Trip To Kauai - Day 1

Since we're here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on Oahu, it's a lot easier (and a lot cheaper) to visit our neighbor islands to see what interesting things you can't see on Oahu. Through an impromptu opportunity, DeAnna set up a 2 1/2 day trip to Kauai, the Garden Isle.

Kauai is the oldest of the major islands in Hawaii and is covered in the most lush tropical greenery I've ever seen. It is also a secondary destination for tourists, so the lifestyle is more laid back and (dare I say) rural. The Little airport in Lihue has only a few gates and though it does receive flights directly from the mainland and Japan, it primarily serves traffic from the other islands. It is also the only airport on the island.

I left work at noon on Wednesday and picked up DeAnna for our afternoon flight. Naturally, she had already set up the trip and planned our itinerary so we we were packed and ready to go. The flight only took 30 minutes and within 90 minutes we were on the only major road (a 2-lane highway) that snakes around most (but not all) of the island perimeter.

Our first destination was the mouth of the Waimea River where you can find a green sand beach. The green sand is carved out of the mountains and deposited here. It contains volcanic ash and ovaline which gives it an olive-green tint. This also gives the ocean at the mouth of the river an olive tint. After seeing crystal-clear blue waters, it was strange to see water that looked like it washed out of an Oklahoma river.

The next stop was upstream at the Waimea Canyon - the Grand Canyon of the Pacific! Because Kauai is older than the other islands, it has had the time to erode it's volcanic mountains. The formation of these mountains takes advantage of the trade winds and squeezes out massive amounts of rain from the clouds which forms rivers that flow year round. That doesn't happen on the younger islands. In fact, the tallest peak on Kauai, Mount Wai'ale'ale, is the wettest place on earth and averages 440 inches of rain every year!

At the end of the road - which is literally the end of the road for this side of the island - is the Pu'u o Kila lookout. This is a cliff-side vantage point that looks out on a huge, inaccessible valley that plunges to the ocean. This is where many scenes from the latest King Kong movie were shot.

These photographs appear hazy because of the distances. These vantage points were over 4,000 ft above sea level! There is little to keep you from plunging off the cliff (and little to rescue you if you do).

We finished off our day at the Kalalau lookout for a magnificent sunset over teh Pacific Ocean. It was a grand way to finish the first day on the island. We headed back towards our hotel - 2/3rds of the way back around the island and checked in for the night.