Hawaii

Hawaii - Kauai Island, May 2006

Our first stop was the North Shore where we stayed in a lovely B&B. It only had two rooms and was the home of an architect. The grounds were lovely and it was very peaceful (apart from the birds in the early morning). A few miles west, was the Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge and Lighthouse. They have nesting albatrosses, frigates and shearwaters.

We headed to Anini Beach on our first day, to snorkel. It's a lovely quiet beach with a 2 mile protected reef. The Princeville Resort is a 9,000 acres with hotels and condos. The land was formerly a sugar and coffee plantation owned by a Scotsman in 1853. Hanalei is the biggest town on the North Shore. It's quite funky and laid back compared with the South Shore. This is partly due to the fact that the North gets lots more rain and so the developers built most of the hotels in the South where it's almost guaranteed to be sunny. But that's what makes the beaches all the nicer in the North as they're all unspoilt. All beaches in Hawaii are open to the public and hotels and residential areas must provide beach access.

We prepared ourselves for a 4 mile round trip on the Kalalau Trail which starts from Ke'e Beach, the end of the road on the island, along the Napali Cliffs. The views are stunning but the hike was tiring as it was a steep climb up and down to Hanakapi'ai beach which is furthest you can go without a permit. The Napali Coast can only be viewed from air or sea. We did a helicopter trip on our last visit 3 years ago and can now recognise some of the coastline photos I took.

Lumaha'i Beach was made famous in "South Pacific" as the backdrop to Mitzi Gaynor singing 'I'm gonna wash that man right outa my hair'. The beach is usually empty of people as it's too dangerous to swim here!

Ke'e Beach was our favourite place to snorkel. You could stand in the water up to your knees and see the fish! Again, a nice lagoon protected by a reef made it easy and safe. Bill was brave and went right out to the edge of the reef and saw a dozen green turtles!

We tried a kayak tour up the Wailua River to the Secret Waterfall. It was a double kayak which is sort of easier but also difficult as you have to paddle in sync. I was leading in front, while Bill steered. However I managed to steer inadvertenly due to my right arm being stronger which worked against his strong left arm.