it was still fun, and the views from the zipline were great. The best part was the second zipline, where we left the platform by just falling backwards.

We next hiked down to our swimming hole, which was the quintessential pool of water below a waterfall. I’ve never done that before, so I guess I got to cross something else off my bucket list! It wasn’t the biggest waterfall, probably only 12 feet high or so. But it was still a beautiful setting and very fun. They had inner tubes, so we could float easily in the water and get used to the chilly water temperature. That didn’t help Derek, though. When he sat down on his inner tube, he got flipped over and dunked in the water. It was very funny!

The other great thing about the swimming hole was that there was a place you could go cliff jumping into the water. It was only about 10 feet high, but very fun! I’d done something similar before, although it was jumping from a rock on a river. So again, I wasn’t scared at all and jumped right in!

We also swam right up underneath the waterfall, although it was hard to stay there because the water kept pushing us away.

Just as we’d had enough of swimming, our guides (Leo and Justin) had our picnic lunch ready for us. We each got a pita to make a sandwich with, and a cookie. That was plenty for me after our big breakfast this morning. There was actually a feral cat there and apparently it’s his home. Probably because all the tourists feed him turkey.

We were soon headed on our way back through the jungle, and it was much better on the return trip. Everyone else had taken forever getting ready to leave, so we were by ourselves, following Leo back to our kayaks. And the return kayak trip was better too. We were very leisurely, mostly just floating down the river and enjoying the scenery.

All too soon we were back and walking up through the cow pasture. Our guides pointed out some natural raspberries called thimble berries, and everyone picked some to eat. I tried one, but wasn’t impressed.

After we got home, we had another late dinner. For appetizers we had fresh cut pineapple. We had bought one at the store, and the condo had this neat gadget that both cored and sliced the pineapple at the same time. It was delicious! And for our main course we had pizza casserole.

After dinner we watched a little more Doc Martin and then went to bed.

Tour de Kauai

Tour de Kauai Kapaa, HI

Kapaa, HI

This morning we went on a bike ride along the eastern coast of Kauai. It was only 10 miles round trip, but it’s the longest bike trail on the island. And it was awesome, with views of the ocean almost the entire time.

The bike trail actually started just north of where we were staying. And there was a bike rental place conveniently right there. So we walked to it and then headed north along the coast.

The first half of the ride was close to the highway and civilization, but the second half went away from the highway, to go out and around a couple headlands. There were some gorgeous views and we stopped quite a few times.

By the time we got to the end of the bike trail, it had taken us almost two hours to go five miles. But the return trip was much quicker. We had the wind at our back, so we could use a higher gear and go much faster. Plus, we didn’t stop at all. So it only took about 30 minutes.

After returning our bikes, we headed back to the condo for a late lunch. And then we spent the rest of the afternoon at the condo’s swimming pool. It’s an amazing pool, with most of it almost a river surrounded by tropical plants and waterfalls. One of the waterfalls even had a cave behind it. There were also a couple of waterslides, which we tried out. But after my aqua-adventure at Atlantis in December, they weren’t very exciting.

The pool water wasn’t really that warm, and there was a constant breeze, as always. So we actually went to one of the hot tubs and stayed there for quite a while. It felt really good. And it took a long time, but we did finally start to get too warm. So we went to lay out on the grass, to try and dry off and warm up. Unfortunately the sun was going in and out of clouds, and the breeze made things pretty chilly. So we didn’t stay too long.

But the other cool thing about the pool area, was that there was a bar and restaurant at the end by the ocean. And by the time we were done swimming, it was happy hour! So we went and had a couple beers while enjoying the ocean views.

We had a late supper of chicken fettucini, courtesy of Costco. Then we watched a video my brother had made of our last trip to Hawaii, seven years ago.I don’t think any of us had watched it since then, so it was pretty fun.

Then we thought about watching a DVD from the collection in the condo. But there was literally nothing good to watch, except a few Harry Potter movies. And we’d already seen those. Thankfully my Dad had brought some DVDs of Doc Martin, a BBC series about a cranky doctor in England and the funny residents in his town. So we watched a couple of those before going to bed.

Bucket List Day

Bucket List Day Kapaa, HI

Kapaa, HI

This morning we relaxed at the condo, but this afternoon I got to cross something off my bucket list. I went for my first helicopter ride! And it was amazing! We basically flew all the way around the island of Kauai, much of which you can’t see by road.

The pictures do not do the helicopter ride justice, the views were incredible throughout. But there were a few things that surprised me. The first is how smooth the ride was. Whenever I’ve seen helicopters on TV or in movies, you always see how windy it is. And we did go in a copter without windows! So I was kind of expecting the ride to be bumpy. But it wasn’t at all. It was hard to tell we were even flying. Even when the wind did blow us around a little, it wasn’t bumpy like in airplanes, we just gently moved around a bit.

Another surprise was how calm I was throughout the trip. I was a bit nervous right before we took off. But as soon as we were in the air, I was completely calm. Of course, I was in the front, middle seat. Maybe if I’d been in one of the side seats, and been able to look straight down, I would have felt more of an adrenaline rush. Or maybe I was just too amazed by the views to feel anything but awe.

Also surprising was how many canyons we flew into. I guess I was expecting to just fly over everything. But there were quite a few times when we flew directly in, and down through canyons. It was very, very cool. There was also one valley near the end of the trip where we started out flying high over the valley, then circled down to see a waterfall up close, and then continued up the valley, close to the valley floor. I felt like I was in a movie.

The only bad thing about the helicopter was that the trip went way too quickly, and we were back all too soon. It was hard to remember everything we’d seen. Thank goodness for cameras! I had given my camera to my Dad, who’d be able to take better pictures out the side. And in the 60 minute trip, he took 94 pictures!

So in the evening we went to a Luau at Smith’s Tropical Paradise. We were all very excited, because it was one of our favorite memories from our previous trip to Hawaii. And this luau started off very well. It was located at a garden, so the setting was gorgeous. We arrived at 5 pm, got inside without a wait, and took a short tram ride through the gardens. Then we had awhile to just walk around by ourselves.

At 6 pm, they had the Imu ceremony, to take the roasted pig out of the pit, and everyone had great views. Then it was off for the start of free drinks! And that made it easier to sit and wait at our table. The food was served in a big house, but the sides were open to the outside. So we sat near the outside, with good views of the garden.

There was also entertainment while we were eating. Our table was also close to the stage, where three musicians performed Hawaiian music. And it wasn’t too long before we were called up to get our food. It was buffet style, but the lines moved very smoothly.

So here’s where the Luau did not meet my expectations. The food was really not that great. And they barely had any desserts. When I went back for seconds, I actually got a salad because there wasn’t much I wanted to have more of.

The other thing that was disappointing was the entertainment. Although, again, the setting was gorgeous. The stage was in the middle of a pond, with a volcano/waterfall in the background. So very theatrical. And they did have the standard cool native dances (Tahitian, Filipino, Samoan, and a fire dancer). But there were too many slow, boring hula dances in between the cool stuff.

By the time we got back from the Luau it was almost 10 pm, so we didn’t stay up too much longer.

North Shore Excursion

North Shore Excursion Kapaa, HI

Kapaa, HI

So we are staying on the windward (east) side of Kauai until Sunday, at a condominium beach resort. The island only has one road around the perimeter, and unfortunately does not connect all the way around. So we are staying on the windward side for half the trip, and the leeward (west) side the second half.

The area without a road is at the Napali Coast, on the northwest side of the island. So today we went to explore the north shore of the island, over to the Napali Coast.

We spent the morning at the Kilauea Lighthouse, which is on a peninsula that is the northenmost point of the main Hawaiian Islands. It was a beautiful setting with lots of beautiful birds, and we spent much time strolling around and watching them. I also got a chance to test out the 42X zoom of my new camera, and it is awesome! I got lots of great pictures of birds.

We spent the afternoon at the Napali Coast. We started off hiking the Kalalau Trail, which goes for 11 miles along the shoreline. We were only planning to go 2 miles to the first beach. It was a lot of up, and I haven’t exercised much lately, so I was pleasantly surprised when I did pretty well. And there were some very cool views.

But after going up and up and up for almost a mile, I realized that I didn’t want to go all the way back down to a beach and have to go up again on the way back. I’m recovering from mono, so I didn’t think it wise to tire myself out too much. So I turned around and headed back, while everyone else went on a bit further.

When I got back to the trailhead, there was conveniently a beach right there to relax at. So I took a stroll down the beach, and then found a nice place to just sit and relax. And it turns out beaches are good places to do that! Even though I didn’t have a towel, and so just sat on a log the whole time.

But there was lots of entertainment at the beach. There were chickens running around everywhere, even some with little baby chicks (they are wild, and common on Kauai). I also got to see someone rescued by a lifeguard. There were some people on boogie boards that had gone out too far, and on the left side of the beach (there had been a sign saying that side had a bad current). The lifeguards had a megaphone and told the people to come back to shore, but one didn’t. So the lifeguard got on his surfboard, paddled out to the woman, and then towed her back to shore.

After I’d been there about a half hour, I suddenly noticed that there was a seal laying on the beach. And I’m pretty sure it had been there the whole time, I just hadn’t noticed it for some reason. Even though there were caution signs stuck in the sand around him, to make sure people didn’t go too close. So of course I had to go see him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a seal on a beach before.

By the time everyone else got back and we headed back to the condo, it was almost 5 pm. And it took about an hour to get back. The first 10 miles was a narrow road, with several one lane bridges. The speed limit was 15 – 25 mph that whole stretch. So that took a while. But the rest of the road was much better.

We had dinner in the condo tonight – taco salad on the lanai. The rest of the night we just took showers and worked on blogs.

No More Rum.

No More Rum. Lihue, HI

Lihue, HI

I actually wasn’t going to write a blog entry for today. All I did was go to work, fly to Hawaii, get there after dark, and go to sleep.

However, there was something memorable about the flight on Alaska airlines. They had three drink services, and had a special Passion, Orange, and Guava fruit punch that is only for flights to Hawaii. It was delicious, but that’s not what made the flight really memorable. That would be the free Mai Tai’s we got right before we landed. Normally, free alcohol is good. But in this case, all it did was remind me of a particular night last December on my last trip. It was a Caribbean cruise and I’d had a little too much rum punch that made me feel not so well. And the Mai Tai tasted so much like that rum punch that it made me sick to my stomach. So I don’t think I want to have any more rum for a while!