First and Lasting Impressions

Sunrise Over Kauai

Arriving Into Nawilliwilli

At various points during the trip already, we commented to each other that we were withholding judgement and comments as to our favorite islands and/or experiences until the entire journey was over.  We talked a lot about the unexpected diversity between each stop we had made, and already highlighted things we knew we'd never forget.  As we both have since admitted to each other, however, we were each already predisposed to like our next destination best.  From what we had read and heard, we already knew Kauai (rhymes with Hawaii, by the way) would be special. 

We again had a proper sit-down served breakfast in the main dining room, and knowing we had a full day ahead of us, we were there when they opened at 7:00am.  That afforded us a window table for two, from which we watched as we entered the channel into Kauai's primary port of Nawilliwilli.  We sailed past stunning cliffside resorts and could see cloud-ensconced sheer deeply-ridged cliffs seeming to plunge directly down into the ocean.  Everything was, almost artificially, green, too, and the juxtaposition with the coral-blue sea and orange-hued sunrise were simply breathtaking.  

We timed things perfectly and were some of the very first people off the ship, shortly after 8:00am.  The port here was also industrial and not located near the commercial center, but unlike as in Maui, our Uber was able to pick us up directly outside the terminal, so we were at the airport and in our rental car by 8:15am, already on our way and ready to start another Shaka tour.  On the ride over in the Uber, we could see that the town was literally surrounded by picture-postcard-perfect green mountains.  We also saw the animals for which the island is famous (or infamous); namely, its wild chickens.  As I mentioned earlier, Kauai is the only island onto which the mongoose was not introduced.  The island already had wild chickens which were brought to the islands by Polynesian settlers centuries ago.  Those birds have since intermixed with domesticated chicken introduced in the 1800's.  The story goes that during multiple hurricanes over the years, the coops for domesticated chickens have been destroyed, and they mixed in with the feral birds.  With no natural predators, those chickens are now, literally, everywhere around the island. There is no place you can go and not see them.  On the plus side, they are extremely beautiful birds, particularly the roosters, and they look nothing like their domesticated cousins.

Largest Coffee Producer in USA -- 4 Million Trees

That said, our tour for the day was to see the Waimea Canyon (often called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific) and the hilltops of the famous Na Pali Coast.  We fired up the Shaka guide and had about a 20-minute drive until we reached the starting point.  While driving there, and almost spontaneously at the same time, we both blurted out that we already loved Kauai and that it was our favorite island.  This early assessment, would only deepen over the next two days.  The scenery was, literally, breathtaking, and unlike nothing we have seen elsewhere.  Parts of it did, understandably, remind us of New Zealand (which already has a special place in our hearts), but others were completely new and unexpected.  Nawilliwilli is on the southern coast of Kauai, close to the city of Lihue, which is where the island's airport is located.  We saw the huge Kauai Coffee plantation along the way, which is the largest producer of coffee in the United States.  Hula Daddy, where we visited in Kona, had about 500 trees in total.  Kauai Coffee has 4 MILLION trees.  Quite a different operation.  We drove westward, along the southern coast (with stunning views) until we abruptly cut northward, rising 5,000 feet for so above sea level, ascending to where we drove along the rim of the Waimea Canyon, leading all the way to the northern coast, where the road literally ends at the top of the sheet cliffs of the iconic Na Poli Coast.  As usual, the Shaka guide was great, and we laughed as it was often obvious who was using the same app when we would pull over at scenic spots.  We could recognize the narration and music coming from the other cars.  As we had gotten such an early start, though, we were not in a line of cars or anything.  As we drove back down, a few hours later, we did see the steady stream of cars headed up to do what we had just completed.  Though Waimea is a canyon and it does have a small river running through it, it was not created by erosion, but rather formed after a volcano collapsed here centuries ago.  We learned the stunning red colors come from the iron in the soil, which is literally rusting.  Kauai is the oldest (by far) of the Hawaiian islands, which is one of the reasons for its well-known red soil.

The Ruins of Fort Elizabeth, Short-Lived Russian Outpost on Kauai

During our driving tours, we heard a lot of about the history of the Hawaiian Islands, in particular how King Kamehameha the Great unified the islands into the unified Kingdom of Hawaii in the early 19th Century.  Until that time, most of the other islands in Hawaii fell under the rule of previous kings from the Big Isle of Hawaii, many also with the Kamehameha name.  Well, Kauai was the exception.  They were independent for over 500 years and successfully repelled at least three major invasions over the centuries.  The last ruler of independent Kawaii was King Kaumualii, and we heard the fascinating history of how he briefly aligned himself with Imperial Russia (or at least he thought he had), to counter the growing power of King Kamehameha.  When a Russian merchant ship wrecked off Kauai, the surviving cargo washed ashore and was seized.  The Russian shipping company sent a representative (who was German) to the island to negotiate its return, and his name was Georg Schaeffer.  He managed to get on good terms with the king and convinced him that he represented the Russian Tzar and was in a position to negotiate a treaty of protection.  King Kaumualii went so far as to build a fort on the island, the ruins of which we saw, called Fort Elizabeth, named after the Tzarina.  Well, when it came to light what had happened, needless to say Schaeffer had to flee and the king had built a fortress in honor of a treaty which never existed.  Kauai shortly thereafter fell to Kamehameha.    

Waimea Canyon

We were on the drier leeward side of the island and it had been sunny all morning.  We reached the first of two Na Palli overlooks around 10:30 am, and while the parking lot was still in bright sunshine, as we walked up the short distance to the overlook itself, we could see that the top was covered in clouds.  The clouds were literally forming along the sheer mountain side and being pushed upwards by the tradewinds.  They mostly dissipated once they crested the mountain, but it meant that the cliffs themselves were not visible through the dense, dense fog. We were essentially standing at the top of the cloud and looking down into them, which is an experience hard to describe. Disappointed at the first overlook, we drove another mile or so, to the literal end of the road, at a slightly higher overlook.  Here, too, though, the views were clouded.  We met other visitors here, equally as disappointed, but we also met some people who had been there and said it had been clear only 20 minutes earlier.  Our Shaka guide said that the weather could change on a dime and that we should give it some time.  We ended up waiting about 30 minutes before we gave up, as the clouds only grew thicker.  We consoled ourselves in that we had splurged and booked a helicopter tour of the island for the afternoon, which was to include fly-bys of the Na Poli coastline, so we told ourselves we'd see the cliffs from air, even if we couldn't see them from the ground. 

At the First Lookout -- Clear Here, Clouds at the Cliff's Edge

What the View SHOULD Look Like, and What We Saw

Looking Down Into the Cloud

Our Shaka tour also told us the fascinating history of the island of Niihau.  It is the 7th largest inhabited island in Hawaii and is entirely owned by the Sinclair family.  The Sinclairs were emigrants from England who first settled in New Zealand.  The patriarch of the family died there, and the remaining family resettled to California and made some money in the gold rush.  When that dried up, they were encouraged to resettle in Hawaii.  Somehow they became friendly with King Kamehameha, who offered them a large homestead in what is now Waikiki Beach.  They turned it down and instead expressed interest in the then uninhabited island of Niihau.  It was unhospitable, without a steady supply of fresh water, but they insisted. They purchased the island in 1864 for $10,000 and it has been in their private hands since that time; when Hawaii was a US territory and then a state.  They have reportedly been offered as much as a $1 billion to sell the island, but refused.  You can only visit the island as part of a small group, arranged by the family.  Oh, and it's supposedly VERY haunted.

The Privately Owned Island of Niihau in the Distance

We stopped in the quant little town of Hanapepe on our return to Nawilliwilli, which is known for its art galleries.  We enjoyed a fantastic Japanese meal on an outdoor patio and toured half a dozen little art studios.  We even managed to get a famous Hawaiian shaved ice for dessert before we loaded back into the car, determined to not be late for our helicopter ride at 3:00pm.  We were to arrive at the airport no later than 2:30pm.  It was raining when we left Hanapepe, and we drove through some very heavy downpours on the drive back.  We were getting pessimistic, but as we neared the airport, the sun came out again, while the mountains behind us remained under dark clouds.

Artists' Colony of Hanapepe, Where We Had Lunch

Hawaiian Shaved Ice With Ube (Purple Yam) Sauce

Each helicopter held four people, plus the pilot, and there were eight of us who checked in for 3:00pm flights on their two aircraft.  We checked in and did the safety briefings, while we waited for the choppers to return from an earlier trip.  There was a big TV on the wall which showed the current location and track of the two helicopters, and we watched as they approached the airport, after having circled the entire island.  We watched the previous riders come in, all looking exhilarated, though several looked a little wet.  The helicopters fly without doors, which is to heighten the effect and ability to take pictures, but which also leaves you exposed to the elements at times.  I saw the skies darkening outside.  The man who did our safety briefing had gone into a back room to get on a computer.  His screen was linked to the big monitor out in the waiting area, and we watched as he clicked through a series of cameras set up around the island.  As best I could tell, they were real-time cameras set up at resorts around Kauai, probably to show surf conditions.  As he stepped through each camera, we could see that the weather was universally bad at all of them.  Almost at that exact moment, one of the pilots came in and introduced herself, saying she had bad news.  Weather had closed in and they had to cancel our flight.  She said that while they could try and fly, the views would be compromised, and we would likely not be happy or comfortable.  There was nothing to do.  They offered to rebook us.  Of the four couples, we were the only ones on the cruise ship.  Two others were to depart the island in the morning by plane.  This operator had no availability until the next week, so they promptly refunded us, but they also gave us contact information for several operators who might be able to help us.  The first one I called said they would hold a reservation for us the following day for a 2:00pm flight, but that they would need to find two more people to fill up the chopper.  They said they would let us know by 10:00am the following morning if they were successful.  If not, they'd cancel, and we would be out of luck.  We were resigned that there was nothing more we could do, and in fact were happy this outfit was even willing to try for our sake.

Screen Showing Track of the Helicopter Ahead of Our Scheduled Trip

Once again, we were determined to make lemonade out of lemons.  We got back into the car and decided to take a Shaka tour of Poipu and Koloa, which are on the southeastern shore of Kauai.  We had not planned this but wanted to make use of the time.  In hindsight, we're really glad we did.  Though the weather was threatening, as we drove south and reached the shoreline, the skies were clear, and the views were tremendous.  Poipu and Koloa are both resort areas, with unbelievably beautiful mansions built overlooking the ocean, with dozens of high-end hotels, timeshares, and condominiums.  Truly memorable.  As we were walking on one of the beaches, my phone rang.  It was the second helicopter operator calling with good news.  They had already found another couple to join us and our tour for the next day was confirmed, weather permitting.  Yeah!

The Kauai Museum

Spouting Horn Blowhole

Surfer, Bra!

Hawaii's State Flower -- the Plumeria

Red-Crested Cardinal

Knowing it would get dark by 6:30pm, we cut the tour a little short and returned to Nawilliwilli.  I dropped Katherine at the ship and went in search of overnight parking.  Unlike in Maui, there was street parking only about five minutes from the pier, and I snagged what looked to be the last parallel spot in a long line of rental cars belonging to fellow cruisers.  We were having our sundowners on board quickly, just as the sun was literally setting.