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.

Sunday February 08

We woke up Sunday early enough to enjoy the sunrise again, I meandered down to the beach with my camera and coffee and played around with some long exposures.

We packed up the car with our “just in case, who knows what we'll do” gear and struck out for a driving tour of the south side of the island.

Our first stop was in Kapa'a for breakfast at Ono Family Restaurant (technically that was north of the resort, but it is the closest town) 

I'm enjoying the fruit, but I'm wondering if oatmeal is outlawed on the island, as I haven't seen it in a restaurant yet.

 From there we turned the car south and then east to Waimea. The nearest waterfall to our resort, and easiest to see on the island, is Waimea Falls. You might recognize it if you recall the intro to the TV show “Fantasy Island”

This is one of the rare instances where I chose not to climb over the guard rail for a better view... though I was tempted, the drop was immediate off the side of the cliff and I just couldn't trust it. I did climb on top of the guard rail wall to try to get my camera angle above the tall grasses which were blocking my view of the pool below, and D helped prop me up so I wouldn't fall. (Clearly all the tour book photographers climbed over the railing, or they visited when the side plants were cut low)

Here I'm playing with the edge 80 optic looking at the mountain over the falls.

I also enjoyed watching a few white tailed tropic birds gliding around the valley below.

difficult to focus on with the vines behind it, but this is the best shot I could get.

From here, we backtracked to the highway and headed further south/west around the southern part of the island. We drove down a road lined with massive eucalyptus trees called Tree Tunnel, which lead to the little town of Koloa – home to a little stretch of stores connected by wooden sidewalks. We pulled over here for a little shopping and lunch. After exploring a few of the stores, we meandered behind the main strip where we found a couple of food trucks. We grabbed a table and picked up a couple plates of food from the truck named Chalupa, I had the camarones diablo. (spicy shrimp)

Back in the car, we headed further south to the coast to check out Spouting Horn. This is a spot along the beach where a hole developed inside a lava flow, and when the tide hits the shore the water spurts up like a geyser. I spent quite a good amount of time here playing with different lenses for various photo effects.

After Spouting Horn, we circled back up to the main highway and over towards Hanapepe to visit the Kauai Coffee Company. D and I did some coffee tasting, and G and I picked up a couple of smashed pennies (my favorite keepsake wherever we visit)

Here we felt the end of the day coming on and decided to head back towards Kapa'a to find dinner. We felt like eating someplace with a view, so we ended up heading down towards Lihu'e to grab a table somewhere by the water. Duke's Barefoot Bar had a more casual feel than the restaurant we'd eaten at upstairs, but still had access to the massive salad bar so we opted to pop in there for a seat by the beach. I enjoyed the view of the bay while we waited for our table.

I ended up having the same grilled ono I'd had the previous visit. After dinner we strolled up and down along the beachfront enjoying the view and the live music coming from one of the nearby restaurants.

Then on the drive home G exclaimed “YOU HAVE TO PULL OVER THERE ARE BUGS IN THE CAR!” I grabbed the flashlight out of my camera bag and spun around to take a look... I saw something flash a reflection and then disappear under the carpet of the car. D pulled into the parkinglot of an Ace Hardware and we turned on all the interior lights... sure enough, the car was completely infested with cockroaches! D got on the phone with Avis while G and I emptied our bags out of the car and began examining every nook and cranny of our various bags of gear. We found a bunch of colonies huddled in the deepest corners of every bag that held any kind of snack. After ridding ourselves of the extra passengers in our bags (and several pieces of crawled-on fruit) we sealed everything up as best we could and headed to the airport rental car lot. As luck would have it, we were only a mile away, and Avis happened to have another car exactly like ours which had just been returned. When we arrived they had the new car freshly washed and waiting, and all the paperwork set to just switch cars and continue on our way. To their credit, they were fantastically friendly and accommodating, and even chatted with us about the differences of the various islands of Hawaii. The suspension was shot on the original rental anyway, so it has made for nicer driving having traded the car in anyway.

(The infestation is the main reason why I have been held up in my updates, it made for a long night!)