The entrance to our apartments.
We had booked a boat cruise to the Na Pali coast for this afternoon but the weather when we woke indicated this may not be a good day for it.
It had been quite windy during the night and it had also rained. It has been pretty breezy the whole time here however it was much stronger today. Although not raining, it was quite cloudy but the sun did make regular appearances with the wind blowing the cloud around.
Poipu beach front
“Black Friday” sales were too tempting and armed with Adrienne’s list we headed to Macy’s to brave the crowds. After Macy’s it was on to Costco and coupled with various other small stores, the morning had disappeared pretty quickly and, bargains in hand, we had to head back to the apartment for some lunch and to collect our bits for the afternoon cruise. We had to drive about 20 minutes to the port where we were starting the cruise and we arrived in plenty of time. As we waited to collect our tickets, one of the crew came along the line advising that due to the rough seas, they wouldn’t be doing the Na Pali coast section and instead would just head south into the calmer seas to sail around until sunset.
The Na Pali coast had been the main attraction for us so we decided at this point to cancel our trip and head back to look at some of the area around our apartment in a bit more detail.
Ocean walk
On the way back we cut across country through an area which they were trying (or had tried) to establish an upmarket resort style area with houses and boutique amenities and shopping precincts. From what we could see, the road infrastructure and accompanying manicured nature strips were in place as was the shopping precinct but very few, if any houses. We had a look around the shops which were mainly up market food stores/restaurants and boutique clothing stores.
Sunset from the front lawns of our apartment
We next stopped at the little village of Koloa. It is an old plantation village and now all the shops are various tourist stores. The buildings themselves though are well kept and the town has a bit of a Eumundi feel – without the markets.
We headed back to the apartment to drop our things and then went walking along the coastal walkway which went past the nearby Sheraton Resort to the nearby swimming beach. We walked along the beach for some distance which also fronted other resort/condominium complexes.
Even though the resorts front right onto what beach is available, they are required to provide public access to the beach area so there is a mix of hotel guests and locals at the beach. One advantage is that the resorts keep the areas well maintained and manicured so it is a lively spot.
The Sheraton rooster
We have noticed that there are chickens roaming freely all over the island. Even one of the radio stations we tuned into had the tag line “in rooster country” ! We came across the Sheraton rooster whilst we were on our walk.
We wandered back toward our apartment and along the ocean front and before too long the numbers started to swell for the nightly sunset show.
Even with the clouds the sunsets put on a good show and you can certainly say no two seem to be the same. After the show, we headed back to our verandah to watch the light disappear and have a quiet drink. We decided to self cater again for dinner and had lovely fresh BBQ chicken, salad and fried rice on our verandah. It has been nice to have the big apartment and be able to do our own thing with meals. There are not a lot of local restaurants here. The rest of our stay on the other islands will be more “hotel room” style and with lots more restaurants to try.
So tomorrow we head to Maui and island number 2. We have certainly enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of Kauai and I think would happily come back.
