Adventure Day 8-2-11

Waiting for the raft

Today was finally the day of our big adventure, we woke up early to drive over to the west side of the island and catch our raft up the Na Pali Coast. We decided to take an expolration boat because there are limited ways to access the Na Pali Coast, no driving, only by expolartion boat, helicopter, or hiking several miles on a very high, 14 inch wide, percarious trail. On our drive  there, we needed breakfast and broke our promise on the way and had McDonalds for breakfast, but it is so hard to find breakfast places here, no one wants to get up that early! Kinda crazy if you ask me since how popular breakfast is at home, but I have yet to find a resturant that does just breakfast or breakfast at all! Everything opens at 5 around here. So after our muffin and OJ, we found Kalikehelo Harbor to meet up with Captain Andy's Na Pali Expedition. After meeting a few of our fellow tourists, two large raft boats rolled into the Harbor. They gave us a quick prep talk and off we went. We thought it would be rough on the water, but not this rough! The waters were like a bucking bronco! After holding on for dear life for an hour, we stopped by a cove to snorkle. It was fantastic! The water was so clear and aqua, lots of cool looking fish and a turtle! I was stoked to see a huge sea turtle, it was just hanging out on the bottom of ocean, about 15 feet deep, it was probably wondering why all these people were bothering him!

You can see private inslands to the West

Snorkle couple!

Eeeekkk!! Big fish hiding! NO idea what it is!!! EEEKKK!!

After snorkling for 40 min, we headed more north up the coast where the water got rougher and rougher. All we had to hold onto was ropes, and luckily they provided gloves because my hands would have been rubbed raw from how tight I was holding the rope. Then we started expolring some caves, which most were pitch black, and one even had a beach inside! One really cool cave had a hole carved in its ceiling from a waterfall that oridinates from the the highest point on the island, which you could see right outside, and the tour guide took us right through the waterfall, it was frezzing!

Some of the random small coves along the way

Almost the the most northern part of the west coast

The waterfall that goes down the side of the mountain to the cave

The whole formed at the ceiling of the cave from the waterfall

As we reached the northern part of the Na Pali Coast, the water was as ferocious as I had ever experienced. I didn't think I could hold on much longer when our tour guide finally turned around. The ride back down the coast was much smoother, and the tour guide said all gentlemen sail downwind and now I know why. We were able to go closer to the beaches and one beach looked like a cove that went into a hidden area. I guess they have filmed many movies in this area like the new Pirates of The Carabiean. And even cooler, the space was high enough they use to have helicopter tours through it. On the other side a little history we learned about a little inlet that only Kings bones could be buried on the side of the mountin. No one was suppose to know where this area of land was, so guards took permanent post their and killed anyone instanly if they accidently came across the land. When a king died, a special warrior was chosen at birth to climb down the side of the mountain and hide the bones. After his task was done, he could either hang there till he died, or fall to his death. In their culture, they thought if anyone knew where their King's bones were buried, they would steal his power from his remains. That is why no one was to know where to bones were. They considered this warrior and his reamining family as future royalty or moved up in the social status. Crazy to think of all the death and bloodshed in that area.

Johny Dept ran through this whole for the Pirates movie!

Kings bones mountain, you can barly see the whole to the left of this pic

Also a little further down, we went into a cove with a rockmound in the middle. Really hard to explain, but if you can stand Mary J Blidge, she does a music video in this really cool cove! So check out Mary J Blige "Everything" video to see the cool cove (I personally muted the music, can't stand her, but the scenery is exactually what we could see!). Also from the sky, airpiolets say it looks like God's eye!

In the "God's eye" cove

Then a little further down, we stopped for lunch at an intact archaeological site. The food was delicious and I am so surprised they were able to pack that much good food and it was hot! After we gourged ourselves, we went on a history walk through an old Hawaiian village. This area had the most succsessfull tribe because when one village would want to take over another tribes area, they would contaminate their most precious source, water. But here, their water came from a well, so it was difficult from outside sources to get to. Then they had the large side of the volcano behind them protecting them from attackers. Their food source came mainly from the ocean in the front, which was protected by the dense coral reef that would damage ships if they did not come up the narrow islet between the reef's. Our tour guide said the last of the tribe left about 100 years ago! And many people currently on the island can trace their ancestors to that tribe. Also something cool, the side of the volcano had an 'X' on it, our tour guide said it was during a break in the volcano itself where lava had seeped through and created it. It happened on two different instances, one forming one slash one way, and the second causing the other way.

Lunch time!

The view from the lunch spot

After the tour, and letting our food digest, we were all done! We left the little cove, and headed back to our cars. Unfortuanltly one of the two engines' on the other tour boat did not work, so they drove a lot slower than us back. but we made it back after 6 hours. It was defiently our highlight of the trip, except we are both super sore from the trip! On the way home we decided to go back to a shopping center for some fish and chips. Not as good as we hoped, but it hit the spot. We were so exhausted, but I wanted to drink my Hawaiin wine in the hottub. Jed unfortuanly got a little burnt, so he was not up for it, and the wine didn't taste very good, so we went to bed. 

Sleepy Day 8-1-11

Jed and I woke early in hopes we could ride a train through a sugar cane plantation, we tried to make a reservation yesterday, but I guess in Hawaii everyone closes up shop early on Sunday's so we went too late and were not able to get a hold of them. So when we got up this morning, we found out they were booked and decided to plan on going Wednesday insted. So Jed and I were wide awake, and it was pretty early in the morning, so we decided to find a place for breakfast. Jed has wanted a nice buffet breakfast and found a nearby hotel that had a resonably priced breakfast and decided to head that direction. In Poipu, the Sheraton Hotel had a huge line for their buffet! And it was worth the wait! So much delicious food for us to gourge ourselfs with. Guava juice, bacon, sauage, potatoes, custome omelets, frech toast, and tons of fresh fruit. We decided to head home to get some snorkel gear and head back to Poipu Beach, but when we got home we were so exhausted we laid around the hotel. We watched some local surfers and the waves from our deck while feeding some local birds some crackers. After awhile we found ourselves falling asleep, we both agreed we got way too much sun yesterday and have been on the go and deicded to take it really easy today and before we knew it, we both were asleep. We enjoyed our little cap nap and decided to snorkle out front of our hotel with our camera. Jed jumped in and I followed in shorty after, then I freaked out! 5 fish started following me and whould not leave me alone! Their folllwing fish eyes freaked me out! They had this look in their eyes that they wanted to nibble me! I even tried to kick them away with my flippers, but they would not leave. So I freaked out a little, but Jed told me they probably liked my blue fins and thought I was a large fish, and smaller fish like to hang out with bigger fish for protection. Dumb fish, freaking me out, I still think the look in their eyes was saying they were hungry. And during my freak out session, I swallowed a ton of water which made me so sick to my stomach! But we got some cool pictures and videos of the fish. We will have to head out another day to get some better pictures when the water is a little more clear.

So since the ocean is so salty and sandy, we have decided we should play in our hotel's pool everytime we go out to the ocean to clean up and play a little and not get knocked around by the huge waves!

 

We started to get a little hungy and decided to head to a resturant. We found a menu of a resturant in our welcome packet and decided before we got their what we wanted! Keoki's Paradise was in the next town over. We ordered spinich and artichoke dip, ceaser salads, parmesean and herb crusted fresh catch fish, firecracker fresh catch fish, and finished with Hula Pie Desert (macadamian nut ice-cream with chocolate cookie crumble crust, covered in chocolate and hot fudge on the side). Afterwards we went shopping in the local shops and I found some Hawaiian wine which I am really excited to try, another new shirt for Jed, and some local coral earrings for me. Now we are watching Jurassic Park, which Jed grew up loving, I have never seen, and it was filmed right here on Kauaii!

Sun Day 7-31-11

We decided today we wanted to drive up to the north shore from the south side we were staying at. We were told it takes about 2 hours to get to one of the best beaches on the island and the sunrise is to die for, which is around 6 - 6:15ish. So that means we would have to get up at 4. That is so not happening on our honeymoon, so we agreed to pass on the sunrise and to sleep in a little and tackle the long drive a little later. On the way up north, we saw so many amazing looking resturants along the way, we were so hungy, we were not sure where to stop. We stopped by a little strip mall and caught breakfast/lunch at a resturant called Paradise  Bar and Grill. Jed and I are starting to find out that the cusine in Hawaii is amazing and have enjoyed sharing all of our meals so we can get a variety. And by the way, I always end up wanting the food Jed orders, so we both decided Jed will have executive decision making in food selection becaue I suck at it and end up not liking mine and stealing most of his! It works really well acutally because if I don't like what he orders me, he will eat it and is willing to trade! LOL! We were told the north side of the island is considered the rainy and tropical side of the island, and they were not kidding, it felt like we were driving through a jungle and we saw tons of waterfalls along the mountain ridge along the way. Jed kept thinking a dinosaur from Jurassic Park would jump out of the trees. It was also strange to see their roads, which are really narrow and many places with only a one lane area, so you had to yield to oncoming traffic and use a courtesy system. So we finally made it to Tunnel Beach, and we parked in a private empty lot and were charged by some smart kids ten bucks to park in their lot. We walked across the street to the largest, longest, most beautiful beach! The sand was white, the sea was so turqoise and it the water went forever! (which we found out looking North is to Alaska!) Jed and I went snorkiling and took pictures and videos for the first time with our waterproof camera! It was was pretty cool capturing what we saw, but unfortunantly the water was deeper and it was harder to see the fish we took pictures of. So we will have to take some more pictures at the first placed we went snorkiling because the water was not so deep and we could really see the fish well.

After a couple of hours, we realized we were starting to get burnt and decided to take the long drive home. We wanted to stop by to see the Kilauea Lighthouse, but it closed at 4 and we got their at 3:58 and they closed the gate right before we went in! But we could see the lighthouse from view point. Continuing on our drive we stopped by for a snack, some macadamian nut ice cream, and found a surft shop. Jed wanted to go shopping for surft trunks, which I always find wierd he likes to go shopping when we are on vacation! So I thought I would take advantage of the situation and have him try on some new clothes, but he was totally not for it and only wanted to get board shorts. =( BUT luckily he liked a pair I picked out so it worked out well for both of us! =)

When we got back, our hotel was holding a drawing for all current guests for a free week's stay at the hotel. You had to be present for the drawing, so the first 5 names were disqualified, how sucky is that! Some other sweet honeymooning couple won it, we would have loved it, but we are glad another couple will get to share another week here in the future on a vacation together. We went home to clean up and attend dinner at a very nice resturant across the street called the Beachhouse. It was beautiful! They had a beautiful panoramic view of the ocean! We sat at the bar while we waited for our table, had a drink, and before we knew it, our table was up. We shared the most delicous crab chowder, macadamian nut buttered ahi, gorgonzola mushroom stuffed grilled chicken, and finished with a chocolate lava ala mode. Once again, we are exhausted from all the good food!! Funny story, Kauai has very few light post or lamps anywhere, but they do have a few lamp posts in the ground. Well, on our short walk back, I saw a moving black shadow! I have no idea what is was, but I think we scared the crap out of each other because it jumped all over the place as fast as I was jumping all over the place. I am sure if it could scream like I could, it would have too! Jed of course thought this was the funniest thing in the world and gave me a hard time the whole walk home. =( Also, in the short walk home, pretty sure we saw one of the crazy cats from the fight the other morning run ning around the hotel. LOL!