If you're wondering why I didn't get beyond the resort in Honolulu, there's a reason. I've been on the tours to the Polynesian Cultural Center and Pearl Harbor and the other main attractions (both scenic and historic) on my two previous visits in the 1990s, and didn't really feel the need to repeat those tours. With only three full days I was content to laze by the pool between bouts of walking for miles to get wherever I needed to go on the property! I also didn't want to rent a car because the traffic in Oahu is so big-city jam-packed and often painfully slow. In Kauai it's a different story.
Of course, I couldn't leave Waikiki without watching a sunset, and getting a couple of final photos during the countdown to that sunset.
After that, and one final dinner by the beach, it was time to repack for my move to Kauai.
But first you have to get there. Inter-island flights in Hawaii are plentiful, and fairly cheap when you consider the distance that all the jet fuel has to travel from its producers! It just tickles me that you have to check in an hour or more early, go through security, the whole 9 yards, to get on a plane that's going to spend a grand total of 20 minutes in the air, give or take a bit. The only exception is the longer flight from Honolulu to Kona or Hilo on the Big Island, where you will spend about 35 minutes in the air!
My visit to Kauai actually got off to a pretty rocky start. About 15 minutes after I drove out of the airport, I ran over some accident debris in the road and flattened a tire. That was at 1:30 pm. I promptly called the rental company's roadside assistance line and got into an unbelievable game of circling touch menus and an agent who seemed unable to get straight anything I said to him. In the end, I finally got a confirming phone call that my tow had been dispatched and should arrive at 3:00 pm. The truck actually arrived at 5:30. I wrote a brutally detailed account on the online survey asking "How did we do?" Within a few hours the local manager had gotten back to me, totally agreed that the whole experience was unacceptable, detailed point by point the steps to be taken with regard to the various lapses, and then took a day's rental charge off the agreement! I've always found that in complaining it pays to be factually accurate, polite, but firm. I've never failed yet to get satisfaction when I complain in this way, and I'm always amazed at people who beat their heads against the wall because they use rude or abusive language, wildly exaggerate their cases, or try to squeeze out far more than they would think reasonable if it weren't happening to them!
Anyway, that's all settled now and I'm into another beautiful beachfront resort: the Marriott Kauai Resort and Beach Club. But the surroundings, as you'll see, couldn't be more different. Start with the amazing pool, said to be the largest in Hawaii.
There's a hot tub underneath each of those pillared balconies. And then there's the spectacular view of Kalapaki Beach and the surrounding mountains in front of the resort property.
Kauai is known as "The Garden Isle" because of its lush forests and sizable farmlands, now much devoted to ranching. It's a largely rural island, with only a few towns and no large cities. The total population of the entire island is equal to about 5% of the population of Honolulu. Like all the Hawaiian Islands, Kauai does get a great deal of rainfall, principally in its central mountains. The peak of Mount Waiʻaleʻale, which gets an average of 460 inches (11,700 mm) of rain each year, is one of the wettest spots on the planet. All that rainfall has exerted tremendous erosive force on the volcanic rock of Kauai, which is in any case the oldest of the major Hawaiian Islands. Nowhere is the erosion more remarkable than in Waimea Canyon, near the western edge of the island.
To get the scale, look at the top of the bare rocky ridge in the third picture and you'll see the tiny figures of some hikers. To the right, on the edge of the second darker ridge you can see a natural rock arch. I'm not sure just how deep the canyon is, but the lookout points where I took these pictures are all over 3500 feet above sea level. No wonder this is often called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific!
Here's a video clip of the Canyon which I also shot today.
Getting up there requires a bit of adventurous driving on a steep and twisting mountain road. The speed limit all the way up (and down) is 25 mph (40 kmh) for excellent reasons! On this kind of road, the thing to do when going down is to keep the transmission set in the lower gears and let the engine do the work of slowing the vehicle. Try to do it all the way on your brakes, and you may well find that your brakes run out before the hill does!
Beyond the first Canyon lookout point, the road is still paved but is too narrow and the parking lots too small to accommodate big tourist buses. To reach the upper lookouts, you need either a smaller van or a private vehicle. Beyond the last Canyon lookout point, the road continues snaking across the plateau to the north. It's not far at all before you encounter this terrific view.
I don't know the exact number, but I'm pretty sure that this lookout point is still well over 3000 feet above that pounding surf. The Hawaiian word "pali" means a cliff and this north-western shore of Kauai is very aptly called the Na Pali Coast. It's only accessible by foot along a rugged coastal trail or by sea kayak -- although I wouldn't care to be kayaking in those very large swells! I could tell they were huge by the fact that their motion from this height looked incredibly slow and deliberate. Here's a sea level view along the same coastline, borrowed from the internet:
As I said earlier, Kauai's semi-official title is "The Garden Isle". I have my own nickname: The Poultry Park. Kauai is the home of a feral population of thousands upon thousands of hens, roosters and chicks. These birds are everywhere, and the most characteristic soundtrack of Kauai is the repeated crowing of the roosters. Contrary to what many people think, roosters don't crow at sunrise -- they just start at sunrise and then keep it up all flippin' day! These omnipresent birds are actually fascinating in a way, since decades of breeding have given them some very unusual mixed colour schemes in their plumage.
One of the common sights of Kauai is a line of cars halted on the road, waiting for the poultry parade to cross. Not only that, but several places along the roads sport signs warning of "Nene Crossing". The nene (pronounced "naynay") is a Hawaiian goose. Nuff said? Actually, I have yet to see one on this trip.
Some comments and pictures about the scenic highlights of Kauai, the Garden Isle -- a place that couldn't be more different from Honolulu if it tried!
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