Kauai

Gosh these recaps are taking me a long time to get around to doing!

After doing the 5K in Honolulu, we had a flight to catch that lunch time. The islands are close together, so the flight was short (about half an hour) but there are no ferries or anything. Tip- if you sign up to Hawaiian airlines loyalty scheme you get money off checked bags.

We had a condo, which had a teeny kitchen area (we mainly used the fridge), and a balcony with beautiful views of the sea.

On the first morning we walked out a short distance to a local bakery for some breakfast, but later on in the day we discovered an amazing coffee house in a town up the coast, so tended to go there.

Not breakfast- we shared this amazing coconut, macadamia nut and chocolate slice.

Our condo was between two towns- I did look for a running route but there wasn’t much- we walked by the sea a bit but the path went into private apartment complexes, and the roads as soon as you got out of the small residential area were fast roads with no pavements. The town up from us had a lovely 8 mile path right by the sea, for biking and walking.

We spent a few days and evenings walking along there. The weather was again so interesting- the clouds clung to the centre of the island, but on the coast the sun was usually out.

One day we drove to the Waimea canyon, the “grand canyon of the pacific”. It is just stunning. Red rocks, bright green plants, waterfalls everywhere, just amazing. At some points there are viewing platforms, and I was at one when a family asked me to take their photo. I took a few, and tried to aim the camera so that the metal railing wasn’t in the photo, but when they looked, they said to me “a bit too much sky, can you try again?”- a bit cheeky, but also, why would you prefer metal railing over beautiful sky?? Some people!

There were some hikes, but they were pretty extreme (and not really allowed due to soft surfaces)- some people had hiked down to the coast and back and were pretty filthy!

Then we went to the coast- this was where the expensive resorts were and basically always sunny. There was a thunder hole- always exciting! (There are tubes of lava rock and so as the waves crash in some of the water gets forced into the holes and out of the top like little fountains).

We had dinner with a sea view as the sun was going down – so relaxing.

We drove up the coast to a nature reserve (the lighthouse features in my favourite Disney film- Lilo and Stitch- the artists were inspired by the beautiful green landscape of Kauai and so that was where Lilo was meant to live).

More beautiful coastal views.

We drove a bit north, and saw big rice paddy fields. Then we went south through a bit tree tunnel at an old plantation town.

On our final day we went to the largest coffee plantation in the USA (free samples, Andy was pretty happy).

Then we went in a tiny plane. A really tiny plane. Now, I have been in a helicopter (we did a flight over New York) and I wasn’t keen. And I hate the tiny propeller planes-we flew from Vegas to the Grand Canyon and I really hated it.  But so much of Kauai is privately owned, so you can’t see a lot of it from the roads and paths. So I agreed that a little plane would be better than a helicopter.

I was so nervous though! We got some amazing photos, so I am going to save them for another post.