Mar 31, 2019
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Waterfalls, Rogue Waves & Double Rainbows... Part 2
Days 27-34 (August 10th - 17th)
Kaua'i, Hawaii
Anini beach, HI; Hanalei Bay, HI; Anahola beach, HI; Haena beach, HI; Poi’pu, HI
I was awoken that night around 1 PM by the sound of a thunderstorm coming from the ocean. I was worried that we were going to be blown away by the storm but like most ocean storms, this one was more bark than bite. It continued to sprinkle for around an hour before I finally fell back asleep. Our surf lesson was scheduled for 10:00 the next morning so I was a little worried that the rain would dampen our experience. I woke up again around 8 bright-eyed and bushy tailed ready to take on some waves. Johnny and I went back into Hanalei a little bit early to get coffee from our usual coffee place, Java Kai. This time, however, we needed to get some food in our bellies if we were going to tame the ocean that morning. I ordered the North Shore skillet. Imagine an omelet as thick as a pie stuffed with ham, sausage, bacon and cheese. I had a slice of that for breakfast with a side of fresh fruit while Johnny had the Kaua’i Waffle, a regular waffle topped with bananas, mangos and coconut syrup.
We were a little anxious to get our surf lesson going so we walked a couple blocks down to the Quiksilver shop to sign in for our lesson. It was around 8:50 so we planned on looking around the shop until 10 but they didn’t open until 9. The lady signing people for surf lessons was sitting outside the shop so we talked to her for a bit. We told her about our journey and she decided to knock the price of our lessons down to $45 a piece because she liked our story. We talked to her for a couple minutes as she gave us directions where to go to get to the spot of the lesson. It wasn’t too far away and I needed to find a new pair of glasses having broken my previous pair in the jungles of Kaua’i so we walked down the street a bit to a small general store. After finding an adequate pair we drove the couple blocks down to Hanalei Bay where our lessons were to take place.
We met up with our surf instructors, Chatson and Keaton, standing around a older model white chevy truck loaded with 20 surfboards. Both were younger than us but not by much. Chatson, in his early twenties, was our primary instructor sporting a trucker hat while Keaton, also in his 20s, showed up later. Keaton had the whole bleach blonde surfer look spouting out words like "brah". After a 10 minute tutorial of where to position yourself on the board and how not to worry about popping up to fast with these waves, we attached our safety straps to our ankles and headed out to the water. The waves were puny but strong enough to take you into the beach if you caught a good one. I was up and riding one into the beach by my third wave caught. From where we were waiting for waves in the bay you could stand up with water up to your chest and hold onto your board. I felt incredibly comfortable with this having no fear of rogue waves or drowning. We stayed out for 2 hours riding various waves into the beach and bailing on the smaller ones that took us nowhere. After that Chatson jokingly said we needed to have a "board meeting" in which he told us we passed our lesson and were able to keep the boards for another hour before they were packing them up for the day. It's amazing how the waves suddenly died done once the instructors left...
I felt invincible after our lessons. Surfing was one of the major things on my 30 list that I wanted to check off while in Hawaii. We were a little wore out from surfing but still wanted to do something so we went back to Travis' and Tiffany's hotel to lay by the pool and drink some beers. This continued for a couple hours before like most mammals we needed food in our bellies. Hawaiian cuisine is a great experience. There aren't any food chains or big restaurants anywhere. There's just shacks side by side up and down the main streets of the towns. We went back to Kapaa to a place called Mermaids which specialized in fish and sushi. I still felt incredible from the surf lessons so i ordered the house special, seared ahi tuna cucumbers and sticky rice wrapped in seaweed and a wasabi wrap. Before this I hadn't tried wasabi. I'd had seaweed which I didn't care for but I shrugged it off to a bad batch. As soon as the wasabi hit my lips I felt my mouth burst into flames. My drink, a chai tea with coconut milk, helped a bit but after each bite the heat became more intense. I got through 3/4 of my sandwich before giving up on the wasabi and scrapping the rice and fish out of it with my fork.
The next couple of days were spent getting pumbled by the waves at Secret Beach by the Kilauea Lighthouse, trying to surf violent waves in Kealia Beach unsuccessfully, drinking Java Kai coffee and lounging around enjoying the Kaua'i atmosphere.
Our second to last day was the most adventurous and most rewarding day of the trip. Johnny and I went as far as the road would take us to start the hiking trail down the Na Pali Coast while Travis and Tiffany took a tour of the same coast in a catamaran. We took the 2 mile Hanakapi'ai Falls trail hiking up and down and along the mountainside leading to a creek down at the beach. From there we took the trail 2 more miles inward through the forest. I don't think there was one square foot of level ground throughout the entire 2 miles. We were constantly balancing on boulders, crossing the creek four or fives times. We went through periods of bamboo forest that creaked and swayed over our heads giving the impression that they could fall at any moment. As the boulders got bigger, the path grew wide revealing a lagoon being filled by a 200 foot waterfall. For some reason I had forgotten my swim trunks in the car but that didn't matter. We had been hiking for so long and the humidity in the forest was so high that I jumped in anyways. The water was frigid. One girl who had gotten there before us was dangling her feet in the water saying that she couldn't feel her toes anymore. Through the waterfall, a group of guys were standing on a ledge regrouping from the chilly water. Johnny and I swam through the water coming over the falls over to the ledge as they were swimming back out. The water was so cold it felt good to get out and stand on the ledge even though the mist from the falls was making the air colder than normal. I was able to check off another item from my 30 list by jumping through the base of a waterfall. I swam like a mad man back to the rocks to get out of the freezing water where we dried off and replenished our bodies with some bottled water and Clif bars before starting the 4 mile hike back to the car. The hike back was definitely rougher than the way there. I thought that it was pretty even between going uphill and going downhill but on the way back it felt like the first 9/10 of the hike was straight uphill. After that workout we needed some actual food to eat so we went back into Hanalei to eat at a place we'd passed a couple times before, Tiki Man Pizza. We arrived around 3:45 but they didn't start serving food until 5 so we decided to have a couple beers and wait. It felt like a very local place where everyone knew each other's names. There was an older man named Richie across the bar from us who was sitting under a picture of himself dancing that was taken many years ago. He looked like he was at least a couple years past dancing. We had a couple beers and then asked what the special was. Our bartender, Julia, told us that they specialized in Mai Tais and that they'd been using the same recipe for 50 years. Not wanting to mess with tradition, we ordered a few to continue the streak. I could see why they've been using the same recipe for 50 years because this was a perfect Mai Tai. If you end up in Kaua'i I suggest you go and get yourself one. We met a lot of interesting people while we were waiting. There was a black guy from Cleveland, a couple from Boston, two couples from California and another woman across the bar that seemed to be another local. We ordered the #9 pizza, the full combo, which was loaded down with everything in the kitchen but the sink. I'm not going to say it was the best pizza we've had but it was definitely the most filling. After eating and saying goodbye to our new friends we went to Haena beach, our last camping spot and the most touristy, to get a different view of the sunset and relax for our last night in Kaua'i.
The next morning we packed up our stuff and stopped off at the Java Kai for the last time. We planned to hit the last spot on the island that we had yet to go. We drove down to the south coast to do some shopping and check out the only beach we had yet to see. I was finally able to find something I thought my mom would like down in Poi'pu before we hit the beach. Johnny and Travis did some body surfing before Travis and Tiffany headed back to the airport. After they left Johnny and I were able to get in some wave football before halfway showering for the first time on the trip (by halfway showering I mean using shampoo so we didn't smell like hobos on the plane). We noticed smoke billowing from about a mile inland while we were packing up our stuff for the flight. A man next to us said that it was probably a brush fire and judging by the amount of smoke they were probably going to close down the main road back to the airport. We packed even faster than and tried to get through the main road before they closed it. We made it through in just enough time to see the cops shut down the road behind us.
For some reason we had a layover in Honolulu on our return flight to the mainland. The flight from Kaua'i to Honolulu was 20 minutes long. We basically just took off and landed, no actual leveling off. Thankfully there wasn't any turbulence this flight. At Honolulu, I was still pretty nervous for the return flight home so I stopped at a bar in the airport and ordered a shot of Jameson Whiskey and a Hawaii Nui beer. I struck up a conversation with a couple from Malibu who were moving to Washington D.C. in a couple weeks. The man gave me his card and told me to look him up when we got to D.C. and he would show us all the good sights. I also meet a yoga instructor named Sherri who informed me that with my body type the best form of yoga for me would be Ashtanga. I'm not sure if it was the nice conversation or the alcohol but I felt much better about the flight back. I went back to the terminal to meet up with Johnny, Travis and Tiffany where the airline and said that they needed people to check bags for free in order to save space in the overhead bins. Johnny and I both obliged then made our way onto the plane.
Long story short I was still pretty nervous on the plane so I wasn't able to get any sleep. Instead I watched the movie "Rio", a kids movie about a indoor bird that is thrown into the wild. I thought that would put me to sleep but to no success. While everyone around me was nodding off I continued to watch episodes of the TV shows Friday Night Lights, Frasier, The Middle and the Big Bang Theory. Again I couldn't fall asleep. As the plane's landing gear came down, the sun was coming up and I still hadn't slept a wink. I'm not sure what happened the next couple hours because I was basically a zombie picking up our luggage and riding the shuttle back to the car but we were on our way to Las Vegas in time.
We've gotten off the path of doing things during the day and having time to write at night but I swear we're getting back on track. I'm going to write a big column tomorrow about the past week including Las Vegas, the extraterrestrial highway and Roswell, NM. Please stay tuned!