UPDATE DEC 8, 2011

Have done a little more travelling in the last couple weeks, so will fill in a little here.

This is the beach on the north end of the island, called Hanalei Bay, very busy on weekend, locals, tourists, craft market etc.

One side of the bay is calm the other is surfers paradise, there are some guys in those waves.

Looking at the beach you would never know the surf was up further out.

This particular day the surf was up all down the coast, another nice beach with a big wave coming in.

This is our favorite beach just minutes from the cottage and this is the favorite tree to sit in the shade under.

On Wednesday there is a market in the town of Kapa'a, it has everything you want from flowers to fruit and veggies. Actually there is a market everyday somewhere on the island.

We took a boat trip up the Wailua River, just outside of town. At the end of the river is the Fern Grotto, very beautiful, vegetation and ferns. The area was destroyed in the 1992 hurricane that devestated the island of Kaua'i and the ferns are just starting to fill in.

The ferns grow downward and previous photos I have seen show the entire rock wall covered in ferns.

If you look closely you will see a cave in the wall, at one time you could walk inside the cave, but due to rock errosion it is now unsafe, so a no go.

This group of folks were our entertainment at the grotto, but looking at the faces you would really think they are bored, "here come more of those tourists"!!!!!

This beach just seems to always show up in my photos, not hard to tell it is a favorite!!!!!!!

Theresa and Norm arrived on Monday the 5th, and of course took them to the "favorite beach". Theresa and Wolf got in a couple runs on the boogie boards. Poor Norm has a dislocated shoulder,very bad, so he was beach bound.

Off to the Waimea Canyon with Theresa and Norm and this is the red dirt of the area, it is reallllllly red, infact, they have a company that makes T-Shirts from this dirt, "Red Dirt T-Shirt".

Waterfall coming down red dirt hill, photo I did not get was the contrast of the red dirt in the valley with the green of the crops, amazing.

Unfortunately this day up the canyon was overcast and drizzle. This photo of the Na Pali coast line is different from the first time we were up there, but still impressive.

We got to the canyon late in the afternoon so had the sun much lower which gives different colors from the noon sun on the hills.

Rainbow over the canyon, you see alot of rainbows here, which would explain the rainbow that is on the licence plates.

Beautiful Hybiscus flower

Late in the day we stopped at the southern resort town of Po'ipu to walk the beach. There are not alot of beach access areas down here due to all the resorts on the beach.

You see alot of people out snokeling, not sure how good it is.

And the day comes to an end with the towering palm trees swaying in the ocean breeze. It is very beautiful on this Garden Island of Kaua'i

WAIMEA CANYON NOV 24 2011

Today was a perfect day to dive the 36 mile round trip up the Waimea Canyon Road. Our first stop was a viewpoint overlooking the town of Waimea and the Waimea River

From here it was a climb of over 3,100 feet and stopping along the way at some fantastic viewpoints.

 This is a view over to the island of Ni'ihau which is privately owned and you are not welcome to come ashore. The Robinson family have owned the island for years and is relatively all Hawai'ian including speaking Hawai'ian. The island is 17 miles from Kaua'i. There are about 200  people, no telephones, no cable TV and one unpaved road halfway around the island. Power is supplied by solar and generator. They live in one village called Pu'uwi located in the only part of the island where you cannot see over to Kaua'i.  It is a 3 hour rough boat ride to get from Ni'ihau to Kaua'i.

Below are some photos of the canyon which is 10 miles long, 1 mile wide and 3600 feet deep.  There is about a 4000 foot elevation rise as you drive and the temperature is 10-15 F cooler than at sealevel.
The best hiking trails are in this area, and the vista surpasses the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

We were treated to a great vista and some goats who were on a rocky out cropping, they may look close but I was using my 10x zoom to bring them in. At one point a helicopter flew through the canyon and he was just a speck.

We finally got to the top of the canyon and were presented with the most beautiful view of all, the Kalalau Valley, 4178 feet above sealevel, looking down was amazing, the vast ocean, the beautiful rocks the lush valley.

This valley is the largest valley on the Na Pali coast line, which is the north west side of Kaua'i. To get down to the ocean etc you can only get there by hiking 11 miles in from the north end.

This is the red rock trail to the viewing area, the soil here is very very red, I forgot to photograph it. OOPS

And of course cannot forget the rooster photo, this guy was at our lunch spot and his colors were so different from the darker roosters. They sure do know how to  beg.  We did not see any Nene's which are decendents of the Canada Goose (they got lost) over the years they have lost their web feet and live up in the canyon area.

That  was a great day, almost forgot about our Farmer's Market find, below our day at the market produced lots of fresh fruit and veggies. Papaya,kale, passionfruit, okra, eggplant,oranges, grapefruit, avocado, lemons, pineapple, ohhhhhh so wonderful.

ALOHA FOR NOW:  Sunset from our backdoor:

November 23rd, Larsens Beach and Farmers Market

We headed to the beach today and found Larsens Beach north of Kapa'a about 20 minutes by the time we got down the side road. This beach is very treacherous and shows a sign that 14 have died from being swept away in the rip tides. You park at the end of the road and then walk down about .5 km to the beach on a very rocky trail, about a 10 minute walk. Unfortunately the Hawaiian Gov't have not made accommodations for beach access which is really too bad as there are many places you cannot get to because of development. There are many houses along the beach that make it impossible to get to some very fantastic beaches, luckily this one is in the wilderness.

 We were almost by ourselves here, a couple of nudists down the beach!!!!! So we sat and read our Kindle's for a couple hours.

 The waves coming over the reef was  impressive and lovely to watch, you would not want to swim there today, although,they say it is a good place to snorkel on a calm day.

After our two hour sit on the beach, (we forgot the beer) we headed back into town for the Wednesday farmers market, and we were not disappointed

 Avocado, lemon, okra, passion fruit,oranges

Papaya, banana, kale, eggplant, pineapple

our harvest all displayed, and oh it is soooo good. and prices are great, much better than Safeway!!!!
We had a lovely dinner of local steak, and kale with fresh beans, okra, garlic,onion, mushrooms,green beans, ooooohhh so tasty

Until later AHLOA

Kaua'i continued

'OPAEKA'A  FALLS

Yesterday, Friday, we did about a 3 hour trip up into the back country behind Kapa'a. We drove along the Wailua River to the Opaeka'a waterfalls. They are set back off the view point but still very pretty.

From here we travelled amongst some very green, healthy, lush vegetation to the end of the road and the Keahua Arboretum. Wow, the air, so clear and clean and fresh. We were going to park the car and go for a hike on the trail, but, the following photo was what we had to go over and we were not sure how high the water would be when we got back!!!! The vehicle on the other side made it, but we did not wait to see him come out.

From here we retraced our steps and found a table by the roadside that was loaded with fresh grapefruit, 50 cents each, wow, we bought 6 and they were delicious. Further down the road another stand this time with avocados, 50 cents each, load up on them as well. Take another turn in the road up into the farming country and there are the cows, they sell their beef locally here and we finally found where the beef is raised.  Another road and another table by the roadside, oranges and lemons, ok, look good. Another turn and another road and table by the roadside, more avocados, yup, we need more. We were not sure where all the people on the road driving lived as the town is not that big, well we found them, out in the country. We were a long way from no where at the end of a road and found a huge garden nursery.

    
                                          country side by the nursery
                                    

From here we headed home and as we were getting closer to town we met the rush hour traffic of folks heading home, now we know where they live!!!!!!

Today we walked about 3.5 kms to the Coconut Marketplace to watch a free hula presentation. The girls dancing are all in a hula school so just young ladies. The Hawaiian hula is not as fast paced as the South Pacific dance, or maybe it was just that these girls are younger. Will have to take in another one and see.

This little one was so cute, and so good.

This lady played and sang, has a very nice voice.

The Coconut Market has alot of tourist stores, but some of them look really interesting, but not a place to try and shop when you have you husband with you. Another day for that as well. Interesting that there were very few people there and it is Saturday.

We then started our 3.5km walk back to our cottage but had to stop and shop!!!!!!! How can you not buy when it is $3.50 a bottle. This was one of the first we bought when we got here and had already finished it, but we knew it was good and just happened to find it on sale at the DRUG STORE!!!!

TIME FOR HAPPY HOUR!!!!!