Day 4 in Kauai - Kayaking the Wailua River

Today we went kayaking down the Wailua River. I don't have much detail to give on it but to say that kayaking gets a bit tiring (physically), but I do always enjoy it, and this was definitely a nice river to kayak down (or up I suppose). Not a whole lot of specifics, just a lot of green. 

The funniest part of the trip was this asian couple who was kayaking in our group. All the kayaks in our group left at once, and then we were to meet up again at some point up the river. As we're waiting for the rest of the group, here comes the asian couple being towed by our tour guide's kayak, while they continue paddling in the air. Okay, maybe you had to be there, but I thought it was hilarious. 

After docking our kayaks, we crossed the river and hiked about a mile in to a waterfall and a pool. The waterfall was more like a trickle, but the pool was definitely swimmable. On the way back, the rain started coming down a bit, and by the time we got back, it was coming down pretty hard. Overall, we kayaked and hiked about 6 miles apparently. Not an overly impressive number, but it was pretty tiring nonetheless.

Also went to check out the Wailua Falls. Pretty treacherous hike down since it was raining, so we skipped it but did get to take in the massive waterfall.

Day 3 in Kauai - Winging It

Originally had a boat and snorkel tour on the Na Pali coast scheduled for today, but that was cancelled. The whole week its been pretty rainy, mostly on and off, but still a decent amount of rain. As a result, havent been able to do any snorkeling which is what we were hoping for, so we decided to explore the island some more.

Started off going north and saw "no snorkeling" signs on all the beaches known for good snorkeling. Waves in the ocean looked crazy. I've seeb quite a few taro fields, but this is the first one i saw up close. Saw some dry and wet caves which were pretty neat. The wet caves had a huge pool of water inside, but it also had signs that say "no swimming" due to health hazard, or leptospirosis bacteria? Gotta check spelling. Point is, probably didnt wanna go in there.

In terms of food, we tried two different places: Sweet chili chicken from Village Snack and Bakery Shop and Kalua Pork from Hanalei Taro and Lunch Wagon. The sweet chili chicken had this incredibly crispy skin and great flavor. Kalua Pork had great flavor as well, very tender. Now i dont like taro but i definitely like berry smoothies. Hanalei Taro used a taro base to make a berry smoothie, and that turned out to be quite good haha.

After that, we ventured over to the Kilauea Lighthouse. $5 a person to get in, dont know if id say it was worth it considering you can get a decent view from another area for free.

To end the afternoon we decided to make a quick (note quick) stop at Queen's Bath, a place right on the edge of the ocean where rocks form a pool that people can swim in. Found some parking in one of the Princeville neighborhoods and began walking down a path that we were thought might take us to Queen's Bath butbwe definitely werent sure. I would have taken pictures along the way to share, but i was so focused on surviving this muddy, slippery trail. Mud, rocks, everything was slippery and it was all downhill. There was one point where you almost had to brave a break in the ground to get across. It was nuts, but about 30 minutes later, we made it (it couldnt have been more than a mile), and the place was awesome. 

Day 2 in Kauai - Waimea Canyon and only 1 food place?

Began the day with the breakfast buffet at our hotel, Westin Princeville. Apparently if you forgo your first day of housekeeping, you get a free breakfast buffet for 1. Of course, buffet ended up being $20/ person. With the coupon though, essentially $10/person, this buffet was pretty damn good surprisingly.

Took a long drive almost all the way around the island to Waimea Canyon, often described as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Thats a tough name to lirve up to, but the views are still impressive nonetheless (see first two pictures).

The next two pictures were taken further into our drive, further up the mountain, and shows the Na Pali Coast. (We were actually supposed to take a boat and snorkeling tour of the Na Pali Coast tomorrow but trip was cancelled due to weather and water conditions).

Finally, we decided to embark on a seemingly simple 2 mile round trip hike. It took over an hour lol. The 5th,6th, 7th, and 8th pictures are from the hike. That bumpy looking dirt terrain, crazy inclines and declines with these rocks to deal with made it a very difficult hike haha. The views though were definitely worth it.

Finished the morning off with a stop in Waimea at Shrimp Station. Good shrimp, though i probably should have stuck with the regular Garlic shrimp instead of going with the Cajun. After that, we stopped in Hannapepe, not sure the spelling, but the point is they had Kauai Kookie company, with great shortbread cookies.

We also stopped by Poipu, the area on the South Coast and caught a glimpse of the Spouting Horn, which does exactly as it sounds, blows water through this little hole in the rock formation. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Day 1 in Kauai

Landed in Kauai around lunch time...Lihue airport looks smaller than Burbank haha.

Started off the trip with some lunch from Mark's Place (first two pictures) serving a variety of local food including Korean chicken, chicken catsu, teriyaki beef, etc.

Headed over to Costco, and of course different costcos have different things. Here, they had Kirkland water for 6.15 (3.85 at home?). They also had a whole roasting pig, definitely dont have that at costcos.

Found a place called Banana Joes which had awesome pineapple frosties.

Got to Westin Princeville which looks awesome. Check out view of our room witb a kitchen and some pictures near the pool.

Had dinner at The Tavern which is owned by Roy Yamaguchi, you know of Roy's.
Got the mahi mahi special.

Finally, got Lapperts ice cream which was incredible.