Day 5 – Arrival in Kauai, Kilauea Lighthouse, Hanalei Town

After a flight that took less than an hour, we descended into absolute paradise. This is saying something given that we’d just spent several days on Oahu, which is no slouch in the gorgeous scenery department. We loaded into our rental car, and much to the kids’ delight, a nice family who was leaving the island that day gifted us with a boogie board that they couldn’t pack along on their flight.

We had a later reservation at Kilauea Lighthouse and needed to kill about a half hour. We stopped by for a few quick photos a Wailua Falls to pass the time. There is a lookout to these falls almost directly from the parking lot, which I was personally delighted about. After yesterday’s hike, my hamstring was still aching, so a quick walk from the car to the 140-foot waterfall sounded just about right for us.

By the time we finished there, we were actually in danger of being late for our lighthouse reservation, but we needn’t have worried. When we arrived at Kilauea Lighthouse, there was a huge line to enter. We wound up stuck in this line for probably 20-30 minutes before we finally got to park.

Kilauea Point is actually a national wildlife refuge, providing protection for vast quantities of seabirds. As we wandered the grounds, the movement in the air was nearly constant as birds fished the ocean below. Sean had his big camera out, trying to catch the action as the birds endlessly soared and swooped. We spotted, among other things, red-tailed tropicbirds, white-tailed tropicbirds, red-footed boobies, and great frigatebirds. Plus, a helpful employee pointed out a nesting wedge-tailed shearwater hanging out near the visitor’s center.

And Kilauea Point, the lighthouse on the grounds, was lovely as well. The Daniel K. Inouye Kilauea Point Lighthouse was built in 1912 and dedicated in 1913. Interesting note – there was no road serving the lighthouse till 1927 so needed supplies were brought in by boat until that time.

As is our habit, we were now behind the schedule Sean had made, but we soldiered on regardless. We made a quick stop to check out the Hanalei Valley overlook. Imagine a lush green farmed valley that supports taro fields with those abrupt volcanic mountains as a backdrop. I saw some rainy-season photos online that showed waterfalls cascading down the mountains. We didn’t see that, but it was gorgeous nonetheless.

We had a delightful lunch at Hanalei Gourmet. I don’t remember what anyone else ate, but I had some really excellent fish tacos. We took the kids over to the Holey Grail food truck to try out some doughnuts. As they ate, we got to watch a hen show her passel of chicks how to scratch back the dirt and search for bugs and worms.

We had intended to visit Tunnels Beach next. We had heard snorkeling there was great and that green sea turtles were often spotted there. A co-worker had raved about the density of parrotfish around that beach.

Alas, by the time we arrived, figured out where to park, rooted through multiple suitcases multiple times to gather towels, swim suits, goggles, and snorkel gear, and finally got changed, it was late and everyone was frustrated. No one wanted to walk the extra 15 minutes over sandy beach to get to Tunnels, so we played at Ha’ena Beach instead. The kids made ample use of the gifted boogie board, and Sean managed to do a little bit of low-key snorkeling at this beach as well. I ferried kids to and from the bathroom multiple times, but still managed to play in the water a little as well.

As I recall, we had intended to make reservations for our dinner destination that night, Ama, but that even as early as Sean was, they were all gone by the time he checked. Luckily, they set aside some seating for walk-ins. We wandered in, fresh from the beach, and they seated us right away.

Maya and Ian ordered interesting mocktails. Mom and Dad ordered interesting cocktails, Sean continuing his survey of Hawaiian mai tais. We split an appetizer of seared Brussels sprouts that all four Woodses absolutely loved. The thing to order here are ramen bowls, and they are indeed delicious. The kids both love love love ramen, and so they were pretty excited about this restaurant. All of our noodle bowls were really well prepared, but Maya was the big winner with her laksa, which she kindly let us try. It was so flavorful!

As good as the food was, the scenery was even better. At least where we were seated, the back of the restaurant is open to the outside. From our table, we could look out back and drink in the views of jewel-green Kauai mountains. It was such a relaxing way to end a day that had started so, so early.

And after all that, we finally found our hotel and checked in! The kids were delighted with the hotel’s open-air front desk and lobby area. Little birds would sometimes sneak in and the breeze was soft and pleasant.

Day 6 – Hanapepe Swinging Bridge, Waimea Canyon, Na Pali Coast Cruise

We got up early enough to see our first sight before having breakfast. We passed through the quiet town of Hanapepe and stopped just long enough to see their famous swinging bridge. It’s a pedestrian suspension bridge over the Hanapepe River. It was interesting, if a bit unnerving, to walk across this bridge with its swaying walkway and its twanging metal cables.

We stopped at Aloha Sweet Delites for breakfast pastries. After carefully choosing from a well-stocked case, we ate breakfast in the car. My pineapple fritter was moist on the inside and crispy on the outside and very flavorful. Sean enjoyed these tiny little coconut custard filled doughnuts.

We spent the rest of our morning puttering around in Waimea Canyon. In deference to the huge hike we had planned for the next day, we tried to contain our visit to short walks and pullouts to scenic overlooks.

The Red Dirt Waterfall wasn’t particularly spectacular, but it was fun to clamber around on the red dirt and take in the surroundings. Ian in particular could range far and wide and run into very little trouble. The red dirt comes from the iron rich basalt oxidizing over time. I was just reading that apparently Waimea means “red water” in Hawaiian, and the famous Hawaiian red salt gets is color from oxidized basalt as well.

The Waimea Canyon Lookout was incredible. They call Waimea Canyon the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, and to a certain extent, I can see why. The canyon is up to 2500 feet deep, about a mile and a half wide, and over 13 miles long. The porous volcanic rock has weathered in a stark and craggy way, exposing layers of often brightly colored rock. The abundant rainfall means the green does its level best to take over, providing a bright contrast to the grays and browns and reds. The main artery is the Waimea River, but there are side streams and canyons as well.

The Pu’u Hinahina lookout gives you an alternate viewpoint on the canyon, sort of a ‘down the canyon’ view as opposed to an ‘across the canyon’ view from the first lookout. The Kalalau lookout faces out to the ocean in the Kalalau valley along the Na Pali coast. The tall cliffs loom next to impossibly blue water. Especially if you will see Na Pali no other way, this view is not to be missed.

We thought we might have time for one more small walk on our way back to town. We had read about a ten minute walk along the Cliff Trail that got you another pretty view of the canyon. What had been left out of that description was the high-clearance vehicle road you had to walk down (if you lacked a high clearance vehicle) to get to the start of that ten minutes. The view of the canyon from the opposite side was indeed lovely, but our twenty minute stroll wound up costing a lot more time and energy than anticipated. And that’s the story of how we ate McDonalds for lunch instead of Kauai Brewing Company.

We had to arrive on time for our big deal boat trip. We were going to see the Na Pali coast and enjoy dinner and a sunset on the ocean. We checked into our Holo Holo Na Pali coast boat ride and walked down to the dock. We left our shoes in a little cubby and boarded the boat barefoot. It turns out that traction and balance are easier if you aren’t wearing shoes. Fine by me!

After a safety briefing, we were on our way. They told us the closer we stood to the front of the boat, the more sea spray we would feel. Maya’s eyes lit up with delight. Ian wanted to stay in the back. In fact, poor dude was apparently not feeling too well, and he went into the cabin part of the boat, laid down on a cushion, and had a little nap. Our theory is that the Dramamine I insisted we all take was making him feel drowsy. Luckily, he emerged and seemed to enjoy the snacks and the ginger candy if nothing else. (I think he liked the boat ride some too.)

Toward the beginning of the ride, we saw the island of Ni’ihau, except we didn’t know at the time exactly what we were looking at, so Maya asked the captain the name of the land mass we were seeing. After he told her, she grinned and insisted on calling in “meow” instead. Ni’ihau is interesting because it’s owned by the Robinson family so you really can’t visit it without permission or as part of a special tour (for which I’m sure someone needed permission). Evidently they’ve owned it since 1800 when a great-great-grandmother bought it from King Kamehameha V. The visitation restriction allows the Robinsons to preserve the island’s culture and natural beauty.

On our way to the Na Pali coast, Maya spotted flying fish several times. At one point, Hawaii spinner dolphins joined us, leaping out of the water and playing in the boat’s wake. As we passed the actual Na Pali cliffs (pali means cliffs in Hawaiian, so I’m saying the cliffs cliffs and it’s bugging me), we spotted several mountain goats and a few brave hikers. Along the way we saw tons of rugged coastline, several magnificent waterfalls, and some interesting sea caves.

We were on a sailboat, so we couldn’t venture into any of these caves. The notion was that we’d sail back after seeing the cliffs, but the wind was not in our favor. No worries though; I think we were able to go a little further along the coast since our return trip by motor would be a bit faster.

We were served drinks, snacks, dinner, and dessert, and a champagne toast to celebrate the sunset. The ride back to the dock was particularly bouncy, and Maya insisted on being up where the action was. And she wanted company. She and I were soaked through by the time all was said and done. The experience was amazing though. We took so many pictures, and I’m not sure any of them could really capture what it was like to be on the water with those massive cliffs towering over you. It was one of my favorite experiences of the trip.

That evening, Sean and I managed to get through about 2/3 of our accumulated laundry. Unfortunately, this meant that we were in bed somewhere around midnight. It wasn’t optimal for the big day ahead of us tomorrow, but today had been so spectacular, I’m not sure either of us cared.

Day 7 – Hanakapi’ai Falls Hike, Culinary Wonders of Foodland

When we had first picked up our rental car at the airport a couple days ago, the nice man helping us warned us about the lack of cell coverage on the island and that we should make sure we have a physical map. The one he gave us was pretty basic, but by and large, our route along the eastern and northern part of Kauai was the Kuhio Highway. If we ever found ourselves a bit off the beaten path and our cell coverage was no more, if we found our way back to the Kuhio Highway, we were in good shape. I had taken to calling it, The Road.

Well, The Road abruptly ended at our hiking adventure for today. Kuhio Highway essentially ends where the Kalalau trail begins. And we couldn’t even drive to the end ourselves; we would be taking a shuttle bus to Ha’ena State Park and heading to Hanakapi’ai Falls via that Kalalau trail.

This adventure actually started a month ahead of time, when Sean tried waking up early enough to be online at 5:00 in the morning (midnight Hawaii time) to make parking reservations at the actual state park. Alas, though he got up early, they were gone in milliseconds, and so we were left with no choice but to pay (overpay) for the parking shuttle.

Before our scheduled shuttle time at 7:40, we got ourselves packed with hiking essentials and drove to a nearby Foodland to pick up pastries for breakfast and sandwiches for a mid-hike lunch. We got to our shuttle parking in plenty of time and had about a 20 minute ride from the shuttle pickup point to the park. And then we had another five or so minutes of walking to get to our trailhead. This walk took us past some demonstration gardens and a turn off to go to Ke’e beach.

This hike is, to put it mildly, challenging, especially for sedentary office types and their elementary school aged kids. We waxed and waned on whether we should give over an entire day to this endeavor, but ultimately, Sean and I decided that we weren’t getting any younger and if we were going to attempt this hike, we better do it now.

The hike starts with 2 miles along the Kalalau Trail. This trail moves along the Na Pali coast so there are plenty of uphills and downhills along fluted cliffs rife with vigorous tropical foliage and gorgeous ocean vistas. Then, you turn inland for two more miles hiking up the valley to the Hanakai’ai Falls. The falls are roughly 300 feet tall, and the really fun thing is that you can swim at the base of them. And then you reverse that and hike the four miles back out again.

Eight miles doesn’t sound too bad to seasoned hikers, but these are tough miles. By some reports, your total elevation gain is in the vicinity of 2500 feet. Once you turn to the falls trail, it becomes unmaintained. There are stream crossings and rock scrambles to negotiate, and all of this gets harder as you grow more tired.

Somewhere along that first two miles, the kids saw a centipede. Apparently it scared the tar out of Ian, and all Maya could talk about seemingly forever was keeping on the lookout for another centipede. I think the hike was half dead to her by this point. For me, one of the weirdly pleasant things about the hike, other than the insane vistas, was the aroma of fallen lilikoi. At a few places along the route, there must have been passionfruit vines, because there’d be lilikoi fruit in various states of broken and squashed, and they filled the air with their delicate perfume.

We negotiated our first stream crossing right before the turn off to the falls trail. In wet season, I think it’s considered a fording situation, but we were able to “rock hop” our way across. All of that sounds innocent enough, but this is a large stream and the rocks we were hopping were often large boulders. Plus, we had one kid who was way too confident and another who was not confident enough. I am not a creature of grace on a good day. Add to that a bad back (which can make my balance poor) and the concern over the kids, and I had a really hard time with most of the crossings. Everyone made it across the first stream with their feet dry except for me. Luckily I could wring out my wool socks and have them be mostly wearable, but I would not recommend being 2 miles into an 8 mile hike and getting your socks wet.

We spent a little dab of time having snacks and seeing the Hanakapi’ai Beach. After that, as we ascended the valley toward the falls, the trail of course became much more difficult. We negotiated several more stream crossings on our way up. Sean managed to rock hop all of them. There was one that I just walked through barefoot, hiking boots tied together with a butcher’s knot and slung over my neck. The trail ended with a fairly difficult rock scramble, though maybe it would have been easier had we not just hiked four miles.

The Hanakapi’ai Falls themselves were gorgeous. Unfortunately, they were also very, very cold. After we sat and had our sandwiches and cleaned up, Ian put a toe in the water and noped out with a quickness. Sean and Maya wanted to swim under the falls, and they did briefly, but Sean said his muscles kind of seized up, and it became hard to move. I think backstroke was his savior on that one. Poor Maya, the one saving grace for this bullshit hike her parents drug her on was swimming in that waterfall, and then it was too cold to really relax and enjoy.

For my part, I got in to about knee-height to refresh my feet and try to take photos of my intrepid swimmers. During all this, Ian puttered around on the bank, looking around for neat rocks.

Because it had taken us so long to get to that point (it was around 2:00 in the afternoon when we finished up at the falls) that we didn’t really have a lot of time to swim. This is probably okay since the water was so cold anyway. But the last shuttle left at 6:40, so we would have to make better time on the way out.

That walk back was physically and mentally hard for all of us. The big payout had happened, so for Maya especially, there was not much to look forward to other than being done. Even Ian who is usually a bundle of energy and genuinely seems to like hiking was sick of it. For my part, if I’m trying to work through something that’s physically hard for me, hearing other people’s complaining is a huge, huge drain, so I was really struggling by the end. We stopped halfway through and had an afternoon snack and everyone forced smiles for the photos. We rolled into the pick up spot in time to make the 6:00 shuttle.

We stopped by Foodland again on our way home from the park and loaded up on drinks, pie, treats, sushi, and poke to have for dinner back at the hotel. It was an excellent and well-deserved feast after a very hard day. And then, Sean and I finished the rest of our laundry.

Was the big hike worth it? I think the answer is yes. The scenery was spectacular and at least 50% of the Woodses got to play in the big waterfall. I have a thumb injury that even in late September is still bothering me. Thanks to my wet socks, I have three toe nails that are eventually going to go (which has never happened to me on a hike before; I’m meticulous about foot care). Maya and Ian may never hike with us again. But, no one can take away the fact that we did it. We completed the challenging hike and saw all the pretty things. And as of this writing (late September), apparently the trail and campgrounds are closed due to a norovirus outbreak (yuck). So hey, at least *that* didn’t happen to us.

Day 8 – Puka Dog, Koloa Rum, Flight to the Big Island

Because everyone had worked so hard the day before, we rejiggered our plans so we could pack at a leisurely pace and let the kids have some pool time before we had to check out of our hotel. While at the pool, the kids found another family to bestow the gifted boogie board upon, so we didn’t even have to deal with carting that around.

We went back to Puka Dog afterward to fulfill Sean’s desire to have the much-loved treat from our 2008 trip again. Back then, there was one in Waikiki, but in researching for this trip, Sean discovered the only remaining location was on Kauai, near Poipu Beach park. (I looked around a little bit just now. Apparently the husband-wife founders of Puka Dog divorced and the Missus got the Oahu stores, which she was required to rename “Hula Dog.”) A puka dog is unique in that the bun fully encloses the hot dog or polish sausage. The way the central hole is created is for the bun to be stabbed onto a metal spike that toasts the interior. They have lovely sauces and relishes and you truly can customize it to your preferences.

Poipu Beach is likewise gorgeous. Once we collected our lunch order, we walked over to some picnic tables closer to the water to enjoy our puka dogs with salt breeze in our hair. The food was good, but Maya and Ian’s favorite part was that they met a hen and her chicks as they wandered unafraid amongst the picnic tables, seeking out crumbs. The kids even managed to briefly and gently hold the little chicks, which tickled them to no end. Mama hen didn’t even seem to mind that much. Maybe she was happy for the break.

After this, we walked the beach a bit, but I think everyone was too tired to bother about swimming. And then it was time to head to Koloa Rum for our 1:00 tasting. The kids again hung out in the car, puttering with their screens, excited to have the extra screen time.

We started our tasting with a small mai tai on which we floated their dark rum. We sampled their silver, dark, gold, coconut, and cacao rums. They were all good (except the coconut one was too sweet for me); we thought we might seek out the cacao one when we were back in Austin, but I don’t think we’ve done so yet.

There wasn’t a ton of time before our flight to the Big Island, so we spent the next little while just puttering around lovely Kauai, soaking up the last bit of its pretty mountains and greenery. The Lihue airport is tiny. Other than having nowhere for us to refill our water bottles, our flight was uneventful.