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Today, I was allowed to sleep until just after 7. At this rate, Sabrina should be adjusted to this time zone just in time for us to return home.
While I tried to figure out why I was awake so early, Sabrina went across the street to the bakery again to get coffee and something for us to eat. While there, she also picked up sandwiches for our lunch later in the day.
After a leisurely breakfast on the balcony, we packed up the car and drove about a mile to the kayak rental location. Once we signed the waiver (which had a tagline on the bottom "If you don't have to sign a waiver, it's not worth doing") and picked up the dry bag and cooler, an employee helped us load a tandem kayak onto the roof of our Mazda 6 rental. For some sort of permit/liability reason, only guided tours are permitted to leave from the marina where the kayak rentals are; self-guided rentals have to car-transport the kayak across the river to the public boat launch.
As soon as we managed to outfit the kayak for our adventure, we hit the water and began a 2- or 3-mile cruise up the Wailua river, headed to the trailhead that would take us to the Secret Falls.
The views along the river route were definitely worth the trouble.
It was pretty obvious when we had found the trailhead, as there were about 15 other kayaks tied up.
I thought the several-miles-of-kayaking was going to be the difficult part, as the woman at the rental desk mentioned the hike to the waterfall rather casually. I think she said it was "about a mile", which agreed with what we had read elsewhere.
It turned out to be quite a walking excursion, including river crossing, muddy and rocky terrain, fields of 8-foot-tall vegetation, and more than a few moments of "...is this the right way?"
When we finally reached the falls, we had a lovely picnic lunch (that we had hauled all the way up from the river). There were, of course, chickens present.
After eating, we went for a brief and refreshing swim in the pool at the base of the falls.
Once we had had a chance to recover from our hike, we commenced with the return trip, knowing that we still had at least an hour of kayaking to get back to the boat launch.
But first, we took a detour up the south fork of the river to the so-called "swimming hole", where I joined some of the other tourists jumping off of a small cliff into the river.
It was 2:25 PM when we left the swimming hole, and about 3:40 PM when we made it back to the boat ramp. It was supposed to be a relaxing paddle down-river, except that this time the wind betrayed us for most of the distance.
We loaded the kayak on top of the car for its second single-mile portage of the day, returned the kayak and its accoutrement, and headed up the coast in search of a cocktail.
We settled on Oasis on the Beach, a resort-connected bar/restaurant just a few miles north of where we're staying, overlooking the beach somewhere between Wailua and Waipouli, for a drink and an appetizer. They make a very tasty Mai Tai, if you're ever in the area.
Once happy hour ended, we continued up the coast in search of more-substantial sustenance. We decided to embrace our inner tourist and dined at the Beachwalk Restaurant and Grill (now Sam's Ocean View Restaurant, apparently), also overlooking the beach. Technically a different beach, by name, but really the same very-long beach probably.
Tomorrow morning, we're planning to drive up to the top of Waimea Canyon, and take an afternoon/sunset boat cruise along the Na Pali coast. Stay tuned.
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