I still was not able to sleep in the morning after the wedding, but was very much tired after being out so late the night before. We rested that morning until it was time to go to the airport for our flight to Kauai.
From the moment we stepped out of the airport, Kauai felt wild and lovely. The humidity warmed my soul while the wind whipped my hair, and I felt perfectly exhilarated and ready to explore this little island.
We were picked up at the airport by the staff of Kauai Overlander (our hosts in a way?) to take us to our Tacoma with top-tent that we were renting for the week. They showed us all of the gadgets and awesome camping gear they included, such as cookware, cleaning supplies, an extra tent and air mattress, some great little French press coffee mugs, the works. They demonstrated how to work the top-tent and the 4×4 as well as how we would release air from the tires for beach driving. They told us we better bring it back dirty and encouraged us to take it off road. The truck was a bit beat up which was exactly what we wanted for such an adventure. We were both pretty damn excited.
We stopped for groceries on our way north, picked up some dinner at Duane’s, and took it with us down to the beach at Anahola Bay. We missed out on the ocean-front campsites at Kumu camp, but we went one row back, and popped up our tent for the night. We walked along the beautiful stretch of beach, and then set up some chairs by the water where I drank some Truly’s and watched Anthony swim in the rough waves.
That night we had a lovely sea breeze come in through windows of our tent, a thunderstorm staying just far enough out for me to be able to sleep that night. In the morning, we woke to a lovely beach sunrise.
We got on the road early to reach Kilauea at 7 am for our boat tour of the Na Pali coast. We were on a small zodiac boat. I knew it was going to be a more adventure-oriented tour, but I wasn’t quite expecting just how much that was the case.
From the time we took off from Anini Beach, we were bouncing over strong waves, salt water spraying our faces, the choppiness tossing us around. They informed us there was an early northern swell happening, and this was probably their last tour for the week.
The coastline was just out-of-this-world spectacular.
We went through some caves and under some waterfalls.
There was one particular waterfall that fell through a hole in the top of the cave, which I thought was pretty awesome.
And then there were dolphins! So many dolphins. Swimming alongside and underneath us.
But the star of the show was obviously the Na Pali coast. There weren’t many opportunities to snap pictures of it as we were zipping along, and even when we stopped, I only felt secure enough to get my phone out, rather than my camera. But pictures could never do it justice anyway.
We stopped at the end to snorkel. I thought the water was freezing, so I only lasted about half an hour, but we saw some beautiful fish in that time, as well as a sea turtle quite a ways underneath us.
The ride back was even rougher. Before taking off, one of our guides told us it was a “top 10 day” for the year, with calm winds, and we’d probably only get splashed a little bit. It took about 5 minutes for him to eat his words, the swell causing us to crash repeatedly into the rough seas, with salt water lashing our faces. My palms were calloused from gripping onto the rope, my ankle was raw and red from rubbing against the rubber of the boat, my back and butt and legs and shoulders sore and tense from constantly working to stabilize myself and stay on the boat. But still, it was a blast.
Upon arrival, we rushed to get our camping permit for Anini before the office closed for lunch, and then we made our way to Princeville to meet back up with my parents at their condo. I did some laundry, charged up our gadgets, took a nice shower, and brushed the endless amount of tangles from my hair. We all went to Happy Talk Lounge to enjoy some drinks and apps while taking in the lovely view from the patio.
Our parents went back to their condo, and Anthony and I drove back to Anini beach to set up camp. Anini does not allow camping in your car, so we grabbed our extra tent, found a site right up along the beach, and set it up.
We decided another evening walk along the beach was in order. We got in the water for a little bit, and during our walk back to our site, the mist created a rainbow ending in the water.
We headed back to Kilauea town right as it started raining, to find somewhere to sit and eat dinner. We sat outside the Kilauea Fish Market, the weather just beautiful when hiding underneath their canopy. Once back at the camp, we aired up our air mattress and got ready for bed.
The following morning, we had about the most spectacular sunrise I’ve seen. We woke up to the sun rising over the water from our tent.
Forever terrible at relaxing, we couldn’t just stay in bed and watch it, but instead, I took to walking the beach, while Anthony went for a morning swim. Anini is a great swimming beach, with the coral reef breaking the waves far back.
Eventually, the magic ended, and we started tearing down camp. We joined back up with my parents and brother at Makana Terrace to enjoy a far-too-expensive breakfast, while taking in about the most beautiful view you can get on the island. You’re definitely paying for that view, and I must admit it was pretty blissful.
At this point, talk of Hurricane Lane was surfacing everywhere. It was still far away and a category 4. It looked like it’d be hitting Kauai by around Friday. Our flight out wasn’t until Saturday. We finally had to admit to ourselves that we should be looking into earlier flights out. So, we went back to their condo and started our research. We researched flights. We researched when it might hit. We researched our trip insurance through our credit card. It still seemed far enough out that we had time, so I figured we would make decisions that night or in the morning. I didn’t want to leave too early, so I needed better forecasts.
Anthony and I drove back out to the eastern side of the north shore, to enjoy Anahola Bay again. The waves were even stronger, but it was a gorgeous day for the beach, hot and sunny after the initial 5 minutes of wind and rain.
We cooked ourselves some lunch on our camp stove, rinsed off, and relaxed. We got a call from our helicopter company, Mauna Loa, informing us that wind had picked up, and we were welcome to try to reschedule, or see what the pilot said at check-in time. We were going to be heading south that day anyway, so we said we’d make it for check-in and see what the conditions were there.
To be continued…