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Published: January 1st 2007
Viva La Revolucion
Can't resist breaking out the Mexican Duty FreeWelcome to the Coconut Cost of Kauai, Hawaii. Kauai is the oldest of the Hawaiin islands, with the most verdant scenery and varied wildlife of all the islands. The scenery inspired and has been used in any number of Holywood movies including King Kong and Jurassic Park.
For this blog I'm going to leave it to the pictures to tell most of the story. Having never taken a helicopter ride, Hawaii seemed like the perfect place to try it out. Inspired and encouraged by my new found French-Australian friend Tony - pictured with tequila and helicopter - we picked out the most reasonable deal and booked up the flight - $164 per head! (Note to travellers to Kauai, there are cesna trips round the island and we subsequently saw tours advertised for $80 in an agency in Coconut Market Place, Kuhio Highway Kapaa, HI.) The trip was indeed awesome, especially around the Napali Coast. Lasting around an hour all those steeply banked turns make it somewhat queasy on the stomach by the end.
Tony was only around for a couple of days so I tied up with a new travelling buddy John for the next few days. Surf was
Na Pali Coast
From the helecopter down, so San Diego John had put down his surfboard and proposed mountain biking some of the trails. We looked into renting on Christmas Eve and got a sweet deal whereby we got full suspension bikes through until 27th December, but only paid one days rental. First trip was around around the Coconut Coast to the elusive town of Anahola. Elusive in that its turning from the highway is unmarked - I guess they weren't looking for stray tourists to come visiting! As you can see from the photographs the scenery is pretty windswept. Carwrecks add to the rugged feel of the coast!
Xmas day came and after setting off the turkey and ham in the outdoor smoker - do a google image search on "Brinkmann Cimarron Heavy-Gauge Charcoal" if you want to see what our smoker looked like - we headed off to build up an appetite on the mountain bike trail The Powerline. Unlike a railtrack, a powerline follows the direct route from A to B, straight up and down. The Powerline seemed to do more up than down and certainly had its technical bits. It was, perhaps surprising, pretty fun; the reward matching the challenge surmounted.
What's with the little finger thing
Back on terra firma, steadying the stomachs Back at the ranch the spread happily matched the appetite we had worked up. John was chief smoker - ham and turkey - and chief bar-b-quer: 15 corninsh game hens; I was chief stuffer - enough for 30 servings! (You can see the stuffing behind of the smoked bird in front of the Geoff the (former) Chef.)
Boxing Day came round it was time to work off the Xmas excess - back on the bikes for an assault on Waimea Canyon. Unlike The Powerline, this trail followed a dirt road that a 4WD could take, but boy did it go up and down - it was quite a pump! First gear on pretty much all the climbs and some of those climbs had some kicks to them. The views along the way and out where two canyons join to become one were ample reward.
After the holidays we returned the bikes and wound down to some gentle hikes (including the Sleeping Giant) and a spot of kayaking/hiking on the Wailua River, the kayaking/hiking rewarded with the enchanting "secret" waterfall - ten minutes after we got there is certainly was not longer a secret, there had to be
a dozen additional tourists, soom followed by more!
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Mum/Laurie
non-member comment
I'd better get your tyres pumped up!`
Call that a helicopter ride?.........you should try my one down into the Grand Canyon! It must be the only bit of travelling I can brag over you! You should be so fit by the end of this trip, it's almost scary. Your photos are going to challenge those of your previous back-packing venture, can't wait to see them BIG and printed.