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!!!!!

KAUA'I HAWAII NOVEMBER 2011

Our flight here was good, no problems with connections or baggage, which was great considering we were flying AIR CANADA.

We arrived in overcast skies, called our car rental man, Steve, and he showed up with our BEATER CAR. Yes it is a beater, or was I guess as we have since traded it in on another beater!!!!!

 lovely bouquet of flowers on our table when we arrived

It rained all the way from the airport to Steve's house where Wolf had to fix the seatbelt that would not fasten on the passenger seat, take $30.00 of rental for that. Then we drove up to Kapa'a to our cottage in the pouring rain with windshield wipers that are right down to the metal, good visibility when you have no idea where you are going and it is dark. It is a 20 min drive from airport in Lihuie to Kapa'a, can be longer during the day when there are many cars on the road, but it is a nice drive.

Our first day we took a short drive north of town to check out the beaches, found a couple very nice spots.

                     lookout just north of town

We did manage to do some swimming and snorkeling one day, but the snorkeling was not all the great, swimming was nice, very warm. Wolf got in a couple runs on the boogie board.
Off to explore the north end of the island, we drove out to the lighthouse on Kilauea point for a fantastic view. Along the way we stopped at more beaches to check them out, and also drove into some of the smaller towns. Found a great farmers market at Waipa, where we got fresh grapefruit and avacado for 50 cents each, plus a few other treats of veggies. Also along the north coast is the resort areas where the big condos and hotels are located, Princeville being the largest with many resorts and a couple huge golf courses.  At the end of the highway is Ke'e Beach and as far as you can go with a vehicle. This is the start of the west coast trail hike, the only way you can really see the west coast beauty is by hiking in.

Our next big trip was going south and up part of the west coast. South east brings you to Lihue where the airport and large box stores are located. Further south is another resort area call Po'ipu, nice beaches,lots of people and lots of resorts again. Not our kind of place. We kind of like our funky little town of Kapa'a, lots to do. After the south point we headed more west towards the coast. More farming country and very lush. This is also the way to head up the Waimea Canyon which is a trip on its own. Waimea river flows out to the ocean and at the mouth the sand is very black from running out of the volcanic mountains. This is also where Captian Cook made his landfall.

this photo is a little out of order, this is a large dry cave we found on the north end near the end of the road.

 this is called Spouting Horn near Po'ipu

Captian Cook.

The west side sport some of the  most beautiful beach area, but you cannot get to it as the Pacific Missile Range Facility takes up most of it. The end of the highway and road is at Mana, which is also not there all gone. The next 20 minutes is worth the trip on a bumpy, sand, coral, red dirt road that ends up at the most fantastic beach ever. Polihale State park, nothing but sand for miles, no resorts and very few people on the beach.  A definate place to come back too for a beach day ................................

Off to the market today and to watch some hula dancing, will continue with our inland trip and today's excursion later.