Saturday February 14

Our last full day on Kauai dawned a bit humid... the rain was still working it's way out, so D went down the street to get us a couple of coffees while I debated about what equipment to bring down to the beach for sunrise. There was no good shelter down there to hide my camera bag under, so I thought it best to just bring the time-lapse in the weatherproof case.

The cloud cover was heavy, but the sun breaks through eventually.

It turned out that the coffee stand was celebrating a 5^th year anniversary, so they were giving away all their coffee drinks for free all day. How cool!

We decided to take a drive back up highway 580 and check out the conditions for hiking, so we grabbed breakfast in the room while we gathered our hiking gear together. We stopped across the street to pick up some lunch food, packed it in D's daypack, and hit the road.

Partway up 580 we stopped at a few sites...

Poli'ahu Heiau - Another ancient Hawaiian site

'Opaeka'a Falls

Having fun with my Edge 80 Optic looking down to the Wailua River

 ...then continued up the road to the trail head for the Kuilau Ridge Trail.  The path was damp but looked solid, so we changed into our hiking shoes, grabbed our poles, and hit the trail. I pulled out the 300mm to hike with as I'd read that this was a fantastic spot for birding. Not more than 10 feet into the trail, a barn owl picked up and took flight right in front of us, crossing the path and heading further into the forest. It was way too quick to get a shot of it, but it was an amazing site and one that I will not ever forget!

The bird songs are amazing at the beginning of this trail, however the birds are incredibly shy, and the foliage so thick that it was difficult to get a clear shot of any bird once I did spot them. We stopped several times, zeroing in on a particularly loud song off to one side or the other, but the little buggers were too swift for very many pictures. We came across a couple of lizards who would stand still long enough for me to grab a few shots, but most of my photography that day ended up being of the amazing views and foliage.

Hoofing it with the gear... all 22 pounds of it

Up, up, and away!

A close up of the rainbow eucalyptus tree bark

About a mile and a half into the hike, we reached a plateau of grassy field and a picnic shelter which was the perfect place to stop for lunch. As we ate and rested, I wandered around the edge of the plateau taking shots to be stitched into panoramics later. There was a little cattle egret hunting lizards, he seemed to be pretty laid back as long as I didn't approach him too quickly.

Nice view!

Lunch time!

My first attempt at a panoramic, blogger restricts the size, but I'll link to them when I get into editing these more.  The highest peak on the left side, under the clouds, is the rainiest spot in the world.  Wai'ale'ale receives an average annual rainfall of 430 inches.

As we ate, the wind began to really howl. It blew out the humidity and clouds, but we had to keep a good grip on our food to keep it from blowing away. After a good break and refueling, we continued on the trail. We hiked down behind the ridge, which blocked the wind for a bit, then emerged along another exposed ridge where D kept losing his hat.

Continuing along the ridge

We reached the end of the ridge trail, then I switched up my gear to be holding a wider angle lens and we began the trek back to the car.  The wind had become more steady now... I could hear it coming from the distance sounding like an approaching jet engine.

Standing on the ridge looking out towards the ocean and Kapa'a... I can see my house from here!

G leaning into the strong wind on the ridge

Stopping to load film.  Because I'm not truly happy shooting unless I have at least one film camera.

I paused to admire the tall rainbow eucalyptus trees, then some branches started breaking and falling from the wind so we decided to pick up the pace and get back to the car.

Looking up at the Makaleha Mountains from the trailhead parking area, the layers of green are just astounding.

Driving back towards the condo, the clouds had cleared completely so we stopped off at the Poli'ahu Heiau once more for some shots with better lighting.

Back at the condo, D and G readied themselves for the pool while I backed up my photos.  I realized I'd not taken any photos of the condo, so I thought I'd share the view.  This is where I sat when on my laptop, on the lanai just outside my bedroom.  Birds would frequent the palm tree right at eye-level, down below is the pool area and beyond that is the ocean.

Back in the room, G was anxious to get a little more swimming time in.  I did this one slide to capture the experience on video, then parked myself in a hot tub to rest my tired feet and shoulders.

To be quite honest, D and I both forgot that being Valentine's Day would mean that restaurants would be booked up for dinner.  D began calling places close by and found that the Wahoo restaurant right across the street had just had a cancellation, so we put our names down and showered up for dinner.  I had the shrimp and scallops dinner, and subbed a baked potato for the mashed that usually comes with it.

It wasn't bad, but wasn't my favorite dinner on the island and I probably wouldn't go out of my way to go back there on a return trip.

I did not even want to start to think about packing, so we just did a general look-over to make sure we knew where the suitcases were, then crashed for the night.