Hawaii Diary: Double Feature

This post will combine Friday and Saturday on Kauai, so then I can say I'm finally done. Yay!

Photo: Fire Horse Leo

Friday

Friday morning we went to Tunnels Beach to do some more snorkeling. The beach is a snorkeler's paradise, known for its varied and well-protected reefs that run right up to the edge of the shore. The scenery is fantastic and the underwater landscape didn't disappoint. I spent over two straight hours face down in the water, managing only a mild sunburn. In addition to scores and scores of colorful reef fish, I believe I saw a barracuda, although it was not very large.

In the afternoon we went back to Limahuli Garden, which is one of several gardens and preserves in Hawaii operated by the National Tropical Botanical Garden. The organization is dedicated to preserving rare and endangered plants on the islands, as well as the historical sites where they are located. The Limahuli Preserve area is believed to be one of the earliest settlements by the Polynesians on Kauai, with some terrace walls dated to at least 700 years ago. The Garden features a self-guided tour with a very informative booklet, and winds through the historical taro terraces used in ancient times, a "plantation-era" garden with plants introduced in the last 250 years, a native forest, and a landscaped area with views up and down the valley. By the time we arrived, the afternoon had turned very gloomy. We managed to get through most of the tour before it started raining, but the light was very annoying for photography.

We then stalled for a while in Hanalei Town, doing a little shopping and grabbing a beer while watching the Red Sox lose in the ALDS. We had reservations for the Mediterranean Gourmet at the Hanalei Colony Resort, and were hoping it would clear up in time for some good sunset views during dinner. Didn't happen. The meal was pretty good but certainly not in the same league as Merriman's, and we felt we liked the Lighthouse Bistro (Sunday night) better, even though Frommer's gave the Lighthouse Bistro one star to the Mediterranean's two. Different tastes, I guess.

Saturday

We had to be out of our condo by 10AM, but our flight didn't leave until 9PM. There is basically no way to get back to the East Coast without taking one red-eye flight, so we decided we may as well do it on Saturday night and get the extra day in Hawaii. We wanted to play some golf on our vacation.

Golf is known for being an expensive sport, and resort golf even more so. There are only a handful of courses on Kaua`i, and several were closed for renovation when we were there, so the top ones that were still open were asking for almost $200 per round in the mornings and $125 in the afternoons. Throw in $50 for club rental (surely not a coincidence that this is also the round-trip cost for your extra bag on the plane), and you are talking some serious green. Not the putting kind.

The Princeville Golf Club, just down the road from our condo, is known for being a world-class design, but comments on the web made it sound like it was in terrible condition (for the price), insanely hard for mid-to-high handicappers and nearly impossible for amateur women (due to long tee shots), so we looked for alternatives. The Poipu Bay Golf Course has a similar pedigree (even hosting an off-season PGA event for many years, until Tiger won it four or five years in a row, and presumably made off with all the island's women), and was purportedly much more playable, so we thought we'd go there instead. Problem: it's back in Poipu, on the other side of the island. Our clever plan was to play on Saturday before we left, since the airport is down that way anyways. We are so smrt!

This plan backfired and so the day was almost a total bust.

On our way to the course, it started pouring rain again, and on top of that (or because of that) the traffic was awful awful awful, taking at least 30 minutes longer than expected to get 2/3 of the way there. We had a 12:30 tee time, and it was already 11:30 when we had about 15 minutes left to our destination, and we had to sign in, get clubs, and hope it's not raining in Poipu. We decided, sadly, that this had too good a chance to be a bad way to spend $350, and called to cancel the tee time. No problem for them, but no golf for us.

We ended up in Poipu anyways because Edith really REALLY wanted to try a Puka Dog, which is much tastier than it sounds. Remember that Puka means "hole" in Hawaiian, so it's basically a giant hot dog stuffed inside a bun via a hole in the end, along with some tasty sauce of your choice. There was also a big craft fair going on in town that afternoon, so we picked up a few Christmas presents, but we still had 6 or 7 hours to burn before we had to get to the airport.

Next stop: The Kauai Museum in Lihue, which was interesting enough to pass the time (I like museums, I read EVERYTHING, much to my family's chagrin) but not very large. There were two rotating exhibits, one on life during WWII for the Japanese-Americans on the island, and one on the history of Kauai's sugar plantations. They also had some permanent exhibits featuring local art, textiles, and ancient hawaiian artifacts, and other miscellany. In the OTHER BUILDING, which did not become evident to us until 30 minutes before they closed (at 4PM), was a substantial exhibit on the geography, natural and political history of the island. We only got to run through this room before they kicked us out. Boo!

Now with a little over 3.5 hours left to kill, we went back to the beach in Wailua and watched some kids play in the surf for a while. Then we saw something nearby on the map labeled "Keahua Arboretum" and drove up there. We got to what looked like the entrance, but a stream crossing was flooding the road, so we had to stop there. It started raining again and we finally just gave up and went to the bar for dinner. It was packed with University of Hawaii fans, watching the Warriors get trounced by Fresno State in a football game.

So, Saturday was kind of a failure, but at least our plane trip back was completely uneventful. We had a wonderful time and would desperately like to go back sometime, maybe staying in Poipu instead, and maybe with the grandparents so we can get some free babysitting. :) And play some golf with Grandpa Fisk.

Hawaii Diary: Tubing the Ditch

Photo: Hawai`i Magazine

I neglected to mention that on Monday, we sat through the morning group "orientation" at the condo complex, the purpose of which was to have the Activities SaleswomanDirector set us up on one or more island activities or tours. They did have a wide range of stuff available to meet all ages and tastes, from the "Kauai Movie Set Locations Tour" to the Lihue Community Theater's (or similar) presentation of South Pacific to Luaus to scuba lessons and boat tours. Everything also seemed more expensive than it should have been, except for the helicopter tour they were flogging which was ridiculously overpriced. ($250 a person? Really? Yeah it leaves from nearby Princeville instead of Lihue, almost an hour away, but still. We later saw someone in a shopping center kiosk offering one from Lihue for $109.)

We knew we were planning to hike on the Na Pali coast later in the week, but everyone said to take a boat or helicopter ride as well, so we tried to get onto a boat tour. Unfortunately, none of the boat operators had any interest in taking a pregnant woman, so we decided to try something else that sounded unique and wasn't too expensive: Tubing the Ditch.

For most of the 20th century, Kaua`i's biggest industry was sugar farming, with plantations covering vast swaths of the lowlands on the island. Many plantations dug irrigation ditches to route water coming off Mount Wai`ale`ale (the wettest spot on earth) to their farmlands. The last sugar plantation closed down in the early 2000s, but many of the ditches remained. One company, Kauai Backcountry Adventures, provides a tubing adventure down one stretch of the canal on Lihue Plantation.

Our adventure was booked for Thursday afternoon, so after snorkeling at `Anini Beach in the morning, we drove down to Hanama`ulu (near the Lihue airport), to the KBA headquarters. After signing some waivers and picking up some gloves and helmet/headlamps, we climbed into some WWII-era all-terrain Pinzgauer personnel carriers for the trek to the canal. Along the way, the friendly tour guides explained the history of the local plantations and how this plantation was now owned by Steve Case of AOL fame, a Hawaii native and the island's largest landowner. We also stopped at a photo op overlooking Wai`ale`ale Crater, but I didn't bring my camera since I didn't know whether or how I would store it while tubing.

After the 15 or 20 minute drive, we finally got to the tube launch. The canal water was chilly ("refreshing") but we got used to it in a few minutes. The water meanders slowly for several miles, through the hand-dug ditch surrounded by beautiful forests. Along the way, the canal passes through five tunnels (also dug by hand), thus the need for helmets and lights. We actually spent more time in the tunnels than outside! In the last tunnel, the guides asked people to turn off all their lights so that they can tell some ghost stories. After the tubing trip was (too quickly) over, we were brought to a swimming hole for a picnic lunch. A few people went swimming (on our day the swimming hole water was unusually clean, based on what I've read in other Internet reviews), but most people just ate and chatted with the other tubers. Finally we piled back in the Pinzgauers for the trip back to HQ.

This was a really fun experience, the only problem (if it really is one) was that the actual tubing is only about an hour long, and passes too quickly. A guide said they were working on trying to find a way to extend it, but further tunnels were too small and it would take a while. Regardless, we recommend the trip for anyone who wants to do something relaxing and different on one afternoon.

Hawaii Diary: Kalalau Trail

Yes, I am still working on this project.

Wednesday was going to be an "off day", but it was the first day in a week that didn't have any rain in the forecast, so we decided to change our plans and hike the Kalalau Trail and Hanakapi`ai Falls.

The Kalalau Trail is a hiking trail that hugs the cliffs of the Na Pali Coastline, typically a couple hundred feet above sea level (when not crossing a stream or something). It runs from Ke`e Beach park at the north "end of the road" and runs southwest for 11 miles to Kalalau Beach, which we saw from above on the previous day. The state of Hawaii requires that you get a permit to go past Hanakapi`ai Beach (mile 2 of 11), both to prevent overuse and to have an idea of who is on the rugged and remote trail in the event of some kind of emergency. We were just on a day hike to Hanakapi`ai Falls, so this was no problem.

The first two miles are heavily used by all kinds of hikers, from flip-flop wearing beach visitors, to day hikers, to overnight campers. We saw dozens and dozens of people trying to pick their way along the very muddy trail either in pretty inappropriate footwear, or trying to keep their formerly white sneakers from getting too messy. It was worth dragging our hiking boots from home just for this trail.

Hanakapi`ai Beach, nestled between two cliffs at the mouth of Hanakapi`ai Stream, is a beautiful rest stop at about mile 2 of the Kalalau Trail. In the winter the beach is mostly gone due to heavy wave action, but in October, it was wide and sandy. We stopped here for lunch and took some pictures. We then ventured another two miles inland, up Hanakapi`ai Stream, to reach Hanakapi`ai Falls. The path was surrounded by guava trees for most of the length, and many of the trees had dropped a prolific bounty of fruit -- meaning the whole trip reeked of fermented guava. While this actually sounds kind of interesting to me, the smell can be kind of overwhelming, especially if you have a hypersensitive pregnancy nose. Or so I'm told.

Hanakapi`ai Falls, er, falls over 120 feet[1] into a large pool amid a lush green amphitheater. The weather had been pretty much perfect all day, but when we got to the falls, it was cloudy and started sprinkling. We watched a few groups of people swim around the pool before heading back.

On the return trip we took note of some evidence of when the valley was settled by natives. Aside from the guava trees which were introduced, there were several stands of bamboo along the trail, and unfortunately many hikers had scribed their initials or other graffiti into the stems. We did see some dated from the early 90s. There was also the remnants of an old coffee operation, including an old coffee pulping machine that is used to remove the outer casings from the coffee cherries.

The rest of the return trip was uneventful, although it was hot and we sort of ran out of water on the last 2-mile leg. The hike is highly recommended -- just bring your boots. Our car was rudely parked in at the Ke`e beach overflow parking lot, but we managed to get it out with some careful maneuvering. Rumor also has it that breakins are frequent in this lot, but we had no problem.

Dinner was homemade BBQ chicken breasts at the condo. We didn't go out every night.

Lots more pictures here.

[1] "over 120 feet" == Technically correct, the best kind of correct. My detailed map/guide of northwestern Kaua`i says 120 feet. Other Internet "sources" say 300 feet or more. It seemed higher than 120 feet to me.