Farewell to Kauai

For our last day in Kauai we decided to cruise the Wailua River in a Kayak and then take a 2 km hike through the rain forest to the secret waterfalls.

The river banks were lined with Hibiscus plants that had yellow, orange and red flowers

The hike included two river crossings of waist deep water, thick red mud halfway up your calves and climbing over roots and branches.

The waterfall at the end was truly spectacular, just like it was out of a fairy tale. It was 120 feet high in a lush tropical setting surrounded by rock cliffs and hanging vines. You felt like Tarzan should be swinging by any moment!

After we washed the mud somewhat off our bodies and dried out, we rented a couple of bicycles and toured down the Coconut Trail. The trail follows the eastern coastline and is used by joggers and walkers as well.

With the sun starting to set we picked up some fresh Ahi Tuna for the BBQ and headed back to the Condo.

I thought that I would finish with a few of the pictures taken right from our Condo balcony. The first one is a Humpback Whale in mid-air leaping out of the water.

The second one is of a surfer standing on his board with a long single bladed paddle and with a whale surfacing just a little ways further out to sea. It was amazing to watch these guys surf in standing up on the board and using the paddle to steer and balance themselves. It was even more amazing to see huge whales jumping and splashing right behind them!

The last picture is of a sea turtle, feeding on green algae in the morning right off the rocks. The endangered turtles are protected by law but we saw many of them right along the shore in front of the Condo.

Tomorrow we head off to Kona on the Big Island and say so long to Kauai even though we still didn't do everything we were hoping to.

Kauai is a magical place and we definitely plan to come back.