Adventures in Hawaii

Oct 27 - Nov 1, 2006

by Kara Marcus and Brian Schultz

For full size pictures, go to the Hawaii photo gallery and click on the pictures!

Friday, October 27

We left Seattle at 5:30PM on Northwest.  After a lovely ~5hr flight to Honolulu, we got off the plane to transfer -- you know, Oahu's airport is mostly outside!  We were a little confused, and the airport is a tremendous maze.  We had to go over, under, and through lots of tunnels, buses (the "WikiWiki"), and terminals to get to our inter-island flight on GO! airlines.

After a brief (~30minutes) flight to Kauai, we were excited to finally be on vacation!  Of course, the reality was they lost one of our bags.  Oops.  Our suitcase (luckily mostly non-camping items) was MIA.  We filled out a form and picked up our amazing rental car . . . a Chevy PT Cruiser knock-off, a Maroon HHR like this:  

After a brief trip to WalMart to get camping fuel where we saw tourists buying gifts/souvenirs (odd, they have WalMarts at home, and everything there is from China anyway) including a Eukele, we went to our Best Western (which wasn't so Best) and slept.  Until a rooster woke us up at 4AM with a cock-a-doodle-doo.  Random chickens and roosters are all over Hawaii, just like this one in the parking lot.

Saturday, October 28

We set out for the Na Pali coast along the KaLaLau trail, an 11 mile hike that hugs the coast on ancient lava cliffs, undulating up and down 1000ft or so at a time, and passing two beautiful beaches, including the Kalalau beach at the end.  For this strenuous hike, we need all day.  The trailhead, however, has bad theft issues at the trailhead.  We heard this from the Parks people, the Avis folks, websites, our trail book, and the janitor at the airport.  We got a slightly late start, had to return our car and "transfer" to a taxi so that we didn't have a car at the trailhead, and we eventually got going around 10AM.  It was nice and sunny and beautiful!  For now. 

We unfortunately took a long lunch break and then in our delirium at the natural beauty, took a wrong turn.  This cost us some valuable daylight hiking time. 

As we continued with our heavy packs (we brought way too much crap -- turns out hiking in tropical weather requires little to no gear compared to our usual hikes in the Northwest), brief showers came and went, and we saw a beautiful rainbow!! 

The trail winds through tropical forests with guava and other fruits and nuts growing everywhere!  They were tasty. 

That's when it started raining for real.  A bit after the sun went down (which happens fast in Hawaii), we found the campsite at Hanakoa, halfway along the trail.

There were giant toads with glowing eyes everywhere!  And a nice little creek for us to get water from.  There was also a shelter for us to prepare our delicious dinner while it continued to rain. 

Sunday, October 29

Still raining.  Yup, we woke up and the rain hadn't stopped; in fact, it was a torrential downpour all night.  This turned the trail into a mudslide, and that nice creek we got water from into a raging river.  Waterfalls started appearing everywhere!  (Keep in mind, several major action movies including Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park were filmed here.)

We decided to try to get to our final destination as a dayhike and hid our packs, setting off with small daypacks.  Things weren't too bad until we got to the section of the hike that is on an exposed loose/rocky/muddy 2 foot-wide trail on a cliff, with nothing stopping you from plunging to the sea (which at this point had 20ft swells crashing right below us). 

Here we ran into several hikers who warned us about the dangers of going forward.  This is also where we first met a man who later became our saviour, Brooke. 

After turning around, we realized we had made the right call.  The trail had gotten much worse as we slipped and slided across the mud.  The little creek that had become a raging river was now a serious danger as we had to jump in and wade across, careful not to be swept downstream into rocks. 

At the first beach we had to cross another river.  This one had become a serious danger, waist-deep and about 50ft downstream washing straight out into an unkind ocean.  We had to use ropes and serious concentration to make it across.  Luckily we were quicker than the rock rolling after us after we tripped the booby trap, and faster than the natives chasing after us with their blowdarts -- although I sadly dropped the ancient and valuable gold statue in the river. 

We finally made it back to the trailhead, where of course we were a day early to meet our taxi.  Brooke had hiked with us and volunteered to take us to the Avis at the airport, after he convinced us to take a quick dip in the ocean (in a safe cove).  It was warm and deeliteful, despite our skins prunes having prunes.  He even treated us to dinner (and we bought him Coldstone, yum). 

We ended the evening by checking into a nice hotel and having some good old-fashioned Hawaiian fruity cocktails (complete with little umbrellas) and drying ourselves out. 

Monday, October 30

We checked out and drove South to Poipu to seek out the sun.  And we found it!  We crashed the super-upscale Hyatt pool and lounged around in their hammocks and sea water pool.  We tried to order drinks by the pool but they needed a room number, and apparently the Hyatt doesn't have a room 324 (the first thing that came to mind).  Oops. 

So we left.  We went over to check into our condo at Poipu Kai (which, despite upgrading to the "ocean view" wasn't quite near the ocean) and went snorkeling!  We also stocked up at the Grocery store (and farmers' stand) on overpriced food and mixers, preparing to make our own tropical cocktail concoctions. 

We watched the sunset on the beach and went back to cook our food and make some drinkies, and eat (pizza - not Hawaiian -- Kara says "gross!") and drink (strawberry daquiris) it all on our lanai. 

Tuesday, October 31

We dressed up as hawaiian tourists for Halloween -- all day.  Remember our lost suitcase?  What we haven't told you is that it hasn't arrived yet.  So first thing Tuesday morning we drove to the airport to hunt it down.  When I saw Kara jumping up and down I knew we had found it! 

We then drove to a secret beach (secret because it's at the end of a 5 mile dirt/sand road at the "end" of the island and conveniently located next to the Pacific Missile Range.  Beware what washes up on this beach -- if it has "USA" written on it and is shaped kinda like a big pencil, don't touch it.  (kidding)

The beach here is beautiful as you can see!  It's at the other end of the hike we were supposed to complete. 

We spent the day making sandcastles, swimming, reading, and just laying there in the sun.  We drove back and made some food and delicious pina coladas on our lanai before preparing for our luau!!!

Wait, just kidding.  Turns out the luau burned down.  Really.  So they were holding it in the hotel conference center.  Kinda reminded me of a bad business conference, with plastic table cloths and couples in matching hawaiian shirts or mumus. 

We promptly left.  Before it started.  We kept our shell lais.

So we drank more pina coladas and went for a nice dinner at The Beach House.  

Wednesday, November 1

Seems the rain followed us from Seattle.  We woke up and it was raining.  And it rained all day and messed up our plans to return to the Hyatt and try out a new room number! 

So we went snorkeling (the fish didn't know it was raining) -- and a fish tried to eat Kara's toes.  We went swimming and to the hot tub.   Before a family of 12 crashed the pool with floaties. 

And we got some good 'ol Hawaiian ice cream in the form of a banana split!  As we were chowing, a 7-year old kid dressed as Batman came up to us and said, "You're a mess!"  He was right, although he started crying when I kicked him and told him Halloween was over.

Then we did the only thing left we could find to do on Kauai in the rain - we went to Blockbuster, rented a movie, and watched it on my laptop in the car -- while on the beach. 

And we went to the airport and left.  Of course this was only after the Hawaiian Airlines folks wouldn't let us fly with our camping stove (we had to give it to a nice couple along with $7 to mail it back -- hopefully it will happen), and our toothpaste.  

And naturally our redeye flight came complete with not just one, but THREE screaming babies in the row directly behind us.  It was awesome.  The good news was we managed to each get our own row of seats and with some ear plugs and a little help from our friend Am Bien, we fell asleep no problem. 

And then it was Thursday, and we went to work.  Of course, that was only after I picked up the car from the valet parking service and pulled up to the airport -- turned the car off to load the luggage and it wouldn't start again.  Someone left the lights on at our valet parking . . . always fun times for 6AM before work.  In the rain. 

Welcome back to Seattle.