Kaua'i * Day 4 * 6.17.2010

It's not easy getting up early after exerting so much energy the day before! But we had scheduled a kayak tour up the Wailua River to Secret Falls...check-in time of 7:15am! The nice part was, the check-in place was right on the property we stayed, so it was just a simple walk there.

See? Eric is wearing his 'Icebreaker' shirt again!

We loaded up with 4 other couples and our guide, Thomas, and drove to the Harbor. Everyone got all sun-screened and bug-sprayed before getting in the tandem kayaks!

A view of the Harbor.

Since we were on water and didn't want to take the chance of our camera going for a swim, it stayed tucked into the dry bag until we docked! We took the north fork of the river...way back in to where it was just a stream. About 2 or so miles upstream.

Here you can see where we docked, and the rope we used to help us cross the stream.

Then we hiked about a mile through the forest to Secret Falls. The trail consisted of lots of roots and rocks!


This is Awapuhi, a wild ginger....you can see the bulbs sticking out of the ground...they are still 'young' bulbs. It has a wonderful fragrance and has many medicinal uses. It is commonly used in high end spas and in shampoos/conditioners.

I really liked this mossy rock!

Yes, we even saw roosters and chickens in the forest! This one followed us for a long ways!

Here, Thomas is telling us about the walking trees. Until then we didn't know what they were called, but thought they looked really cool. The trees have root buds all up the trunk. The old roots die and if the tree falls or leans over, it just continues rooting and takes off from there! Pretty cool!

Here's a good shot of two walking trees that fell and re-rooted.

Tarzan?! Eric hung most of his weight on this vine, but wasn't sure he wanted to try swinging on it!

First view of Secret Falls...about an 80 foot falls.

When we were kayaking upriver, Thomas was telling another couple about the hike in to Hanakapi'ai Falls. When told him we were there the day before, he buried his head in his hands and said, "OH, NO!". I asked him why and he said that Secret Falls is nothing compared to Hanakapi'ai! We thought that was pretty funny! It was definitely smaller, but still beautiful. Since we had water sandals on we swam under the falls. (Didn't have them the day before and didn't really want to kick our toes on lava rocks!) It was like being under a VERY powerful shower head! Such fun memories!

Thomas preparing our lunch. He found some mountain apples and we tried them. Kinda like a pear, but not quite...they were good! Didn't get a picture of them though.

After taking about an hour to eat and swim, we hiked back downstream...so pretty...



This is a flood gauge....there is a float inside that will tell them how high the floodwater gets. Amazing that this small looking part of the river would flood so much! But we could see areas of debris in the forest, so it obviously does!

I thought these tree roots intertwined with the mossy rocks looked neat. The vegetation in the forest was so diverse...so.....indescribable...


We crossed the river/stream and walked through a much different rainforest area....here, Thomas is showing us a Papaya plant.

This 'elephant ear' looking plant is Taro. A staple in the Hawaiian diet, used to make poi. Much like we may use mashed potatoes... It has a very different taste, sorta bland. Our helicopter pilot told us it's an acquired taste!

Neat tree, 'still wet' me!

We hiked back to our kayaks and paddled back downstream to the Harbor. What a fun morning!

Back at the Resort (just a little after noon), we walked out on the beach and found this mermaid someone had made.

LOVE this view....ah, how I miss it!

After showers, we left around 3:00pm to drive to the Waimea Canyon. Stopped at the post office to mail a postcard to the kiddos, then went to Chucky's....he wasn't there, but we got a pineapple anyway! On the way to the Canyon, we missed our turn on Canyon Drive, so we took Koke'e Rd to Canyon Drive instead.

One of the views of the lower end of the canyon....still lots of 'green'.


We were not sure if we were on the same island! Prickly pear?!! And we were in a rainforest this morning?!!

If you click on this picture to see the larger size, you'll be able to pick out a few guys on dirt bikes. We watched them for awhile....

Various shades of red dirt!

OH wow! Beautiful Waimea Canyon....The Grand Canyon of the Pacific. So vast, so hard to take it all in....




HUGE hydrangea bushes near the Koke'e Lodge. We saw some that were MUCH bigger than these too!

Beautiful Kalalau Valley from Pu'u o Kila Lookout.....still takes my breath away..... The Kalalau Trail that we hiked to Hanakapi'ai Beach ends here (11 miles). This is also the end of the road.

Then we drove back down the road about a mile to the Kalalau Lookout. It was 'misty' raining, and when the sun peeked below the clouds...rainbow!


Another rainbow over the canyon on our way back down the road.

I didn't feel so well on the way back down. We had eaten a very early lunch, then didn't bring much water or snacks with us. Combine that with a curvy road, being tired, and not drinking very much that day....yuck! We got back down to Waimea around 8:00pm and ate at the Wrangler Steakhouse. Shared a Garlic Ribeye steak, mashed potatoes, salad, soup.....oh my!....even had enough to take leftovers back with us for lunch the next day! I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of it, but we have one of the leftovers :0)

Needless to say, we were ready to sleep when we got back~

And that's day 4 on Kaua'i!