Hawaii II - Day 4

Day 4: The West
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Oh what a glorious day, to be able to sleep until almost 8 AM.

Today's plan was to see The West, from the top and from the water. Meaning, drive up to the top of the Waimea Canyon ridge road, and then take a boat tour up the coast in the afternoon.

We set forth prior to 9 AM, and drove west towards Waimea. It was about 45 minutes from Wailua Bay View.



We stopped for breakfast along the way, at some hippie cafe outside of Hanapepe (possibly in Eleele, which is so unremarkable I'm not even linking to its Wikipedia page).

Lacking a compelling reason to actually stop in Waimea, we cruised on through and began the climb up Rt 550, AKA Waimea Canyon Drive, stopping at the first few... let's call them "pull-over spots"... for some initial impressions.



At some point, we encountered a scene on the side of the road that seemed more appropriate for the surface of Mars than a tropical island. It's helpful to keep in mind that the highest-elevation swamp in the world is here, or so one of the signs claimed.





The canyon rim road got quite sporty in a few locations, much to the delight of my passenger (sarcasm).



I'm not sure which she preferred less, the way up or the way down. But I'm getting ahead of myself, so to speak...



Anyway, we stopped at all of the official lookout points, and took in some truly breathtaking views of the canyon. There were helicopter tours, barely discernible in the distance, flying through the canyon.



After the last canyon lookout, we continued up the ever-narrowing rim road to the lookouts that face the other direction, overlooking the Na Pali Coast. You might recognize it from scene approaching the island in Jurassic Park, if you can visualize a movie from 20 years ago.



The highest of the lookouts was almost exactly a mile above sea level. It was actually quite cool, weather-wise, aside from the searing heat of the sun. The peak in the middle of the park (Waiʻaleʻale) is allegedly one of the wettest places on earth, ranked by average annual rainfall amount.



On the drive back down, we took the other route (Kokee Rd?), which afforded some slightly different views, including a slightly hazy look at the island of Niihau, just off the coast of Kauai.



Upon returning to Waimea, and again finding no good reason to linger, we decided (mostly at my insistence) to finish the drive to the western end of the road. It seemed like a good symmetry to the drive out to Kee Beach a few days ago. At the end of the "official" road, we were dissuaded from reaching the real end of the road by an ominous sign and a vague memory of the intersection of "dirt road" and "violate rental agreement".



As it was not about 1:15, and we had a 3 PM appointment in Port Allen, we turned around and started the trip back towards Hanapepe. Having not really eaten lunch, we stopped for ice cream and tacos. In that order. They happened to be adjacent, which was super-convenient.



After sating our appetites, we had just enough time to return to Eleele/Hanapepe, literally across the street from where we had breakfast, and enjoy a quick jaunt across the Swinging Bridge, which is almost a bridge to nowhere. Or perhaps just a bridge to the levee on the other side of the river, AKA some peoples' backyards.



By now, it was almost 2:30, so we headed down to Port Allen to check in with our boat tour situation. The sunset/dinner Na Pali coast tour left around 3:30, on a 65' dual-engine catamaran. With a bar. Sabrina picked it, I swear.

The ride out to the Na Pali coast was quite rough, and many of us got quite wet. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening admiring the same landscapes that we had seen from above, earlier in the day. (I took the time to rotate/level most of these photos, but then managed to export/upload the originals anyway. If you want a version of any of these where the horizon is level, let me know and I'll send it your way.)



The excellent captain even managed to nudge the boat partially into some of the larger sea caves. Also there were giant fish, some dolphins, a few wild goats, and an unconfirmed sighting of a manta ray. Getting a picture of a dolphin jumping out of the water turns out to be quite difficult, but if you zoom in and look on the right side of this last one, it's there.



Eventually, we had to head back to port. But we got dinner on the way back, and it was a much smoother ride as it was now with the current/waves/wind.



As the sun slowly set, we returned to port, disembarked, and returned to the condo. Tomorrow is a bit of a wildcard, and then we fly back to Oahu tomorrow night.

Hawaii II - Day 3

Day 3: Wailua River
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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.