On our sixth day in Hawaii, we planned to hike the Napali coast (I've referenced this in several past Kauai posts). We got up at about 7 am so that we could drive two hours to the Napali coast which entails going ALL the way to the north of the island, through Princeville, through Hanalei, and to the end of the road. The hike is called the Kalalau trail and is 11 miles long... one way. Don't freak out, you have to have a parks permit to do the whole trail and you have to plan on camping. We only did the first little bit which is basically up down one Napali cliff... from one beach to the next. It's around 5-6 miles but the thing is pretty challenging. We have hiked harder trails but it was humid and there was a lot of rocks, mud, and stuff sticking out on the trail so it was a little trecherous. But, aside from that, it was absolutely gorgeous. We are so glad that we got to see these views of Napali. Simply breathtaking.
One of the first shots we got down the Napali coast from where we were on our hike.
And another shot where I was trying to be artistic with the tree.
Different artistic shot... The coast seriously is unbelievable.
And at the mid-point of our hike. We had hiked up a cliff from a beach, then down a cliff to this beach. Gorgeous.
We stayed here a bit to enjoy the ocean. It was on the northshore, so no swimming. Some people were in the water... however, most would just run in, get sucked by a wave, scream, then run out. Pretty entertaining, actually.
Getting ready to start the hike back.
A view of the ocean as we were walking away from it. Also, at this point, we started to notice some clouds moving in... looked like massive showers were on the way.
A shot of me getting ready to hike back up.
On the way down we passed all of the warning signs about the beach down below. We took pictures of these signs on the way back up.
Here are the clouds starting to roll in...
Hiking back up and out from the beach!
The locals put up a warning sign also that they also use to track how many visitors have been killed at the beach down below. Lovely!
A shot of a bunch of tree roots... this is what we were hiking around/over.
And, we made it back! I think we finished hiking around noon or one or so... It took about two hours after we stopped for a few minutes at the beach. Towards the end, it started to rain on us. We ended up driving to Hanalei Gourmet for lunch, the same restaurant we had eaten at a few days prior since we had liked it so much. Once we got out of there, we decided to shop at a few beach stores and bought a few items.
The other day that we had been in Hanalei, we had bought brownies and cookies at a local place across the street from the restaurant we ate at for lunch. They were so good, we wanted to get some more but by this time it was absolutely DUMPING. I kid you not, it is the hardest rainfall I have ever seen in my entire life. And living in Seattle (as well as the midwest and the Phoenix monsoons), I have seen a lot of hard rain. Tim and I were soaked within a tenth of a second of being outside. It was actually kind of nice since we had gotten a bit sweaty on the hike. It was just like being in shower with the most intense water pressure ever. The above picture is us after getting our chocolate treats... we are soaked. Of course, I look more soaked than Tim thanks to his hat and white shirt. Oh well. We got back to the Hyatt that evening and decided to eat at Tidepools again (the restaurant at the Hyatt). It was amazing like it had been the other night we were there.
The next day ended up being our last day. We got up, ate breakfast, walked on the beach and then plopped ourselves down by the pool. Here's why I say that this day ended up being our last day: we were not supposed to leave Kauai until the 29th (a red eye back, the only flight on our airline back to Seattle from Kauai). We realized that we would have to check out of the hotel on the 28th at noon and then would be just hanging around until 11pm that night with our luggage, unable to do a whole lot besides sit at the beach. And then if we got salty, we really had no way to shower or anything. Not to mention, the 28th was cloudy and the 29th was expected to be cloudy too. No fun. So, we made a quick phone call and got the red eye flight out on the night of the 28th (we still had the entire day there) and we were able to get back to Seattle on the morning of the 29th as opposed to the 30th. Then we had a couple of days at home to relax and get organized before going back to work on the 31st. It really made more sense and after two weeks there, we were ready to go home.
All in all, I cannot adequately express in words what I feel about this trip... it was absolutely more than I ever thought it would be. Obviously, the wedding was the highlight but everything else was flawless and perfect in each and every way possible. I couldn't have asked for a better time or better company. It was amazing and perfect and I can't wait until our next journey together.
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