Yesterday we left the Big Island and flew to Kauai, my favorite island. There isn’t much to say about that day. Our flight was uneventful and we spent the afternoon getting our provisions for the week and browsing the local markets.
This morning we headed south to Poipu intending to do some hiking and snorkeling in the area. Unfortunately we had a similar mishap as on our first snorkel excursion in Kona. Only this time instead of forgetting one mask and driving to a beach 15 minutes from the condo, we forgot all of our snorkel gear and were about 40 minutes away. Fortunately, we will be back in Poipu tomorrow for a horseback ride so we did our planned hike today and shifted our other planned post-horse activities to today; we’ll just do the snorkeling tomorrow instead. We put the gear in the trunk tonight so we wouldn’t have to remember it in the morning.
We started the day down by the Spouting Horn blowhole. We had stopped at this site on our first trip to Kauai several years ago, but we had been hurriedly making our way to Waimea Canyon so didn’t spend too much time there. Also, we have better cameras now. : )
After lunch, we headed out on our hike. We started at Shipwreck Beach (where lies Shipwreck Cove and the town of Shipwreck!) and headed east climbing into the sandstone cliffs of the Makawehi area. The wear of the ocean waves against the cliffs has created some fantastic pillars and key holes and just beautiful stratification. Yes, I am a geek, what of it?
There was one really neat area where there was a HUGE tidepool. Really the whole beach was one big tidepool. With the tide out, you could sit on the edge of it and watch the waves hit the shore right at eye level, but a good 50 yeards or so away. It was a little surreal watching the waves crash at this angle.
We had a lovely hike, not very strenuous, with frequent stops for picture taking, and there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean to keep it from getting too hot. For those who may consider this hike in the future, I would advise not going past the heiau that you will come to about a mile into the hike. The guide book (the wonderful Ultimate Kauai Guidebook) lists this hike and another one just a bit further east along the shore as two separate hikes, but mentions that you could merge them into one. But I think there’s a reason they have them listed separately. After the heiau, you have to walk across a golf course, which is fine, but when you get to the next bluff, there just isn’t much to see there. Not to mention, the golf course path is sheltered from the ocean enough that the breezes stop and the temperature rises what feels like 10 degrees. The problem was that we had been looking at this one bluff throughout the entire hike, just getting closer as we walked and I wanted to see what was on the other side. That’s the bluff behind me:
Once there and seeing nothing of interest in the walkable distance, we turned around and headed back. I think the second half of the hike would be just as wonderful as the first, but you’d be better off hiking back to your car and driving to the starting point of the second half. After all, unless you have someone to pick you up at the end, every step you take east will have to be followed eventually by a step west.
Back at Shipwreck Beach, I stood in the ocean waves for a few minutes to cool off. The waves were coming in pretty rough and I think the tide was coming in because I noticed the waves getting higher as time went on, so I didn’t really go in. I just stood on the wet sand and let the waves come in, going anywhere from my ankles to my butt. It was lovely.
On our way back to the condo, we stopped in Old Koloa town and had a very over-priced but tasty gelato to get some of our energy back. All in all it was a very nice day even if we did manage to forget all of our snorkel gear.