Kauai Day 1

Mom and Dad are celebrating their 15th anniversary (in April). Grandma Packer came and stayed with the kids for a week so this could happen (she is a hero!!)

We flew out in the early afternoon and arrived at 10 pm (2 am Utah time). We went straight to bed.

In the morning, Julie woke up at 5:30 Hawaii time-between the time change (it was 9:30 am Utah time) and the excitement, she was up early. This was the view from the resort we stayed at, it really was this breathtaking.

Julie watched the sun come up on this morning on the beach.

We got going around 7:00am Hawaii time to get up to the Kalalau trail on the north side of the island.  We picked up breakfast and lunch at a grocery store on the way up.  (And we saw a couple from our stake--the Mertins crossing the street!) We drove up past Princeville and Hanalei and parked at the Waipa park and ride to catch the North Shore Shuttle for $15 per person.  We were late for the shuttle (major road construction and a 1 lane bridge) and caught the 9:00 am shuttle that took 30 minutes to get to the state park and trailhead.  We started hiking around 9:30am.

The Kalalau trail is amazing, but pretty strenuous.  One thing we loved is that it is nice to have a hiking stick to help with the hike.  The hike is a bit muddy.  Julie hiked halfway in regular tennis shoes, the second half in water shoes because it was much muddier.  This part of the hike offers amazing views of the ocean and the coast.  It takes 2 miles to get to the Hanakapi’Ai Beach, which is probably the nicest, prettiest beach on the entire island, although the surf was pretty rough, so no one was getting in the water.

Hanakapi’Ai Beach

From the Hanakapi’Ai Beach, you can hike up the Hanakapi’Ai Stream 2 more miles to the Hanakapi’Ai Falls.  It was an amazing hike through bamboo and lush jungles. The dead bamboo sticks make great hiking sticks.  We crossed the stream in several places. 

We arrived at the waterfall and it was amazing!  Jeff took off his shirt and got in the pool and swam under the waterfall.  It was bucket-list stuff. It started raining fairly hard and rained for our hike--almost the whole way back to Hanakapi’Ai’ Beach. It was pretty awesome! We hiked back down the 2+2 miles to the trailhead and caught the 4:00pm returning shuttle.

(Can't remember when we got this, but it was some delicious shave ice at Wailua Shave Ice)

We got back to the Park n Ride and got in our car and drove back to our resort.  On the way back we stopped at Taco Feliz food truck and had some tacos for dinner.  They were decent (we spent about $30).  We got back to the hotel and went to the hot tub and met some nice folks from Illinois (both accountants and very friendly).

It was an amazing way to start day 1!