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Published: October 29th 2022
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lighthouse coming into the bayWe woke up and headed to breakfast. While at breakfast we arrived at the docking bay on Kauai and saw the lighthouse at the entrance. Once we docked, we were ready to depart and we went out to find a taxi to head to our rental car. We arrived at the rental place very early so we were charged for an extra day but that would give us extra time. Our first stop was Wailua Falls. Wailua Falls is a double waterfall whose true height is disputed. The falls were easy to get to and they are the ones you might see on Fantasy Island.
Our next stop was to find the Hanapepe swinging bridge, but we were not successful. We wanted to head onto the canyon so we decided we would try again later. Waimea Canyon is the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. The road had many switchbacks and pull offs but the best views were at the 2 main lookouts. We stopped at the first one on the way up. The canyon was gorgeous and the colors really popped out. The depth was amazing. Up on one of the walkways, a man was on a platform and he
asked the crowd if we wanted to learn facts about the area. He told us how he grew up here, that the swamp was on top of the mountain, how they hunted in the canyon and many other facts. He then taught us some of the language.
Wai is water. If you were rich, you had a lot of water and were wai wai.
Ha means breath and
i means the creator. Hawai’I stands for breath, water and the creator. He then explained why the union jack was on the Hawaiian flag. The Big Island aligned with the British, Maui with the French, Kauai with the Russians and Oahu with the United States. The British help the chief of Hawaii unite all the islands. After they united they took on British traditions and name the chief the king. The rest of the flag is a series of red, blue and white strips representing the other nations flags. He was in the traditional clothing and showed us traditional tools. It was all very interesting.
We skipped the 2
nd lookout for our return trip as we wanted to make Kalalau Valley Lookout before the fog set in.
We arrived at
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A zen temple we saw the very top of the mountain for a view of the Kalalua valley after circumventing the huge pot holes in the road. The view down into the valley was breathtaking (3000 feet down) and after a bit a rainbow appeared. On our way back we stopped at the 2
nd canyon lookout. There was another amazing view.
We next set out for Polihale Beach but once we got close, a sign said we needed a 4-wheel drive vehicle so we turned back. We then went to Fort Elizabeth. It was a Russian fort but it didn’t look like anything so we didn’t even get out of the car. Next, we went on search for the swinging bridge and found it. Pam even crossed the bridge with us she felt it wouldn’t be a problem since she swayed on the boat so much. About this time, we decided to try to call and see if we could get into one of the luaus on the island. We called several places but they all said they didn’t have a luau that night. Claire finally found one and booked it since Pam really wanted to go to one. We headed to see the
blow hole and then onto the tunnel of trees. We had a bit more time before the start of the luau so we tried to go to the lighthouse. We got close but not as close as we had wanted.
We arrived at the luau and as it turns out, along with the buses from the cruise ship. The luau was ok but not what we expected. The food was really a not great barbeque served buffet style. The entertainment was good and they had good dancers. After the cruise, we took our car to the airport and a taxi back to the ship. It was late when we got home so that’s why our blog post was delayed.
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