Hawaii- Kauai Day 4

Our first morning in Kauai, we didn’t really have anything planned.  Our resort was stunningly beautiful.  There were multiple buildings, with your door opening straight outside.  But they were all connected by a roof.  So it felt almost like you were indoors.  Except all the landscaping.  So much greenery!  And flowers, and water and ponds with fish and bridges and rocks, etc.  This picture shows a small part of it.

This is exactly what our room looked like.  There was a second pool outside our patio windows.

 This was the main pool, and where we went swimming.  Amazing!

The greenery and landscaping is everywhere so I didn’t think to take a picture (google images).  But I loved walking through it every day.  It’s nice that they have the roof though because it does rain a lot.  We were told Kauai gets more rain than any place on earth.  And the one side of the mountain gets tons more than the other.  Something to do with the way the clouds let out the rain at the peak and so there’s none left on the other side.  And the rain runs right down the mountain back to the ocean because the island is shaped like a cone, or a chinaman’s hat.  Our concierge sat down with us for a long time talking about things to see on the island and drawing out things on the map.  I wanted to know about hikes, because I’ve hear they are everywhere.  But he was the most cautious man I’ve ever met.  Telling us about all the dangers out there.  The one hike I asked about he said is very dangerous as it is a small path (it’s not, it’s normal size, big even) and it’s a drop straight off the mountain (that part is true). And it can get very treacherous if it rains and gets muddy (also probably true).  And that you have to get there early, yada yada.  He told us about Waimea Canyon and how the road going up is really windy and steep!  That we might start to smell burning rubber on the way down if we don’t shift into a lower gear…  We chuckled about it later because it wasn’t any different than anything we’ve been on.  But whatever.  He was very helpful.

I woke up and went to the gym.  It was small, like most hotel fitness centers but it did have a spinning bike just like the ones at my gym so I was able to do an hour on the bike- dripping sweat and soaked through!  Humid!  It was fun though because it was dark when I got there and I was in front of a window.  So as the sun came up, I got to see my view- which was rocks and ocean.  Fun!  I went outside to do a few more things on this grassy area.  Workouts are more fun with beautiful scenery.

After getting cleaned up and talking to the concierge for awhile, we decided to just head north and come up with something.  But first, lunch.  Food truck tacos!!  So yum!

The food here… Oh my.  And as a plus, this is the first vacation I’ve taken where I haven’t gotten the sick, heavy stomach from eating restaurant food so much.  This food seemed to be less processed, less crap, and oh so yummy.

I have heard a lot about Hanalei so we set that as our destination.  It’s a cute little town with a lot of shops, and also quite busy.  We stopped for some shaved ice- something we’ve also heard is a must-do.  I wasn’t feeling like a big sugary treat and there was a health market across the street so I went there.  And I got a smoothie bowl (dragonfruit, I think?) and it was yummy!  I was very happy with it.  Ryan was pretty happy with his shaved ice too.

I used good old Google to find us a hiking path nearby.  And we ended up with the Okolehao Trail.  The website said “waterfall”.  So I assumed we would find a waterfall at the end.  It also said it was like 2.6 miles or something.  I wasn’t sure if that was round trip or one way.

It was JUNGLE!  I loved it!!  And the view was pretty incredible!

I was happy with my water hiking shoes!  Better than I imagined they would be.

There were not many others on the trail, maybe half a dozen people.  But when we chatted with one couple they said there was no waterfall.  Hmmm.  They said something about a bench, though.

So we went a bit further and came to a flat, open spot with a little bench.  And the view was amazing, though same as what we had been seeing at every break in the trees.  This is Halawei Bay.

But there was a trail that kept going up the mountain…  It was a bit more narrow and overgrown, like it was less-traveled.  But I was thinking the other people just didn’t go far enough and there was probably a waterfall up there somewhere.  So we decided to keep going.

I was in front for a bit, and I hit one too many spiderwebs.  One with the spider at my face level and I was getting the eeby-jeebies.  I thought, if others had come this way, there wouldn’t be so many spiderwebs in the path. (They seemed harmless enough, cute little guys).

So we started talking about what kind of wild animals live on Kauai (which we researched later and there’s not much.  Goat, bore, chicken…)  I wasn’t worried because there are no predators but Ryan started saying wild bores can be pretty mean.  Minutes later, baby bore on the trail!  Ryan was in front, and he stopped, then fumbled for his camera.  The little guy looked at us for 10 seconds and then trotted away.  My comment was, “if there’s a baby, there’s probably a mama close by.”  But we kept going.  Ryan saw another one (could’ve been the same one, who knows.)  We went a little further but eventually decided to turn around.  There was no water in sight.  I guess maybe the website had meant there were VIEWS of a waterfall.  I mean, we didn’t actually see one, but maybe it’s far away and we missed it?

On the way back down I was looking at the trail, and noticed how many tunnels there were in the grass.  They were EVERYWHERE.  I started picturing this whole colony of wild bores up there just watching us!  But we didn’t come across any others.

We had lots of people recommend Duke’s to us, and it was in Lihue by the airport, which was a bit north of where we were staying.  So I figured if we were going to go there we should hurry and do it on our drive back.  I called and was able to make a reservation as we started driving.

It was beautiful!  The outdoor/indoor thing again.  No walls or windows, just open.  There was even this really pretty rock waterfall landscaping inside.

I like the salad bars these restaurants have.  I can fill up on salad since I can't eat the bread products most people fill up on.  The entrees were good too!  Prime rib and whatever the fish was that was on special that day. 

Everyone had said, “you have to try the hula pie”.  Well, at this point I had not been eating sweets at all.  I told Ryan I would try some of it.  But he didn’t want to eat the whole thing.  So I agreed to eat my share.  When you’re faced with a rare opportunity, sometimes trying new things is more important to me than being strictly treat-free.  I had also tried the chocolate pineapple earlier.  So here’s what the hula pie looked like (thanks google images)

It’s macadamia nut ice cream on a chocolate cookie crust with more chocolate and nuts and whipped cream.  I like ice cream and macadamia nuts so I enjoyed it.  But honestly… we didn’t see what they hype was about.  It wasn’t all that special. 

We had a good laugh at the chickens actually climbing on the car next to us when we left.

We had to do our research and find out what the deal was with the chickens.  We learned that they are protected, so people can’t hunt them.  All birds on Hawaii are protected.  And that the wild species was different from the domestic farm animal but that they have mixed so much now you can’t really tell them apart.  I think that was because of some hurricane that leveled the island at one point?  Now I can’t remember the details for sure.  Anyway, the chickens are not good to eat- too tough.  Nor are the eggs.  Kind of hard to believe, especially if you were homeless and starving.  Also, they don’t have any real predators on Kauai.  On Oahu they were having problems with rodents in their fields so they introduced the mongoose to the island.  And the mongoose started killing chickens too.  But there are no mongoose on Kauai.  So now you know!