Yeah, always found good food in Hawaii.
Hey guys! Trip’s almost over, so I figured I’d give an update. Stealth bragging? You decide.
Plantation canal tubing: Good fun, and an interesting bit of history. Apparently, the long tunnels were all hand-carved. I guess the volcanic rock is too crumbly for explosives. We normally had headlamps on for the tunnels, but occasionally turned them off for a bit of fun.
Helicopter tour: I love helicopters. They shouldn’t fly, but they do. Our trip went all around the island, and included a stop at the Kauai Wildlife Refuge. Guy named Keith was there who (along with his family) basically owns the entire place. Dude’s gotta have a net worth in the 9 digits, but still tends to his rare palms and drives a 73’ Scout truck.
Nounou trail: Pretty decent warmup trail; about 4 miles round trip. The trail itself was nice but didn’t feel that exotic; other than some of the plants, it felt like many trails in California. However. You get to the top and it has a picnic area with a nice view. From there, you can climb to the top of Sleeping Giant. It’s a nice little rock climb, and the view from the top is incredible. Like, Angel’s Landing in Zion amazing. I think I just love high points in general. This isn’t me at the top, but that’s where I was.
Kalalou trail: Made it to the falls on this one. It definitely deserves its place as one of the best trails in the world. Just spectacular views. The beach two miles in was pretty cool, though closed due to the waves. Lots of rock cairns. Some kind of tradition? Anyway, I went on to the falls. This was a rather rough trail–to be honest, not completely pleasant. Lots of mud, several river crossings, and some slippery rocks. Gave myself a minor injury on a slip. But the falls inside made it all worth it. Honestly, pictures don’t give it justice, so I won’t bother. Just amazing. Slept 10 hours at the end of this day…
Pihea and Alakai Swamp trail: I did this the day after the Kalalou trail. I was a bit worried since it’s pretty long (maybe 10 miles round trip) and I was still somewhat beat, but in fact it was perfectly fine. Much of the length is boardwalk along the swamp and an easy walk. I made it to the final vista, but unfortunately it was shrouded in mist, so not much of a view. Still pretty nice. Lots of nice vistas along the drive up, too.
Maha’ulepu trail: Pretty short (4 miles round trip) along the southern coast. Nice one to wind down on. Ends in a limestone cave, which apparently is pretty rare in Kauai (mostly lava tubes). Enthusiastic greeter named Richard gave a quick tour. Also some odd tortoise breeding program going on nearby. Anyway, kinda fun but not at the same level as the other hikes.
Did various other bits of course, but those were the main trails I hit.
As for food: I did a lot of eating on the trail, so there’s not a lot to say here. Had some decent teriyaki beef from a food truck. Hit Eating House 1849 once–had the spicy ramen bowl, which was excellent. A totally adequate burrito from a place in Poipu called Da Crack. Some higher-end-fast-food style burgers (think In-n-Out or 5 Guys) from Bubba’s, which were quite good (admittedly, it would have been hard for a pile of meat and cheese to not taste amazing after a long hike). Had some of the local “shave ice”, which was quite good (I had the root beer float flavor).
Probably going to stop by Koloa Plantation tomorrow before my flight and try to pick up a case of rum. At least if they can pack it so that it doesn’t come out as a box of broken glass.
Sadly, our rocket didn’t launch. Delays. Oh well, it was still a lot of fun. Thanks again to everyone for the suggestions!
Almost forgot a couple things:
The chickens are hilarious. Leaper mentioned them in post 2, but I didn’t imagine their sheer pervasiveness. I doubt there’s a populated point on the island more than 300 feet from a chicken. The roosters are quite pretty, though.
The driving! Aaah! Sooooo… slooooow. A two-lane highway in CA would have a 55 mph limit, and the drivers will go 65. Here, the limit is 35 mph and the drivers go 30. I actually didn’t notice slow service in any other situation, so it’s not island laziness or whatever. It’s just slow drivers. Somewhat infuriating as a Bay Area resident…
That would be Hurricane Iniki, but I think the chickens predate that. They used to be on all the islands, now just Kauai. Not sure why they died out elsewhere.
Thanks for the report!
Brian
No mongoose on Kauai, plenty chickens.
Honestly, that means primarily that the restaurants have good views.
Ah ha. That could very well be it.
IIRC, the reason the rest of Hawaii has a mongoose problem is they were brought in as a means of solving the rat problem. Now there’s a mongoose problem and a rat problem.
When I lived on campus in Honolulu, there was a little mongoose family living near Manoa Stream. The students would feed them despite admonishments from the authorities not to. From my window in Hale Manoa, I could often see them scampering around on the sidewalk (the mongoose family, not the students or authorities).
No one thought about the fact that the mongoose comes out during the day and the rats feed at night.
Kauai, it seems, had been spared. The story goes a ship loaded with a crate of the critters was destined for the island in 1883. One of the workers on board was bitten (they’re not very nice), and in a fit of rage kicked the entire crate into the water (thank you random bipolar guy!). No other shipments of mongooses were sent to Kauai.
Almost forgot to thank you for this suggestion. Picked up four bottles on the way to the airport–as much as I could fit in my luggage. It’s good stuff. My housesitters really appreciated the spiced variety.
- We’ve lined up a fabulous type of gorilla that thrives on mongoose meat.
- But then we’re stuck with gorillas!
- No, that’s the beautiful part. When wintertime rolls around, the gorillas simply freeze to death.
- There’s no winter in Hawaii!