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Our Hawaiian Trips
Sent: Friday, May 31, 1996 4:33 PM
Subject: Hawaiian Trips
Sandy and I just came back from our second Honeymoon two days ago.
I'd like to share the pleasant experience with you.
We were on the Kauai Island.
It is also known as the Garden Isle of Hawaii.
Both of us though separately, had visited Honolulu before, that's why I picked a different island this time.
We stayed at the WorldMark Resort for a week.
The roads on Kauai only go along the shores from the north, around the east side of the island and to the south shore.
The northwest shore is Na Pali (the cliff, inaccessible by roads).
The center of the island is a grand canyon and a high altitude swamp, and the top of a dead volcano that is covered by clouds 300 days a year.
The top of the mountain gets an average of 1.5 inches of rain daily.
It is the wettest place on earth.
Almost the entire island is lush green wilderness, perfect for hikers and campers.
The hiking trails on the cliff are very steep; they are not for beginners.
There are streams and rivers at the bottom of the grand canyon, kayaking is very popular too.
Other way to see the scenery is a one-hour helicopter trip.
It takes off from Lihue airport and flies over the shorelines, the valleys where the ancient Hawaiians used to live, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, the swamp at 2000 feet elevation.
We were also shown the waterfall where the visitors to Jurassic Park landed, and most beautiful of all is to fly into the shaft of an old volcano.
Half of the crater had fallen off due to erosion.
The remaining half forms a semi-cylindrical opening.
When the helicopter is in the opening, you are surrounded by a vertical wall 270° around.
The cliff walls are covered with plants and numerous threads of tiny waterfalls.
The old Hawaiian called it the wall of tears.
The ceiling of the shaft is covered by clouds.
On the rare occasion when the mountain clouds clear up, you can fly up the shaft thousands of feet, you feel like you're on the bottom of a well.
The pilot said he could only see the sky from the shaft 4 times in his 25 years career.
We also took a 5 hours raft expedition.
We left the north shore on a motorized raft.
The raft holds 14 passengers and a crew of 2.
They took us along the west shore to see the cliffs.
When the lava flowed from the volcano to the sea, the lava cooled to form the rocks and the hot lava continued to flow in underground tunnels formed by cooled lava.
When the flowing lava stopped, the tunnels became sea caves along the shore.
The raft took us into the sea caves.
Some of the caves are covered by waterfalls.
It was a lot of fun when the raft speeded into the waterfall and into the pitch darkness behind, made a turn and came out from the other branch of the tunnel.
It was nice to get wet after baking two hours under the sun in the open sea.
The raft landed on a beach and we had lunch, after lunch we spent two hours snorkeling in the coral reef.
The colorful coral fishes swam to us begging for food.
They were so beautiful and friendly.
Sandy's wedding ring slipped out of her finger and sank to the sandy bottom of the beach.
While the ocean waves were pushing us around, we gave up on looking for it.
One of the guys on our raft was collecting stones for his granddaughter and he volunteered to keep an open eye for it.
Miraculously, he found the ring from the bottom of the ocean!
Everyone on the trip told us that it was a sign.
It meant our marriage would last forever. :-)
After snorkeling, the raft took us back.
On the way back we were going against the wind and ocean waves.
The ride was extremely bumpy.
The ride is not for the faint hearted or anyone with motion sickness.
Pregnant women should not even consider the trip.
The waves sent the raft airborne from time to time and everyone had to hold on to the rope and sit tight.
Everyone screamed with joy and excitement (perhaps some in fear) and in harmony and unison whenever the ocean waves sent the raft couple of feet in the air.
And the ride lasted for an hour or so.
It was more exciting than a roller coaster ride. :-)
We also spent a day driving around, we basically drove the entire stretch of the highways on the island.
At one end is the viewpoint at Waimei Valley and Kokee to see part of the sea cliffs and lush-green valleys and the desert-like Grand Canyon of the Pacific.
At the other end is a dry lava cave that you can walk inside for couple hundred feet until it is too dark to go any further.
There are wet caves too, but no one wants to wad in puddle of slimy green water.
Along the ways are numerous resorts and white sand beaches.
There is a place called Spouting Horn on the south shore near Poipu where the ceiling of an undersea lava tunnel is cracked, the sea waves push water into the tunnel and water spout shoots 30 feet into the air.
There is a famous coral reef on the north shore.
You can stop by any rental store to get the snorkeling gears for $1.99 per day.
Drive to a place called Tunnel Beach.
It is the largest reef on Kauai.
Park your car on the roadside and just walk into the water.
There is no road sign to Tunnel Beach.
You have to look it up in the map and guess your way there.
The map actually shows many coral reefs around the entire shoreline, but I was told Tunnel Beach is the best at this time of the year when the ocean waves are pounding on the south shore, the north shore is perfect for snorkeling.
Despite all the great scenery, Sandy got bored on the driving trip.
Though the beaches are beautiful, they are all the same after you have seen a couple of them.
We also visited a tourist attraction called Smith's Tropical Paradise.
We went to the Fern Grotto on a riverboat ride.
It was boring.
After the river trip, we had the Luau (kind of Hawaiian banquet.)
They dug up a pig from the imu (the ground oven) and served the shredded pork with poi (mashed taro root) in the buffet dinner.
The pork and poi tasted terrible.
The luau was one of the worse dinners in the whole trip.
Hawaiians must have different type of taste buds. :-)
After the dinner, they had a show of different Polynesian dances.
Sandy enjoyed it, but I didn't like it, because both the dances and music were modernized and not authentic.
I've been to the Polynesian Culture Center on Oahu.
It was much better.
In my opinion, if you are on a tight budget and you are not a hiker or kayaker, you should not go to Kauai.
Hiking/kayaking/camping or the helicopter ride ($130) and the raft expedition ($115) are the only ways you can see the true beauty of the island.
If an additional expense of $250 per person is too much for you, and you don't hike hazardous trails, you will be bored to death.
You will waste your time on Kauai, because the roads only reach about 5% of the Island.
If you are only interested in beaches and reefs, you can find those in other Hawaiian Islands.
It is not necessary to spend on your air ticket to Kauai.
We enjoyed our trip very much though my wallet was much thinner when we came back.
I went to Oahu and Big Island about 7 years ago.
Honolulu on the Oahu Island is a crowded tourist town.
I heard some Hawaiian natives called the town little LA.
Waikiki beach, Pearl Harbor, Diamond Head, Polynesian Culture Center are the popular tourist stops on Oahu.
The Big Island is amazing if you like volcanoes.
When I was there, the lava was still flowing.
However, the top of the flow had hardened and the lava flowed underground in tunnels.
I visited the seashore where the lava met the ocean.
I could see billows of white steam rising from the shoreline.
I was told that if I went to the same spot at night, I could see the glowing lava light up the steam.
According to the tourist guide, the volcano shot up a fountain of lava few hundred feet tall more than 10 years ago.
Some helicopters would fly you close to the fire fountain.
At the time I visited, I was told that all lava flows went underground, so I decided that a helicopter ride would be a waste of money.
When the molten lava makes contact with the ocean, the sea water turns into steam, and the sudden cooling of the lava causes the new formed lava rocks to explode and crack into small pieces.
The broken up lava is further ground into black sands along the shore by the ocean waves.
I saw some nude pale white Caucasian bodies running round on remote black sand beaches.
White on black was a very eye catching contrast.
I regretted I didn't bring my binoculars. :-)
I also visited the Kilauea Caldera, it is huge!
The floor of the caldera is flat like a lake.
It is very interesting if you read about the formation of the caldera.
I also visited the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut orchard and factory.
It was interesting and good shopping for chocolate.
I didn't prepare well last time I visited Hawaii.
Besides, I only spent three days on two islands.
I was rushing myself and didn't see everything that I should have seen.
Next time, I will go to Maui (if I ever recover financially from the recent trip.
:-)
If you enjoyed reading about this trip,
you might enjoy reading about my friend's trip to
Europe too.
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