We left Maui the day after the wedding and flew to Kauai. We visited Kauai and Maui back in 2010, and we fell in love with Kauai. It is very remote, not quite as touristy as Maui, with tons of amazing sites, waterfalls galore, breath-taking canyons, incredible hiking, Napali coast, beautiful beaches, the most delicious ahi poke, farmers markets every day of the week in every area of the island, etc. We decided we would go back again and try to do a few things that we didn't get to during the last trip. And we definitely wanted to hike part of the Kalalau trail again which runs along the Napali coast.
Here are a few pictures from our week in Kauai...
Wiamea Canyon
We drove up to the top of the Wiamea Canyon hoping to do some hiking around the canyon, but it rained the entire afternoon, so we drove around and stopped at all the lookouts.
Lunch at Shrimp Station near Wiamea on the West Coast (our favorite restaurant in Kauai)
Kauai Coffee Company
uThese are just a few of the coffee fields owned by the Kauai Coffee Company. This is the largest coffee estate in the US (3,100 acres) and yields more than 50% of Hawaii's total annual coffee crop.
uThese are just a few of the coffee fields owned by the Kauai Coffee Company. This is the largest coffee estate in the US (3,100 acres) and yields more than 50% of Hawaii's total annual coffee crop.
Ha'ena State Park
The waves were huge as they tend to be on the North Shore in the winter. We saw a couple of guys on boogie boards, but very few people swimming in the water.
This is the view looking south from Anini Beach (North Shore area). In the far distance, you can see the Kilauea Lighthouse (looks like a little white speck).
Kayaking down the Wialua River
Kayak parking at the trailhead to the Secret Falls, a kayak traffic jam!
River crossing on the hike to Secret Falls. That's our awesome guide, Justin.
Gene and Kat mid-river crossing on the hike to Secret Falls
Secret Falls - 120 ft drop. And we got to swim in the pool below the falls.
Kat and Gene at the trailhead
This is a shot of the Napali coast on the north end of Kauai as we were heading west on the Kalalau trail.
Gene adding to the stone pyraminds on Hanakapi'ai Beach
(about 2 miles in from the trailhead)
View of Ke'e Beach from the trail as we were heading back to the trailhead
Gene admiring the Ke'e Beach lifeguard tower - brings back scary memories for him from our first trip! You'll have to ask him to tell you the story if you haven't heard it!
After our hike, we stopped at our favorite farmers market on the island in Waipa. Unfortunately, lychee (our favorite Hawaiian fruit) was not in season, so we bought longkong which we were told is similar to lychee. So good! And we managed to smuggle a few of the seeds back with us so we may try to grow our own tree :)
We stopped for lunch at Tahiti Nui which is a famous restaurant in Hanalei Bay and a popular hangout for celebrities, recently visited by George Clooney, Pierce Brosnan, Jennifer Aniston. We didn't see any celebrities while we were there (but we did see Hale Berry on our flight from LA to Maui).
The next day, we headed to the South shore of Kauai for some beach time. The south shore has the calmest seas on the island in the winter, so it's much more suitable for swimming. This is Poipu Beach on our way to Shipwreck Beach where we chilled on the beach and watched the whales in the distance.
Huge fields of wild flowers on the way to Shipwreck Beach
We had a beach BBQ later that evening on Lydgate Beach, complete with a massive beach fire. Kauai is the only island where beach fires are allowed, and actually encouraged. It rains in Kauai more than any other place in the world - called "the wettest place on earth", they receive avg 472 inches of rain a year.
Gene asked the butcher at the grocery store to cut him a rib-eye, and here's what he ended up with... the thickest steak I've ever seen! The butcher said the last time he's cut a steak that big was when Terry Bradshaw came into the store asking him to cut a rib-eye. And yes, Gene ate the entire steak that night... and he was in a food coma for the next 3 days!
There was a ton of driftwood on the beach from the flooding and heavy rains from the week before, so it was very easy to build a big fire. We counted 6 other groups with big fires along the beach that night - competition!
We went to Wailua Falls on our last day. There's a trail that leads down to the bottom of the falls but they discourage people from going down it since it's really steep and dangerous after heavy rain with flash flooding. So despite the railing blocking off the trail and the Danger signs, we decided to go for it anyways - and it was actually really easy, nothing seems steep to us after hiking Petit Piton in St. Lucia.
This is Wailua Falls from the top of the trail
Wailua Falls from the bottom of the trail, where we can swim in the pool at the bottom of the falls
Later in the afternoon, we drover to the port in Lihue where we came across a marina and a beautiful anchorage (really missing the boat at this point!).
The anchorage in Lihue and a few catamarans on moorings.
The Lihue Lighthouse is on the left at the entrance to the channel.
The Lihue Lighthouse is on the left at the entrance to the channel.
US Coast Guard! And the marina in the background.
That night we relaxed at our condo in Kapa'a, enjoying our last night of having a t.v. and the ability to do my own laundry!
The ultimate luxury - self service laundry for under $3!
It's almost impossible to do your own laundry in the Caribbean, no laundromats, and it generally costs about $20 US per load to have someone do it for you.
We left for the Kauai airport at 8 am the next morning and braced ourselves for the ridiculous 36 hours of travel we had ahead of us. We flew from Kauai to Maui to LA to Atlanta and finally back to St. Lucia, and arrived back at the boat around 5:30 pm on Saturday evening, just in time for happy hour. Luckily, Kalalau was still afloat and in the same condition she was in when we left!
Home sweet home...and ready to continue on our Caribbean journey!
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