Kauai Bound - Tuesday

May 27 2008

Up at 6am to make the trek up to Tunnels for snorkeling. On the road by 7:45. We ran into traffic and rain between Kipu and Puhi. Both cleared up on the north side of Lihue. Perfectly gorgeous scenery this morning. I told Matt that this is what the phrase "awe inspiring" was meant for. This is truly the most beautiful place I have ever been. As you get closer to Hanalei you start running into one lane bridges. This is interesting. You can definitely tell the locals from the tourists when you come across them. The tourists look a little confused. Luckily we had read earlier how to negotiate these and did just fine. It was the others that we had to worry about! The beaches along the North Shore are stunning. We finally made it to our destination. We had already decided that we would not get to Tunnels in time to get one of the limited spaces so we parked at Ha'ena Beach Park and walk up the beach to Tunnels. This turned out to be quite a hike. Maybe half a mile and walking in sand, as you know, is hard. If you walk in the shade the sand is really soft and that makes it difficult. If you walk along the water line the sand is more course which can be hard on the feet. So if you go, be forewarned! On the way out, we did see some people walking along the road. That may be the way to go. Before setting out we walked across the street to check out Mahinolo Dry Cave. It was pretty cool. Of course there is a legend attached to this place as well-The name Maniniholo comes from a legendary head fisherman of Kauai's mythical little people, the Menehune. Ha'ena was a productive fishing ground for the Menehune. Traditionally, fishermen divided the catch, leaving half under the cliff at the site of the dry cave. The remaining half was carried to other Menehunes who lived in the island's interior. One day, the story goes, an evil spirit made off with the fish left at the cave. The fishermen went after the culprit. One team climbed to the top of the cliff and began digging down. The other worked up from the base. The result is the Maniniholo Cave. Anyway, back to the beach. Snorkeling itself was just ok. Not a lot of fish and the water wasn't real clear. I guess we were just spoiled by Two Step on the Big Island. There were a lot of scuba divers out and they said they had seen a shark. So of course, we headed over to were we had seen then come up. No luck yet again. We decided this may just be the island for beaches, sunsets and hiking but not snorkeling. We did the hot walk back to the car. We bought a shave ice and banana chips from the truck in the lot. No ice cream at the bottom and more of a snow cone consistancy than a true shave ice. Way too chunky but it was cold and refreshing. We drove to the end of the road at Ke'e Beach since we had planned on hiking part of the Na Pali trail. What a cluster f***! People just walking in front of your car like they are special and no place to park. The parking lot is one giant pot hole. I felt like we needed a 4 wheel drive. We figured that if the lot was this bad, the trail would just be impossible even if half of those people were going to the beach. Now that we know the snorkeling isn't worth it, we left that hike for another trip. Next time we will just go there straight away. We stopped in Hanalei and took pics of a really cute church. Our next photo op was at a turnout on the other side of Hanalei. You can see up the valley and there is all this taro growing. In Kapa'a we had to make the obligatory stop at the ABC Store. I had been looking forward to this the whole trip and nothing. Not one cool thing to buy. Walked over to Safeway. Since it is the same as Von's back home, I felt a little homesick. Funny that until then I hadn't really been thinking about home. We ate lunch, showered and then read for awhile. Matt finished his book so we walked over to Whalers. They didn't have anything that struck his fancy, so the only thing we bought was coffe since we were out. I dragged Matt into the Sand People store. They have really cute things. Matt kept picking things out for "our new place on Hawaii", especially the "Beach House" sign. Matt said he would buy it for me but already there is no extra room in the suitcase. I decided to track it down online from home. We watched a little of the free Polynesian show then went home. Hot dogs for dinner then another gorgeous sunset followed by the rest of Harry Potter.