Kaua'i Island

Wednesday was full of taxis, planes, lots of waiting in short queues for bags and hire cars - but no customs - yeah!!

Our hotel was a few miles (yes I am trying to be American) away from the airport, through the little town of Lihue and a lot of roadworks.  The condo is great (bigger than many of apartments in retirement villages) and fits our criteria (balcony, pool and kitchen) with added extras like washing machine and dryer.

Over the next few days we sat outside eating breakfast and dinner and nearly every time the resident chickens come to visit (Mum and six chicks).  We were told by the locals and google that chickens escaped a long time ago from their pens after a hurricane.  Having no natural predators and plenty of food they are breeding happily and have now become quite a pest across the island. They are everywhere though I must say they do not seem to poop everywhere like ducks and Canadian geese (of which we have not seen any) or alternatively there are little gnomes who clean the footpaths every night!  We first thought that they weren't doing much harm but on reflection we did not see many birds and wondered if this was because their food source had been eaten.

Our first day was spent having a swim and finding the local supermarket.  There is a Safeway about 10 minutes drive and we stocked up on frozen dinners, lunch stuff and fresh fruit for breakfast.  

Woken by a rooster at 5.30 am, I felt relieved that we had traded the city where our alarm clock was a rubbish truck to the country.

Waimea Canyon is only 30 or so miles away, but Google said a 45 minute drive and it wasn't wrong.  The road was windy and a bit nerve racking with a few inches of drop off from the road to the verge that could kill the cars' suspension without much effort.  The Mustang convertible we had hired (we did order a compact car, but on arrival were given the choice of a SUV or Mustang) was at 15, Harry's dream car but he knew it would not live up to his teenage expectations.  Still, it got us around. What do you think of the lighted Mustang in the dark?

The pictures of the Canyon say it all really.  Pretty spectacular with far more colours than the Grand Canyon (and less tourists).  We spent most of the day there hopping in and out of the car and taking short walks to viewing platforms.

On the way up we stopped at a small historical village called Hanapepe.  The village reminded me of the small towns in Australia which have been taken over by quaint and crafty boutique shops, but have kept their historical quirkiness.  There was also an art deco theatre - soon to be renovated into a boutique hotel. 

The chocolate lover in the family found a 3 hour tour of a cacao plantation and off we went.  The tour involved a walk around the plantation, information about the cacao and vanilla plants and lots and lots of sampling of fresh fruit (white pineapple is rather yum), macadamia nuts, honey and chocolate.   You may be surprised to hear that we came away with no chocolates "difficult to know if they were better than Whittaker's without a direct comparison" said the chocolate lover loyal to his home brand.  He settled on some macadamia nuts for a treat.

A few interesting facts:

• the cacao is pollinated by ants and midgets while the vanilla flower is pollinated by hand since the little bee that used to do it is now extinct.
• dark chocolate is bitter if it is burnt during roasting.
• dark chocolate has 13,120 ORAC - that is oxygen radical absorbance capacity units per 100 grams while milk chocolate has about half of that.  Broccoli comes in with a poor 890 and blue berries 2,400.  Interesting enough plums have 949 while prunes have around 5,770.

It was on to a beach for a late lunch - but no swim - the tide was up and there was a very sharp looking reef to get across so we settled once again for the pool.

One night we wandered across the road, along the beach and through a hotel lobby to the golf course.  Night time descended on us quite quickly and having taken a detour through the hotel car park that got us nowhere we went back through the lobby and onto the beach.  Having the read the news about Waikiki hotels dominating the beaches we could see it was happening here as well. 

We tried snorkeling on our day trip up north which took us through little villages, past cute churches to beaches where it was difficult to find a car park.  We stopped at a state park and were told that we needed to get an advance online reservation to park and visit - there was no internet so that didn't happen.  On finding a walk through the bush (presumably heading down to the beach) we were told that the state had given the indigenous Hawaiians "rights" to the area and so we couldn't walk there.  Pity this wasn't explained a bit more in the tourist brochures. So, we backtracked a bit and found a driveway to an expensive house which the local teenagers had opened it up for a fee.  We accepted it gratefully and hoped the $30 parking fee was going to a good cause.  The afternoon was spent picnicking on the beach and snorkeling.  We saw lots of fish and Harry went out further and saw pink and white coral.  Silly kiwis though, we had greased ourselves in sunblock when we were clothed but forgot about our backs which were floating above the water line!!

There are a number of lovely gardens on the island and one of particular note was Moir Gardens.  Situated in the more "exclusive part of the island" alongside the Sheraton Hotel, this garden wandered around two story holiday condos with ease. Apparently the gardens were created in the 1930's by Alexandra Moir.  Google says that in 1948 the gardens were identified as "one of the ten best cactus and succulent gardens in the world" (and I must admit I kept saying "this is a very unusual garden" as we explored).  The cacti then moved way for hibiscus, palms and other greenery before heading back to the beach.  A gardener would enjoy a few days relaxing there.

Our last night before flying to Vancouver and we decided to go to a Lūʻau.  To the tourist it is called a 

"festive experience that includes a Hawaiian feast featuring lively music and vibrant cultural performances from Hawai'i and the greater Polynesia".  Apparently, the first celebrations were held around 1819.  During the three hour event we were treated to a train trip around the plantation, food and entertainment which included quite a lot of fire dancing.  There were a number of tables (about 300 people in all) and our table included 8 others all young couples many celebrating weddings and anniversaries.  Looking around the over 60's were definitely in the minority. 

The next day was travel day.  We had ummed and ahhed about what to do during our 9 hour stop over in Honolulu.  In the end we decided to stay at the airport as we had seen much of Waikiki and had no need to go again.  Well, the best laid plans... We get to Honolulu airport and find that the only place to sit is on concrete seats and the only drink is a takeaway at Starbucks. Not a place to spend time with loved ones before they leave that's for sure. Everything else is behind security (which we couldn't go to as check-in wasn't open).  So, alternate plans were laid - drop off our bags at storage - hop on the number 20 bus and go for some food somewhere.

It was a bit of a comedy on the bus.  The bus is a normal passenger bus and stops to pick up passengers from the airport.  People on the bus were told to go to the back and not block the aisles with their large suitcases.  At each of the three airport stops the bus driver walked down the aisle telling people not to block the aisle.  "Where can I put my bag" says one passenger "On your lap" he says unsympathetically.  Seems like a passengers bag was leaning against the button to signal a stop and the bus stopped at a few stops without any body getting off or on. Half way through the journey (which takes over an hour at the best times), the driver walked up the aisle and said "this bus isn't stopping again until we get to the Ala Moana shopping centre - if you want to get off before then get on the bus behind us".  Given, visitors don't get tickets it may have meant we would have had to pay twice. We had no desire to get off, so headed for the shopping centre.  My, the food court is huge and these places are certainly not on my favourite list - we had avoided them on our stay in Waikiki.  Anyway, needs must and so we munched on ok Thai and then bought a cold slushy before catching the bus back to the airport (funny - same bus driver as before but none of the drama).

So, we are now at the airport waiting for our flight. 

Besides the regular boarding calls and security notices there is another one we heard often "We welcome all military personnel and their spouses and children".  Military personnel have priority boarding and also have access to a special military lounge.  "Thank you for your service" is a common statement heard.  We also noticed that some shops give military personnel discounts.

Some thoughts about Hawaii

• We had a lovely holiday - Kauai is a great island to relax, where Waikiki is full of tourists and the business they bring.
• The locals are friendly and polite and both islands are clean with very little litter hanging around.
• We saw very few insects and only used the inspect spray at the cacao plantation - it was  a special concoction which they recommended we put on  - we will never know if there were no mosquitoes that day or whether the spray was effective. 
• For kiwis it is pretty expensive (exacerbated by an unfriendly exchange rate).  We spoke to some Americans who said that groceries were twice the price here compared to the mainland.
• Some of the scenery (eg Waimea Canyon and beaches) are wonderful, but New Zealanders are spoilt with the over abundance of stunning coastlines so there weren't as many WOW moments as I had hoped for.
• Public transport was great on Waikiki but virtually non-existent on Kauai (a car rental is a must).
• The weather has been great - when it rained it was only short bursts for about 10 minutes and we were always inside or in the car.  
• Kauai Island is very green while Waikiki not so, but there is less colour around than I expected - probably not quite the season for flowers to be blooming.
• Erosion is a concern here.  The high tide mark is now encroaching on green areas and lapping at hotel doors. 

The boarding call for Vancouver is not far away.  It's only a six hour flight.  We aren't sitting together (we were given two window seats behind each other which we thankfully swapped for two aisle seats) - hopefully we might get some sleep.