Kauai, the Garden Island

Kauai was an unexpected stop. We were supposed to spend all our time on the Big Island and it turned out different. And it was great. We got much spacier accommodations with full laundry facilities for a slightly higher price than our tight 1 bedroom (for 4) in Hilo. As soon as we landed in the evening in Lihue on Kauai, we got organized to be on a dive boat the next day... always the effective gung-ho travelers! We got to wet our dive gear and log two more dives than we thought we would do, bringing the total of this vacation to 19 dives in 7 days. Phew!

Kauai from the dive boat

Saw a site full of turtles and were honored to see a rare juvenile Hawai'ian Monk Seal from the boat, and then on the other dive site... tons of turtles - not far from Poipu beach and Spouting Horn. No tiger or reef whitetip sharks as promised, but hey, you can't have it all. The coral was different and covered in silt: since this island is pretty wet, it has lots of rivers pouring silt into the sea. The turtles were friendly and quite cooperative to photo and video. Overall though, I would say that Kauai is probably not worth the stop for the scuba diving, and it is expensive as there is not nearly as much shore diving as the Big Island. My dad got all worried because some Canadian guy got bitten by a shark off Maui... but scuba divers don't get bitten, of course - only surfers and spear fisherman do :). Speaking of sharks, we learned that during our stay on the Big Island there had been a juvenile whale who was attacked and killed and eaten by a bunch of sharks off the South Coast of Big Island. Maybe that's why we never saw sharks on this trip... they were all out there feasting in the Big Blue !!! :)

Turtle off Poipu, South Shore

Nice parrotfish hanging out at some lava tubes off Poipu, South Shore

We then hung out at the local beach called Nawiliwili, in front of our hotel. I'm not making that name up.

Then the next day we drove all the way (a very long, uh, hour!) from Lihue on the South Coast to Hanalei on North Coast. On the way we stopped at Opeaka'a falls.

Then we drove to the North Shore to the end of the highway and hiked the first 2 miles of the Kapalau trail from Ke'e Beach

with great views of the Na Pali Coast (scenery of Jurassic Park, Raiders of the lost Ark, George of the Jungle etc...)

to Hanakapi'ai Beach which boasts 82 drownings.

So this unexpected stop on Kauai punctuated by more scuba and more hiking concludes this long trip to Hawai'i. I am writing this blog from the Honolulu airport while burning S's photos onto CD's while waiting for our plane back home. My cough is still there, I am starting to wonder if it is whooping cough! But I've managed with it, including diving without any problems (aside from having friends laughing at me when I get a coughing fit underwater). There are other islands to visits, a return to Big Island with a stop at the observatory and driving up Saddle road, and more hikes to do, but that will be it for now.. and of course it was a great trip.