Breakfast on our verandah
We are staying in Koloa, which is on the southern part of the Island of Kauai, at the Poipu Kapili Condominium Resort.
After our pretty sleepless night on the flight over, we slept like logs last night – oh, except for the alarm clock going off at midnight, then Adrienne pressing snooze and it going off again 10 minutes later ! But despite that, it was after 9am when we woke !! We both looked at each other and said “we would normally be gone an hour ago “.
Waimea Canyon
So it was a leisurely start – breakfast on the verandah – and it was after 11am when we finally set off. But that was also after I had about 8 trips between the car and the apartment to collect gadgets, or cords, or chargers, we needed – definitely not properly organised for this trip !
“Grand Canyon of the Pacific”
First we were heading to the lower western part of the island to Waimea Canyon. When Mark Twain first saw this canyon he labelled it the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”. And it was pretty grand ! Being Thanksgiving, there was quite a bit of traffic and as we headed up the loop road to the canyon lookouts there were plenty of cars pulling over at all the lookouts and parking was a premium.
“Native”
At the main Waimea Canyon lookout, we managed a parking spot right at the look out and walked up to the top. This is about 5,000 fee high and the temperature difference is about 20 degrees F and with quite a wind blowing it was amusing to see all these people in shorts and thongs/sandles with duck-down winter jackets on !
Na Pali Coast – think Jurassic Park
At the lookout there was a guy dressed up (or down really) in costume (?) – pretty much almost a mankini but with all his various spears and a huge headgear – but he was making a quid sounding his conch shell horn for all the tourists.
Clouds above the mountains
We continued on to other lookouts, stopping where parking allowed, including Kole e State Park and Lookout, above the Na Pali coast.
Another happy snapper !
The Na Pali Coast is famous as a backdrop to the movie “Jurassic Park” and I had my music soundtrack perfectly spaced for the them to play as we entered the parking lot. We will see this from another perspective tomorrow – so stay tuned !
With the mountains almost forming a barrier on the island, this lookout has a spot which the sign says is one of the wettest places in the world. Looking at the clouds stuck to the mountain tops you can see why.
Then we headed back down around the loop round and back to Koloa. We stopped at our local deli again and bought lovely freshly made bread rolls to have for lunch and a few more provisions for our “Thanksgiving Dinner”.
Sunset at Hanalei Bay
After lunch (at 3pm mind you) we headed east and around to the other side of the island to Hanalei Bay. Hanalei Bay and Princeville are very up market – we drove past one golf course advertising it was in the top 100 in the world – and we managed to get an early sunset over the Bay as it sank behind the mountains.
Above Hanalei Bay – there were lots of paddy fields around here
We headed back and it was dark as we arrived back at our apartment. Adrienne spent the last part of our drive looking up the “Black Friday” specials on the Walmart website which she kept telling me started at 6pm that night. Sure enough as we passed the Walmart we went to yesterday, the carpark was full and there were cars (or should I say trucks – big beefed up utes seem to be the go here) parking on all the available footpaths and median strips !
Alas I couldn’t find a spot to stop so we headed home instead. Again we opted for a casual platter on our verandah, listening to the wind in the palm trees and watching the stars pop out in the sky – and in honour of Thanksgiving we added sliced turkey to our deli selection !
Cold Turkey !