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.

Kauai Continued

The last three days have been fantastic with great weather, lots of activities and many photo ops. I've included quite a few pictures to try and give you a sense of how beautiful it is here.

We went snorkeling right in front of the Condo with hundreds of colourful fish visible as soon as you were waist deep in the water.

I tested my swing at the Poipu Bay Golf club, home of the PGA Grand Slam of Golf.

We boarded a 50' catamaran for a cruise up the Na Pali Coast and breathtaking cliffs and waterfalls plus we saw 30 or 40 spinner dolphins and at least 50 Humpback whales.

Later that day we drove up to Waimea Canyon which is often compared to the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

We also hiked the Mahaulepu Trail (try saying that three times fast!) which winds up and down along cliffs along the southern shore.

Finally we drove up to Princeville and Haena State Park on the north shore to catch a sunset and watch the full moon rise over the palm trees.

So much to see and so little time!

Kauai the Garden Isle

So after a long day of travelling, we arrived at our condo on Kauai at 9:30pm local time or 2:30am EST. We left for the airport at 6:00am so it took over 20 hours total travel time, and that was without any flight delays!

The condo is great, we are right next to the ocean and the sound of the surf on the rocks is a constant reminder that we are not in Kansas anymore. When we woke up this morning we looked out from the balcony and saw Humpback whales breaching out to sea. The plan was to take things easy today, grocery shopping, drive around and get the lay of the land, visit the market, take a few walks (which is where we saw the gecko) and plan and book the next few day's activities. So tomorrow is golf at Poipu Bay and Friday is an adventure sail up the Na Pali coast on a catamaran!

The sunset in front of the condo was gorgeous!

We had a nice romantic dinner on the balcony and then took a walk along the seashore in the moonlight. Overall a great start to our adventures.

7 Weeks to Go!

Although we have been planning this trip for the past 18 months, it's hard to believe it's only 7 weeks away and we still have so much to do! There are still accommodations to book, stuff to buy, bills and mail forwarding to sort out and we still don't have a place for Pollie to stay. 

Of course with all the snow and cold weather starting early this year, there are many things worse than planning a 4 month winter getaway. I guess we will just have to suck it up and get on with it.

So this all started way back when I was thinking of changing careers and Amanda was considering a University school term in Perth Australia. Judy put in for a leave of absence with more than one year notice so they really couldn't turn her down. What we didn't know at the time was where Jess would end up going to school but that all worked out in it's own time as well.

Jude and I will try and keep this relatively up to date as we go. Bye for now.