Kauai, Hawaii
Day 2 - Around the Island (to the North)


Check out the map if you want to see the location of the towns I'm talking about.

	This was the first scenic view we stopped for. This is sort of a typical view of Kauai. Lots of green, lots of water, and crops. A lot of the land in Kauai seems to be used for agricultural purposes.
Another view of the valley. You can sort of see some trees with red blossoms. These flowers were HUGE and they were blooming everywhere on the island. I never could find out what type of tree they were, but I'm still searching on the web. The flowers were only on the top sides of the branches and leaves which looked really cool.
	Just after the scenic stop, you cross this scenic bridge. As you can tell, we spent a lot of time staring out the windows. As you travel further along the highway along the north shore, it becomes more lush. It's just incredible. In Washington, we get ivy and moss growing on our trees. In Kauai, they have large houseplants (I swear I saw a Pothos growing up one of their trees!)
Here's a closer view of the water running through the valley. You can also see more of those red-flowered trees. As I said, lush.
	Here's a picture of Princeville Resort (on the opposite shore) from Wai'oli Beach in Hanalei. Again, this is a typical picture of the water on Kauai. It's amazingly clear which made for some wonderful snorkeling. This particular beach was too rocky and had too many waves to snorkel but there were a number of other good snorkeling beaches.
This is Waikoko beach which is right next to Wai'oli. Since we were trying to just get an overview of the entire island, we didn't go in any of the water while we were here. As it was, we almost didn't make it all the way around the island before the sun set!
	I believe this is a ficus tree. This is the end of the road at Ke'e Beach. There were a couple of these trees with a huge tangle of roots. They're growing out of the sand and there's quite a bit of open air under the root ball of the tree. I have no idea how they continue to stay standing! You can sort of see the sandy beach below through the roots at the bottom.
This is the south end of Ke'e beach where the Kalalau trail starts as well as the Na Pali coast. This beach is protected by a reef and there is some excellent snorkeling here. Again, you can see how lush the area is. So many different shades of green!
	The tallest mountain on Kauai (Mt. Waialeale) is a bit over 5,000 feet tall. So even the mountains are covered with greenery. This was strange to me since I'm used to the 14,000 foot tall Mt. Rainier which is covered in snow year round.
The last picture before we headed back. Mischa and Scott standing in front of some of the wild houseplants we kept seeing... This is also taken in the area where you park for Ke'e beach.
	Just east of Ke'e beach is the wet and dry caves. This is obviously the wet cave. While we were here someone jumped in and started snorkeling. I will point out the water is REALLY cold and fresh water on the island has this nasty bacteria called leptoporosis. Yes, the guy probably was insane. However I did hear that you can snorkel to "the blue room" in the cave which glows blue because of the water. You won't see me trying it!
This is the side of the wet cave. Lots of plant life even here. Scott and I tried to figure out what those vine things were, but we never did figure it out, although we did determine it was plant life, not left by humans.
	This was taken inside the dry cave looking out. The dry cave was awesome! The sound levels dropped dramatically just steps inside the cave. There were really dark areas of the cave, but none pitch black. The cave was really just a big room, no ventricles or anything. On the back wall, someone had spray painted petroglyphs. That's the only graffitti I saw on the entire island.
Another stop at Wai'oli Beach on the way out. This is overlooking Hanalei Bay again looking at the princeville resort. Yes, that's really the color the water is here. If we'd had snorkeling gear at this point, I'm sure we would have stopped and tried it! it looked so inviting.
Click the image for a medium sized version, or here for the full sized version. The next stop is the Hanalei Waterfowl Refuge overlook. This is where most of the taro is grown on the island. If you're asking yourself "what's taro?" well, you're not the only one. Taro is used mostly to make poi. And what's poi? Well, every culture seems to have its disgusting food (haggis anyone?) and poi is Hawaii's. It's a purple goo that tastes like paste. Yep, I tasted it. It's not BAD, but it sure isn't good. Taro is on it's way out, but they keep the fields because it's home to many types of waterfowl including a number of endangered endemic varieties. The Hanalei region is at the delta of the Hanalei River which leads to the Hanalei Bay which is close to Hanalee where Puff the Magic Dragon was from.
One more shot of the Hanalei River. We never got down into the region which is too bad, although we did fly over it on our helicopter ride, later. After this stop, we headed back to the condo for a quick rest. Then on to the west shore.

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All photos copyright Anne Sullivan