Kauai mud, rainbows and rope swings

Well, this is the final post of the Hawai'ian leg of our travels. We're sitting in Vancouver airport feeling very jet lagged, after a day braving the freezing cold city (we only had light jumpers!) to kill 11 hours inbetween flight connections back to London. It'll be another 16 hours before we are home yet, ouch! It's a sad day, as Hawai'i has come to feel a lot like home over the past six weeks. However, our experiences over the final few days were up there with the best of the whole trip so far, so we've gone out on a high!

We took a very scenic drive up to Waimea Canyon in the west part of the island. We ascended from sea level very quickly up to 4,000ft and stopped at a few lookouts on the way to check out the views across the canyon. Every stop seemed to give a better view than the last, with spectacular red cliffs and deep gulleys containing huge waterfalls and lush green forests visible as far as the eye could see. As we climbed further the clouds descended and it started to rain. We were a bit disappointed as the views disappeared, but then, unexpectedly, we got an amazing bit of luck. Just as we arrived at the highest viewpoint the clouds lifted and the most awe-inspiring view was made even more spectacular by a huge rainbow that stretched right across the canyon. It only lasted a few minutes, but we were there for the whole event - wow!!! We then drove up to the Kalalau Lookout point further up the road. There we finally got to see the huge fluted cliffs of the Na Pali coast that we missed earlier in the week. Yet again, an amazing view and what would you know, but out came another picture perfect rainbow. Those tiki gods were smiling down on us that day and no mistake! We then decided, in typical fashion, that two stunning views were just not enough for one day, so we walked a 6.5 mile round trip (at a cracking pace!) from Koke'e State Park down through lush forests to the edge of the Na Pali cliffs for an even better view of the cliffs. We arrived late in the afternoon and the place was totally deserted. We walked out onto a little ridge, with 3,000 feet vertical drops on each side, and took in the views down across the jagged cliffs to the blue sea below. The light was perfect and lots of photos were taken. We also saw some crazy mountain goats who looked a lot more comfortable on the rocks than we were! All in all a fantastic day with, we both agreed, the best views we have ever seen.

Our penultimate day on Kaua'i we decided to hire some kayaks and paddle up the Wailua River. After a bit of shopping around we hired a double kayak from some VERY laid back guys (safety checks not their forte!) in an old Hawai'ian village. We packed up all our stuff in a dry bag and headed off with the sun shining and the winds light - perfect. We paddled around the corner and moored up near a river crossing, which led us to an extremely muddy trail (we're getting used to all this mud, and this particular trail was making our boots and legs so filthy that we decided why the heck not just smear it on our faces too!). The trail led to 'Secret Falls'. Definitely false advertising on the name, as there were a million people there, all trying to get a waterfall shower. We were not keen for queuing in paradise, so we headed back and paddled further up the river. We moored up and had lunch on a deserted meadowbank by the river, then found a cool little rope swing and played about on that for ages (cue comedy whoops and falls!) with hardly another person in sight. Brilliant! We headed back via a little cave, called 'Fern Grotto'. The giant tour companies who brought in the tourists wouldn't let us moor up at their jetty (pah!) so we tied up the kayak on the river bank and hacked our way, George of the Jungle-style, to the grotto. It was a nice little place, with huge dangling ferns and little waterfalls. We headed back just as a boatload of Japanese tourists arrived, all taking pictures of their shoes, the path, each other, etc; phewf!

Our final day was a bit of a crazy mixed bag. We headed out north to the Kilauea Point, which is a peninsular with an old lighthouse, which has been turned into a refuge area for sea birds. It was a fantastic place, with rare and beautiful birds swooping overhead and a pod of spinner dolphins playing in the striking blue sea under the cliffs - magical! We then drove down the road for lunch to a little bay called 'Secret Beach'. Again, 'secrets' seem to be difficult to keep on Kaua'i as the beach was quite busy. However, it was very pretty and had some great waves. We had no way of getting our hands on boards, so we watched the locals do their thing. The place seemed to be a hotbed for local surfing talent. It was great to watch and we spent a good few hours taking photos and generally chilling in the sun. We then drove back south to spend the evening in a little town called Hanapepe. The town was definitely a bit odd and eccentric. It seemed that time had stood still there and people were living back in the early 20th Century. Lots of art galleries and craft shops, all of whom seemed more interested in giving away free food and allowing local musicians to set up in their buildings and play impromptu sets! We wandered around as the sun set, browsing in a cluttered bookstore, deserted apart from a local writer there to do a book signing(!), listening to recited Christmas poetry, enduring some seriously out of tune guitar duets and watching some old Hawaiian puppeteer throw an oversized feather chicken around a stage. All in all a very strange but enjoyable last evening to our trip, finished off in style with some very tasty Thai coconut soup from our local town.

And that is it for Hawai'i! We hit the road again in mid January. Until then, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thanks for reading our blog!

Kaua'i - The Garden Isle

We have moved on to Kaua'i for the final leg of our trip. The island is incredibly scenic, and it's no wonder it is nicknamed 'The Garden Island.' However, our first two days didn't allow us much opportunity to make the best of Kaua'i. The weather closed in again, with howling winds and torrential rainstorms, and with all our planned things to do being outdoors we were suddenly a bit stumped on what to do! Our plan was to camp at a range of sites around the island during our 9 day stay here, but we decided (after a cold showers, wet clothes, and a sleepless night in our tent on a beach with the pegs being blown up in the gale) that a solid roof over our head would be a better idea!

We're now staying in a fantastic little bunkhouse in the Sleeping Giant mountains near the coastal town of Kapa'a. The soft warm bed and hot outdoor shower has made the rest of our trip MUCH more enjoyable! In fact Rach can't stop raving about the outdoor hot shower; you can look up and see the clouds and the stars and the moon, and its surrounded by hibiscus flowers - wowee! The B&B owners house is completely covered in rather impressive Christmas lights too, which makes it easy to spot the place when driving back at night!

So far, despite the weather, we've crammed a lot in (as per usual).

On one of the heavy rain days we did decide to brave a walk up the Sleeping Giant mountains behind our little B&B. The walk turned into more of a mud scramble, with us clinging onto trees and our feet sliding downhill beneath us! Cue lots of squealing and trying to walk in odd ways to keep us from sliding downhill. Making it to the top was quite an achievement!

The main event for Kaua'i was to hike the world-famous Kalalau trail, which runs 11 miles along the rugged north east Na Pali coast. We had bought the camping permit for our night at the far end of the trail, and so set off in good spirits and very well prepared (we had enough food for about a week!) with our heavy backpacks and tent. However, disaster struck two miles in, at Hanakapai'ia Beach, when we found out the trail was closed (!!!!!!) for the remaining distance due to the heavy weather and serious flooding. Gutted! (And rather peeved they hadn't signed this at the beginning of the trail....) We weren't going to let that stop us having a great day though, so instead we hiked the four mile round trip up the very scenic nearby valley, all the while wading waist-high through gushing streams and clambering over fallen trees and slipping in the deep mud. It was heavy going, but the massive fluted cliffs above (the scene of Jurassic Park) kept us inspired. It was worth the walk as we emerged at the top to a 300 foot high waterfall - breathtaking. We headed back again via Hanakapa'ia Beach (a bay which has, to date, claimed 87 tourists lives through the strong rip current) and back to the car.... 8 miles of mud sliding and streams in total :-) A great trip, even if we did miss out on the whole trail!

The weather picked up after the weekend, so we took the opportunity to have a pretty extreme water-based day. The wind and swell was looking good so we headed down to Nawiliwili (great name!) to Kalapaki Beach, well known as a great longboarding spot on Kaua'i. The waves were about 3 feet and perfect; a breakwater took most of the chop out of the incoming swell. We got some 10' boards and headed out. Gaz perfected his nose riding whilst Rach, with a bit of help from a local woman longboarder, scored some sweet, long waves. She also scored some excellent 'washing machine' moves when the big sets came in! Grinning from ear to ear we headed onwards to Kipu Falls. The spot is essentially a big waterfall where locals jump and rope swing into the pool below. We felt a bit like intruders when we turned up, but the local Hawai'ians were pretty friendly. We spent a great couple of hours climbing and jumping from the top of the 20' waterfall, we found the best tactic was to not linger too long at the edge before we got scared! Gaz also swung out on the huge rope swing and flew off into the pool from about the same height. We also watched the locals belly flop from surrounding trees (crazy stuff), and Rach tried, unsuccessfully, to get an American tourist , who had spent 3 hours psyching himself up, to follow her in jumping from the edge of the waterfall cliff!

We hired some mountain bikes yesterday and set off from Kapa'a to cycle the 18 mile round trip to Anahola. By now the weather had changed from gloomy and windy to 85 degree sunshine and a light breeze. We cycled the coastal path, watching the kiteboarders do their thing, before heading off road on some awesome little red dirt tracks. We dodged abandoned cars and jumped muddy ditches, taking in some completely deserted little beaches along the way, before emerging in the town of Anahola. We had some lunch on the huge, sweeping beach before heading back via a smoothie bar. On our return, Gaz got the urge to buy a ukulele, so we headed to the local music shop and he bartered a good deal with the owner on a tenor uke. All in all a good day!

Hana Highway and the Big Beach

The Hana Highway is widely renowned as the best drive on all the Hawai'ian islands, and so it was a must-see for us on Mau'i. The fifty mile coastal road is touristy, but the scenery is fantastic - deep lush valleys, rainforest, waterfalls and lots of fruit stalls along the way. We made several stops along the way to relieve Gaz from flinging the car around the 600 switchback turns. First up was the Hana Lava Tube; these were some very cool, deep caves that we explored with flashlights. After ten minutes of picking our way down into the darkness we suddenly came across a huge collection of very rare lava stalactites that looked exactly like chocolate drops.

Our second stop was at Wai'anapanapa (all these Hawaiian names are not easy to remember when map reading!), which was a beautiful state park with black lava rocks, bright green succulents and deep blue sea - really pretty. Just down the road was Hana, a gorgeous little old-school Hawai'ian community that felt as though time had passed it by. Everything seemed so relaxed, and we weren't surprised to hear that George Harrison once owned a house here. Just outside the town we stopped for lunch at an incredible, secluded red sand beach, which was only accessible by traversing a hair raising, three-foot wide cliff pathway. However, it was well worth it when we descended into a paradisical setting; a lava breakwater formed a turquoise still pool which lapped onto the dark red sands. The bay was completely cut off, and we felt like we had walked into another world! The highlight of the trip however was the Pipiwai Trail, a four mile round trip that followed a number of pools and waterfalls up a lush valley, through guava trees, a huge bamboo forest, and finally ended at an enormous cascading waterfall. We both got totally soaked trying to get close to the falls for a photo!

Our last day on Mau'i was spent being as chilled as possible, so we hit the most famous of all the island's bays, Big Beach. Cue some excellent(!) skim boarding by both of us, as we sprinted towards the shore break, flinging ourselves onto our boards and over the back of the waves then riding them back in and being washed up sideways on the beach. Shorts and bikini ended up containing a tonne of sand! We also watched the locals make a better attempt of it as we ate lunch - some backflips and serious air was caught, making for some great photos and some good giggles. We seem incapable of relaxing on beaches!

And so, onwards to our final Hawai'ian island - Kaua'i...

Mau'i - the Valley Island

Feeling a little sad to be leaving the our home on the Big Island, we have moved onto our next stop on the trip - Mau'i. We took a bumpy flight from Kona to Kahului and watched in awe as the towering green mountains and valleys emerged out of the clouds. As we approached we could see huge 25-30foot waves pounding the outer reefs too. A pretty spectacular sight all round to greet us for the start of our week long stay on our third Hawai'ian island.

We're staying in a really cool little hostel called Peace of Mau'i; truly an amazing find. We have a nice double room with a TV, an amazing kitchen with lots of free food, lots of surfboards, bodyboards and snorkel gear to borrow, and even a hot tub outside! It's pretty awesome, and feels even better after our three weeks living fairly basically in the screen house!

On our first morning we decided to cycle the 23 miles down the huge volcano, Haleakala. We got up at the unearthly hour of 2am(!) and headed down to the local surf town (Pa'ia) where we got sized up for bikes and gear. We jumped into a minibus and drove the hour and a half to the 10,000ft summit. Unfortunately it was cloudy and blowing a gale so we couldn't see the crater at the summit, but that didn't matter too much as soon after sunrise we were our bikes and freewheeling down the road. We got soaked for the first 10 miles and could barely see with all the mud and spray flying up, but then the sky cleared as we got lower and the views across to the west Mau'i mountains opened up, which was spectacular! We arrived back at Pa'ia after an hour and a half, almost dry again, and having pedalled only 400 metres in the 23 miles! We got back and had breakfast and hot tub - all that before 9.30am...

Mau'i has been a good place to surf. On the first day and third days we had chance to head down to the local spot - Ho'okipa Bay. Gaz got excited once again by the 5 foot surf and got himself a board from a local shop. The waves were good, and there were huge sea turtles surfacing all around, which made up slightly for all the locals in the lineup stealing most of the good waves! A day or two later we both also got to bodyboard at a place on the west coast called Polo Beach. Almost deserted and lots of barrelling little waves meant we had a great time, with Rach scoring her first ever tube ride! Unfortunately we didn't make it out to the big wave spot, Jaws, but we heard that it was breaking 30 feet on the day we arrived and all the legends were out there!!

We took a great drive out to West Mau'i in our hire car. The single track road was pretty hairy for the first part of the drive, with lots of 4x4s roaring around the blind corners! This part of the island is much more isolated and quiet than the relatively touristy middle valley dstrict, and we got to see sweeping views of deserted beaches and towering cliffs with almost no-one else around. The best part of the day was stopping at a little lookout and walking down to the sea, where a huge blow-hole was spouting spray from the massive swells eighty feet into the air! Pretty amazing experience, especially when you're standing ten feet away from it! We also stopped on a deserted beach for a couple of hours near a little whaling town called Lahaina. We sat on pieces of bleached driftwood on the golden sand and watched the spectacular sunset over the nearby islands of Moloka'i and Lana'i.

We like this island!!!

Hawai'i unleashes the fury!

This week Hawai'i has turned from a gentle, warm tropical oasis into a moody, stormy, extreme place! In the space of five days we endured the two worst storms experienced on the island in the past fifty two years! As if that wasn't quite enough, we also got hit by an earthquake! The rain during this week has undoubtedly been the heaviest either of us have ever seen; when it hits the ground it is so loud we literally have to shout to hear one another. The torrential downpours have led to flash floods on the surrounding hillsides, with huge rocks becoming dislodged onto the roads, houses being swpt away, power lines being brought down (leading to total blackouts), and needless to say a fair few fallen trees and flying coconuts! On the bright side though we had been wondering how to get those coconuts down in the first place...

Living in the little screenhouse through all this extreme weather, pretty exposed to the elements, has been pretty testing but we have managed surprisingly well. When the first storm hit we realised the entire roof was acting like a water catchment, with the tarpaulin sagging so much it threatened to pull down the whole structure. The open walls were also allowing the wind to blow in the rain and soak pretty much everything. We did some DIY and reinforced the roof with bamboo and then tied up towels around the screenhouse to act as walls. We also hacked at the bushes around the house as the rain was shooting off them onto the bed and electrics! The downside is that the storms have raged for quite a few days now and everything is damp and falling apart - all food boxes have just fallen to bits and we're running out of towels fast!

Leaving the farm didn't turn out to be a much better option. During that first storm we had to head out to the airport to give back the rental car from the weekend. Gaz drove the convertible along mountain roads inches deep in flood water, with lightning bolts hitting the roadside nearby and rocks falling from the cliffs overhead, whilst Rach followed in the farm truck, barely able to see through the windows for rain even though the windscreen wipers were on full. A pretty exhilerating and scary journey! The second storm brought down the power lines up the road, leading to a power cut for 4 hours. Gaz decided (somewhat unwisely in the circumstances) to brave the conditions and went out for a run, only to be driven back by insane thunder and lightning crashing all around the mountainside. We both ended up sat in the screenhouse with gale force winds, constant lightning strikes and heavy rain hitting us from all sides, with only two candles to light us. It was a pretty atmospheric experience!

On the day the second storm began we had booked to do a night dive with manta rays - Rach diving and Gaz snorkelling. Neither us nor the dive boat owners were quite aware of the impact the welling storm was having on the seas around the Big Island coast. We set out mid afternoon in the boat in pretty huge waves, with the boat surging like a fairground ride, often with air instead of water beneath it. We clung on and were reassured the dive site was much calmer; this, combined with the sight of dolphins swimming alongside the boat, made us feel a little easier about the experience. However, these feelings were short lived, as on arrival at the dive site we realised the swell was just as big. Moored up with the boat rocking 45 degrees one way to the next, attempting to put on dive and snorkel equipment, resulted in us both beginning to feel seriously seasick. Rach was trying to keep her eyes desperately on the horizon to hold it together and in doing so put her wetsuit on back to front and inside out - doh! The only respite from the sickness was to jump in and Rach completed a 20m dive with four others in the fading sun, whilst Gaz snorkelled around on the surface, spying some interesting reef fish. Then it was back to the rocking boat to wait for 30 minutes for the sun to set before the night dive, and pretty soon Gaz was in the clutches of more serious seasickness. By nightfall Rach was quick to jump into the black water, and Gaz, even with his lurching stomach, followed suit with his snorkel. We were given torches and then out of the dark water loomed a huge manta ray with a 6ft wingspan that came straight towards us. Gaz stayed alone in the darkness with the ray, which turned graceful somersaults right under him, until he had to retire with more seasickness, and Rach descended 10m in dark water with the others. The descent was pretty scary as she somehow got her underwater camera, torch and breathing regulator all intertangled, so headed straight down into the depths with her hands tied whilst the giant rays closed in! At the bottom she managed to wedge herself inbetween two reef rocks and lights were rigged up and all the divers gathered around like a campfire. She watched as five huge mantas swooped, dipped and dived, often coming straight towards her with gaping mouthes feeding on the plankton and a few times clipping Rach on the head with their huge wings! The whole sight, with the graceful mantas, bubbles, lights and little fish was quite outerworldy. Luckily the boat trip back passed quite quickly and within a few minutes of stepping back on land we both felt fine, and finished the evening off with some much-deserved soup and tea at Dennys!

On other occasions we have enjoyed the big waves here though. Bodysurfing here has been terrific, with 5 foot waves that pick you up in a big glassy wall and hurl you towards the beach. The moment of indecision before the huge wave hits you on whether to dive under it or ride it has to be taken quite quickly!

Farm life

Work on the farm has ranged from weeding bitter melon from under the coffee trees (our least favourite job!), to spreading chicken manure under all the fruit trees (actually, that’s our least favourite job!) to sorting the coffee cherries and spreading them out to dry, to picking, washing and drying mangoes (and eating them!), to putting the labels on coffee packets and helping the farm with their marketing plans. We’ve also picked limes, pruned and hacked at the coffee trees, and made compost.

We work from 8am until 10:30 am then all collapse in the shade and pop open ripe mangoes or eat the flesh of cacao seeds, then work until midday again. We know we’ve done a good days work when Steve, the farm owner, sits us all down with a beer afterwards. At the end of the day we are either covered in mud, chicken poo, mosquito bites or scratches from all the trees, but it is satisfying to see all the work we have done.

This year there has been a bumper crop of mangoes (lucky for us!) so everyday there are plenty to put in smoothies, eat as they are, or dry to keep for later. We can’t eat them quick enough!

There are about 6 cats on the farm, which jump into our screenhouse all the time and miaow for food. There is also a dog, Alani, that hangs out in our screenhouse stinking the place out! Oh to have doors!

Still enjoying picking everything from the farm. Latest discoveries have been coconuts (took Gareth half an hour to hack one open with a machete, but well worth it!), mint, limes, lemons, thyme and some seriously hot chillies.

Hibiscus flowers on the farm smell lovely, and Rach keeps picking them up when they fall and sticking them in her hair, Hawai’i stylee!

The Big Weekend

We managed to negotiate a day off work at the farm to take a long weekend to explore the Big Island, which has eleven different micro-climates! Found a sweet car deal on a convertible to cruise around the island in, which made the 7 hour round trip much more enjoyable!

First stop was Waipio Valley, a deep lush valley by the ocean with lots of taro farms hidden within. We walked down the steep (25% incline!) hill and explored the black sand beach and watched the wild horses swimming across the stream down there; it was a windswept and beautiful place. We then drove to Hilo, the second largest town on the island (actually no more than a small village!), exploring some tourist trap drive-up waterfalls on the way. Found an amazing sweet shop there, with loads of different flavour toffees. Stayed in a great little hostel with wooden floor boards and guests playing Jack Johnson on ukuleles!

The next morning we decided to try our hand at golf, and had excellent fun zooming around the manicured tropical course in a golf buggy (Rach being the more reckless driver of the two!). A good few missed strokes, lost golf balls and golf buggy skid marks later we then headed to Rainbow Falls. Not content with just looking we picked our way through bushes and massive Banyan trees to the smaller falls above where we swam in isolated pools and had a shower under the small waterfall that fed them. Later we explored lava tube caves with our headtorches, which were dripping with long tree roots and weird red volcanic rocks – very much off the beaten tourist track - yay!

We took the convertible to its limits for a drive up 10,000ft to Mauna Kea, where the temperature dropped to 2 degrees C! We climbed a cinder cone to watch an amazing sunset above the clouds and then joined a stargazing talk (the guy had a super cool laser that pointed up at the night sky) and cuddled hot chocolates. Drove back in the spooky full moon and filled up with pancakes in a great little diner.

Spent two days exploring a rather rainy Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Unfortunately there was no red hot lava to see as it was flowing in an inaccessible part of the park, but we did do an amazing walk across a steaming crater floor (Kilauea Iki). Dropped down through rainforest alive with bird song and fern trees in early morning and picked our way across what looked like a moonscape (it was used in the film Planet of the Apes!), with steaming vents, huge rock cracks, and hidden hot lava only 80m below us. Also we did some touring in the car to see hot sulphur vents, a ‘devastation trail’ and a walk through another massive lava tube (this one torchlit, but that didn’t stop Rach stepping in the biggest puddle down there). We camped that night in torrential rain at 4500ft elevation, falling asleep to the sounds of coqui frogs and the smell of eucalyptus trees and sulphur.

The drive back took us to Hapuna beach, which has been voted as one of the top ten in the world. We took the time to chill out and take in some sun after our manic weekend. The sand was chalk white and the sea was aquamarine blue. We lazed around until the sun set over the ocean, then drove back with the top down along the Kona coast, drinking some tasty frappucinos in the starlight.