Day 6
Today (after trying to argue with Avis, yet again, to no avail) we decided to explore the North of the Island. We didn’t really know what there was to see up there, so we downloaded a driving tour App called Shaka Tours which you plug into your car-play and go. We thought it was going to be a bit naff but it turned out to be fun.
The tour took us to the beach where they filmed Gilligan’s Island (Moloa’a Beach) and South Pacific (from “I’m going to wash that man right out of my hair”) also Kahili Beach and Kahalahala Beach. We would have never found all these tiny little beaches on our own as some of them are down unsealed roads. We saw King Kong mountain, the Kilauea lighthouse, Hanalei (i.e. Puff the magic dragon’s hometown) and Taro fields. We went swimming at Anini Beach and finally arrived at the road’s end, Tunnels Beach and a big Cave at Ha’ena Beach. Of course Phil had bought a torch, so we explored the cave as far as we could. It was huge and the photos don’t really do it justice in terms of scale. Essentially, it’s a lava tube.
The tour guide gave us information about the history of Kauai and the sites we visited. It was actually quite interesting. Most of the stories end tragically.
The tour took most of the day but I think we achieved a lot in that time.
In the evening we had dinner at the pool bar - $60 burgers and chips!
Day 7
Today we got up at 5am (Yes, that’s right… I actually got up at 5am) to go on a sea tour with Kauai Sea Tours to the Na Pali Coast. The tour departed at 7am and we arrived back at 12:30pm. The weather was cloudy and the sea was dead calm so we couldn’t have asked for better conditions - other than the rain on the return journey. As we sailed up the cost on the 60ft sea cat called Lucky Lady, Captain Kauai spoke about Hawaiian culture and described the history of the original Hawaiian settlements on the north coast. He was very entertaining and he was a natural sailer. At one point he manoeuvred the ship into the mouth of one of the caves so we could get pictures, he was maybe 30-50cm from the edge of the cliff, it was impressive.
On the return, I got to have a snorkel. I saw a juvenile green sea turtle and lots of tropical fish. The reef wasn’t abundant like in the Maldives but it was still nice to get in the water. Phil wasn’t feeling it so he stayed on the boat and relaxed.
In the afternoon, we had some pool time. I dozed in the sun whilst Phil relaxed and tried to tan himself. I had a little sea swim at beach connected to our hotel (Kiahuna Beach) and Phil took videos of the hydrofoil surfers.
In the evening we had (a lot of) Sushi and an early night.
