Aloha! We've made it to Hawaii again. And have we been looking forward to it! It has been wayyyyy too long (2 years!). But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here it is, our trip in all its glory. Enjoy!
Tuesday, 05/28:
Ok, so this is actually the day before our flight. But as always, that means one thing: drop off the beasties. *sigh* That doesn't get any easier, really. I always feel a bit guilty. I know they'll be fine, I know the places we picked are good, but STILL...
Abby and George are spending the week at our veterinarian's. I'm a little sad that we won't be able to board them with our previous family since they don't like taking kitties that need medication. So the vet seemed the best choice since we know that popping pills and brushing teeth would be no problem at all. Abby&George lucked out and got the big window cat area with view of the street. That should keep them entertained.
Pepper is staying at the Mountain Top Kennel for the first time - well, second if you count that one night "test drive" that he did a few weeks ago together with his girlfriend Maggie. He was pretty confused about what was happening. So many new dogs, some nice, some not so friendly, and then he had to go into the kennel and WE WERE LEAVING! Those eyes.... *sigh* No, it really doesn't get any easier. I know he'll be fine, and he'll have a blast playing with the dogs, but still... This is the part of a vacation that I really, really hate.
Wednesday, 05/29:
With yesterday in the past we're heading to the airport. Our flight left at 10, which means we could start our day pretty much as usual. The drive to the airport was rather slow since we hit the rush hour (no fun. Am I glad that I don't have to deal with that regularly since I'm driving to Salem, not Portland!). The flight itself was very uneventful (which is good!). Except for the couple in front of us that got drunk and started talking pretty loudly, and the woman next to me who at some point muttered "Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!". Same old, same old. Heehee.
Our first flight was from PDX to Honolulu, five-and-a-half hours. From there it was a quick half hour flight to the island of Kauai where we'll spend the rest of the week. The photos show Honolulu from the second plane, and then the tip of Kauai right before we landed. Sorry for the quality - cell phone out of a plane window!
We're staying at the Outrigger Kiahuna Plantation, condos this time (which I prefer anyways, not a hotel person, me). The condo is very spacious, much bigger than we had hoped, and is located in the midst of a nice garden. Very peaceful. The island is gorgeous. Very lush and green. Kinda like Oregon, really. We even got our welcome rain shower!
After a quick shopping trip - there was even a farmer's market at which we bought REAL ripe bananas, pineapple, a mango for Jan (darn you, Fructose!), and carrots. We had light dinner on the balcony with view of the beautiful garden and even the ocean (just barely visible :)).
We then headed to the beach. *big smile* Sunshine, sand, warm water. Beautiful. We'll have fun here!
Thursday, 05/30:
As expected, I woke up quite early (3 am - which is 6 am Oregon time, not bad at all!). Turns out I wasn't the only one: There were lots of chatty cocks at around that time. Amazing, since it was still pitch black. Well, since I was up anyways I made myself some coffee (Kona coffee of course), added the last finishing touches to my paper and - drumroll - submitted it. Fingers crossed now!
When Jan got up at around 6 am local time we first had breakfast (with more of those tasty bananas - gosh, they are so good) and then went snorkeling in the ocean. I got spooked a little. The ocean is a bit rough, and I ended up with sun lotion in my eyes and foggy goggles. But, I did see some fish and even a few anemones. Jan on the other hand, he's just a natural in water. He went out much further with better view and even more fish.
I also started making some more plans for the coming days. Stay tuned, I won't give anything away just yet :). As for this morning, we drove to the Kauai Coffee Company in Kalaheo. It's the largest coffee farm in the US (!) with about four million plants, gathering about 1 pound of coffee per plant and season. That's a LOT of coffee.
Here we are on our way. Look at the lush green scenery!
Upon arrival, we first headed along the trail. There we learned about how to grow coffee beans and how to turn them into coffee.
Of course, we ended the visit with a stop at the gift show which we left happy and a good $80 poorer (but T-shirts, mug and decaf richer). The decaf, by the way, was prepared with the Swiss Water Process. And you can definitely taste a difference - it is much smoother and less harsh.
On our way back we stopped at a local grocery store (Sueoka's). Among other things we got some very, VERY tasty Ahi.
In the afternoon we drove a little to the east, to the "Shipwrecks" Beach, named for the wreckage of a fishing boar in the mid 1970s. From there we took the Maha'ulepu Heritage Trail, a 2-mile trail along the coast to Kawailoa Bay that weaves in and out of the vegetation. The first few meters were easy walking along the beach.
Then up we went to Maka-wehi Point ("Calm Face" in contrast to Maka-hu'ena = "Rough Face" further to the west) with a beautiful view of the ocean.
We then descended down the Pa'a Dunes,
where we also encountered this sacred heiau (stone wall).
On the side we found naupaka flowers, a flower whose petals go only half way around.
It is said that once the petals were complete. Legend has it that two young lovers (Kai and Hiwa) could not be together and could only meet secretly. Hiwa grew frustrated with this, and at one time took a flower and tore it in two, keeping one half and giving the other half to Kai before fleeing up the mountain. The gods took pity with the two unfortunately lovers and turned them into flowers with half-petals: Hiwa into the mountain naupaka (naupaka-kuahiwa) and Kai into the beach naupaka (naupaka-kahakai).
Continuing on, we walked along a golf course for a bit. We also saw the CJM Stables (and a group of horseback riders on our way back).
After a little bit of rock climbing (yeah, right!),
we had an easy walk along the beach, and were rewarded with a beautiful view of the bay.
Fun trip!
On our way back we stopped at the Shopping Village right across the street from the Outrigger to get some shaved ice. Unfortunately, that store was closed (dang!), so we ended up buying from the competition: dairy-free gelato. Jan went for dark chocolate and pear while I had dark chocolate and lilikoi (passionfruit). VERY tasty!
Friday, 05/31:
This morning we drove to Lihue Airport again. No, not to leave the island - at least not for good! AirVentures is located there, the "eco-friendly alternative to helicopter rides", touring the whole island on 12 gallons of fuel.
There was a little bit of rain on the way to Lihue, but not for long, thank goodness!
On the way, there is this beautiful avenue, and I just kept taking photo after photo. At least some of them turned out semi-decent (mind you, these were taken from a moving car, and despite Jan's best effort, it's not easy to keep it steady when there are potholes in the street!).
Our pilot Paul got us all settled in and after a few jokes we were up in the air!
It was nice to see several sights that we had explored on foot yesterday from the air. Here's the area that we hiked yesterday afternoon
and here is the coffee farm (note the rainbow around the shadow of the plane in the second image!).
We also saw the Sprouting Horn (a blow hole) in action:
And look at the color of the ocean!
From there, we flew across the island. Paul pointed out lots of interesting things, but without having seen them from the ground (or having read about them), my memory is a bit fuzzy. So, here are just a few representative photos that show the beauty of the island. It's very different from Big Island two years ago which has lava fields and active volcanoes on one side, and green lush forests on the other. Kauai is green through and through (no wonder, no active volcanoes on this island!).
Overall, very impressive views. That trip was absolutely worth it!
Once back on the ground we were longing for some coffee/decaf and pastries. We had a little bit of trouble finding a cafe (the first one was closed, the second one not where GPS said it would be, so we ended up turning around just a few meters (!) before the cafe). We wanted to head north anyways some waterfalls and gardens (more later), and we were lucky and found a cafe that even served gluten free and vegan pastries (yumyum!).
Off to see some more sights! Here are the Opeakaa Falls. Very pretty. But honestly, coming from Oregon (and before that from NY state), waterfalls are not that special anymore. Still very pretty though!
The other main attraction, beside the flight of course, was Smith's Tropical Paradise, a "tropical oasis in the heart of Wailua". It's a very pretty garden with a variety of different zones (e.g. displaying ginger, bamboo, Japanese plants, etc.). They also have lots of birds. The most prominent ones of course were the peacocks. We saw some very impressive wheels!
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This is not a peacock, obviously ;)!
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Do you see the spider?! It's a Hawaiian Garden Spider, very common it seems. Look at that zigzag pattern of her web!
After so much excitement we spent a "relaxing" evening playing this special version of memory. Instead of the same two images, a matching pair consists of two different objects that are anagrams! Funfunfun!
Saturday, 06/01:
This morning Jan went scuba diving. I didn't go since I had so much trouble equalizing the last time I went. I'll let Jan share his experience himself (which also means less work for me - isn't life great!).
Jan: Scuba diving was great! First came the refresher course, which got cut short to a few minutes (instead of half an hour) after I mentioned that I am a physicist, for which our Divemaster Evan was very grateful: "Recently I had two Astrophysicists who let me explain the whole nine yards about PSI vs. Bar, buoyancy, etc. only to tell me afterwards that they are physicists and know all that stuff..."). My fellow divers were from Eugene and Seattle - we were an all-northwestern group! We started off from Koloa landing and explored the left reef in the first dive.
A good 10 minutes into the dive and after admiring a couple of big sea turtles (>2-3 feet) leisurely paddling by as well as myriads of fish in all shapes, sizes and colors, Evan swam towards me and - after some confusion on my side (non-standard items are hard to communicate at 40 feet under water) - took one of my diving lead weights: a fellow diver had too little weight and correspondingly trouble to stay under water. Afterwards the rest of us continued our dive without Evan, who apparently drifted a bit at the surface while helping the fellow diver and then didn't find us again until the end of the dive. (Admittedly, we should have resurfaced, too, after not seeing him for a minute or two, but there was just too much to see and Evan was not high on our worry list...). Was all good though, we re-united at the end of the dive.
After a half hour break to warm up and taking in some needed (?) calories (Doritos & Snickers) we started our second dive: the right-hand reef. This dive went off without a hitch - beautiful fish and corals as well as more sea turtles, all around very enjoyable!
While Jan was out and about, I (Michaela) went shopping. Of course, right?! Talk about typical gender roles :). I found some cute tops and pants, and gluten free cookies and apple bananas (not a typo, they are really called "apple bananas" and they taste SO much better than the ones you get at the regular grocery stores in Oregon. *Sigh*).
Since we didn't take many pictures today, I'll post just a few random ones:
Here's me and a rubber tree, and next to us, a Banyan tree. Both belong to the same species, the fig trees. I just love the look of them, it looks like they're melting! We saw a similar tree (just much bigger) on the Big Island two years ago, remember?
And here's Jan and me right before lunch. Today was the first time we went out for lunch/dinner (so far we had cooked or grabbed some light lunch/dinner). Since Jan was hungry from diving, and since we didn't feel like shopping for something, we went to Keoki's Paradise, located just across the street from our condo. The food was good, very tasty. Jan had a steak with sweet potato fries and I had the poke tower. Oh yes, and there were chickens. Big surprise since they are everywhere on this island!
On our way back Jan had a biiiiiig ice cream cone filled with raspberry and mango ice cream. It was melting almost faster than he could eat it :)!
In the afternoon we went to the beach for some swimming and sitting in the sand. There were a few clouds in the sky, which was perfect (no sunburn!).
Sunday, 06/02:
We started the day in the ocean: snorkeling! My amazing hubby had bought Sea Drops, which prevent the goggles from fogging. And it works beautifully! No fogging problems here anymore.
I stayed relatively close to the shore (Jan of course was much further out there where the fish are bigger). Nevertheless, I saw lots of fish, several types of Butterflyfish and Surgeonfish. The "Bluestripe Butterflyfish" was definitely the most pretty (note: not my photo).
After breakfast we headed to the Natural Pet Hawaii store, originally in hopes of finding something really Hawaiian for Mag and Pepper. We didn't find anything that worked (things were either too practical (!) or too over-the-top (pink bandanas anyone??)), so we ended up getting a catnip filled banana for Abby and George and a tug toy for Pepper. We still need something for Mag!
Oh, and on the way back I got a text: Our chocolate farm tour that we had scheduled for tomorrow got cancelled! You can imagine how bummed we are!). We're hoping we can reschedule with another farm. So, we called our "Expedia Expert" Gayle who had booked the chocolate farm tour for us - unsuccessfully. We later learned that Gayle had just quit! But thank goodness there is more than one expert here. Bart and Noli were able to book us to another chocolate farm tour, this time with Steelgrass Farms tomorrow morning.
The big event today was Capt Andy's Na Pali Dinner Sunset Sail, a four and a half hour boat tour to the Na Pali Coast which can only be accessed by boat, via air, or after a difficult (difficulty 9) 11 mile trail. We had already seen it from the air a few days ago, but seeing it from the ground (well, water) really showed just how tall those cliffs are. Very beautiful experience! Although I must say that I got a little queasy with the boat rocking up and down and up and down.... So I stayed mostly near the back part of the boat, fixing my eyes on something that didn't move, while Jan was out and about and took the pictures. Here are a few to give you an idea of just how beautiful this area is:
Just a few minutes away from Port Allen Harbor we rain into a group of dolphins.
According to your captain Tony this was a rare treat at this time of day, and he made sure that everyone had plenty opportunity to see the little guys. This photo only shows two of them, but there must have been a good 15 to 20 dolphins swimming with us. A good start! We also saw a couple sea turtles later near the Na Pali coast. Here's one of them, sticking its head out to get some air.
(You can see captain Tony right behind me on the wheel.)
A few impressions from the boat:
And from the coast:
And here we are now, at the Na Pali Coast. Capt Tony slowed her downed quite a bit so that we could get a good look. And he had many stories to tell. Very entertaining!
Here's a tiny waterfall that capt Tony called the "Fertility Fall". Curiously, though, I can't seem to find any information on it!
Several movies starred this cave. There was also a beautiful wedding held in here (which unfortunately didn't last very long..)
And this is the famous arch that Capt Jack Sparrow stood under in Pirates of the Caribbean. It had also been used in various other movies. It might look small, but it's actually big enough that a helicopter can fly through it!
Kalalau valley:
For size comparison: Here's another sail boat.
And we even got a rainbow on the way back (it started raining a little):
And a beautiful sunset!
Monday, 06/03:
After a "short" night (hey, it was past 9 when we got back to the condo!!) we drove to the Steelgrass Farm near Kapa'a. "Steelgrass" by the way refers to bamboo, which is one of the first things they planted and focused on. Why the name? Well, bamboo belongs to the grass family. One hint is that it grows insanely fast (our tour guide mentioned that some bamboos can grow several inches per day). It is also pretty strong (some bamboo have the strength of steel - therefore the name).
Below are photos of one of their handouts (FAQs):
We started the tour with a free sample of chocolate. What a wonderful way to start the day! Oh, and did you know that dark chocolate is actually very healthy for you? Full of antioxidants! Some doctors recommend to eat an ounce per day! And who am I do disagree with doctors, right? No wonder Jan is smiling :).
Aaaanyways. After this chocolate-y start we got more samples, this time of fruits and vegetables. The first one was lime from one of the very first trees they had planted together with sugar cane. I had never eaten sugar cane before. It has lots of fiber, so they suggested not to swallow it. But you can bite into it and suck out the sweet sugar. Very nice combination, too, of the lime and the sugar cane.
We saw lots of vanilla orchids. The actual plant is a vine that grows no roots and can be placed around pretty much anything. The flowers bloom for only one day (a few hours only, really), and pollination has to happen during that short time frame. And to top it off, all of their vanilla flowers are hand-pollinated! If that wasn't bad enough, the actually vanilla flavor that we know needs a LOT of work: After successful pollination, the stem behind the flower elongates and forms the vanilla bean. These beans have to be harvested, and then undergo several weeks or MONTHS of "spa treatment": Wrapping them in hot towels alternates with gently massaging them. Overall a very long and slow process. We were too early in the year, so we didn't get to taste the vanilla (which this farm is pretty proud of).
We also saw papyrus. Th actual material used for papyrus paper is inside the green stem. After peeling away the outer layer, the inner part is white and a bit sticky and easy to tear into more thin strands. Those strands are then interwoven, soaked in water, and pressed until they can be used as paper.
Another thing they are very proud of: Their bees (see the ribbon?). These bees don't have to be medicated in any way since there are no parasites.
Oh, and we saw Pepper, too!
And bamboo art (they had much more, but this was my favorite).
More fruit tasting!
That fruit on the right is called an "Eggfruit", or Pouteria. This fruit gets its name from its flesh, which has the consistency of cooked egg yolk. The taste is sweet. Both together, the texture and the taste, feel a bit odd at first, just not what you'd expect. I liked it (Jan wasn't too sure about it, though).
And then we've finally arrived at the chocolate trees! Have I mentioned that dark chocolate is really good for you? An ounce a day has five times the antioxidants that blueberries have!
The trees are pretty small, about our size or just a little bigger. That's ok, though, since the fruit grows directly out of the trunk as you can see in the third photo. The cocoa beans are inside the yellow pods, about 20 or 30 of them. They are enclosed in a slimy, slightly sweetish flesh that animals like to eat. The seed itself is slightly bitter (which means that animals don't eat them, leaving them to grow into new chocolate trees!).
Here you can see the flesh covered seeds.
Jan posing in front of the chocolate trees.
On to the tasting! Our guides walked us through the chocolate making process: The first steps are harvesting, fermentation of the beans, and drying of the beans. At that point you can open them and eat the chocolate nibs. The consistency is that of almonds, and they taste a little bit bitter, like very dark chocolate (doh!) or a bit like coffee beans. The smell is amazing (very strong and delicious!
After the fermentation, the nibs are ground into a rough puree, and from there another 24 to 72 hours of constant grinding follows, depending on the desired final texture. Traditionally, this step took at most 24 hours, until someone named Lindt (rings a bell?) forgot to turn off the machine over the weekend and came back to an extra smooth and extra sweet surprise on Monday morning!
We then tasted 10 different chocolates from different parts of the world. Have I mentioned that dark chocolate is really, REALLY good for you? It's amazing how different they were indeed! One of my favorites is the 70% Santander Single Origin Dark grown in Columbia. The taste is very distinct, you can definitely taste the slight bitterness of coffee in it! It melts very nicely, too. Another favorite is the Kallari Red Leaf, grown in Ecuador. Very smooth texture, melts nicely, and has a nice caramel taste. I also like the chocolates from Madagascar, which have a slit fruity taste. We tasted the Valrhona Manjari and he Dandelion Ambanja. This one has a distinct smokey flavor. Jan also liked the Taza Stone Ground, grown in the Dominican Republic. Its texture is very coarse, almost sand like. Definitely nothing that'll melt in your mouth, but it tastes very good when you chew it. Have I mentioned that dark chocolate is really, REALLY good for you? An ounce a day, baby!
After this delicious tour we headed to Kilauea where we looked at the old light house and the surrounding bird reserve.
And here's a view of where we went next: Anini Beach:
Anini Beach was originally called Wanini Beach, but after the "W" fell off the sign, they just renamed the beach (no, I am not making this up!). It's a very pretty beach with lots of trees for shade and very calm ocean. We went snorkeling for a bit and saw lots of fish (similar to the ones we had already seen in Poipu) and a sea turtle that was swimming calmly a few meters away from us. Very beautiful! By the way - looking is with your eyes only when it comes to turtles! Touching a turtle can result in a $10,000 fine!
Here's Jan right after he came back from snorkeling.
And here are a few impressions from the beach:
Tuesday, 06/04:
Today we drove to the west side of the island, to the Waimea and Koke'e State Parks. The drive itself was very scenic: First along the shore with ocean to the left and mountains to the right, then up the mountains along a small winding road with lookouts left and right. We stopped at the Kalalau Lookout first, which had a beautiful view of the Waimea valley.
We followed the road a little bit further up to where the Pihea trail starts, and followed a trail for a while. Not sure if it was the Pihea or not (the signs were a bit ambiguous). Again, beautiful views of the valley, and also of the canyon toward the center of Kauai.
One of the wettest spots on earth, eh? Bone-dry I tell ya! I guess they've never been to Oregon!
