Hawaii+Cali 2023 (Part 3~Kauai~)

From Oahu we hopped over to Kauai, the greenest and smallest of the 3 islands we visited. Oh btw, it's pronounced "kawaii" haha - suits its small size (still about twice as big as SG). I liked this island very much but will wait till Part 4 to confirm if it's my favourite one. What I can say for certain is that the trip highlight was on this island, it is a must-go in Hawaii for nature lovers, and there was never a dull moment while we were there!

This kind of view doesn't come easy.

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3 Oct

It was about noon. We'd gotten off the plane with good enough buffer for lunch but that was foiled by the car rental company. Akin to waiting at JB immigrations, only 1 or 2 out of 3 desks were ever open to serve a snaking queue. And so our first ~2h on Kauai was spent waiting to get the car.

Thus we barely made it in time for the first activity in Kauai which was also the highlight of the entire trip haha. There was lunch, but it had to be left in the car for later - we had a heli to catch! Admin deets first: we were told to bring along a jacket and keep no loose stuff in our pockets. The tour company also provided lanyards to keep our phones secured. All these... because our heli would be doorless~

USD325 per pax for a ~1h ride on a Hughes 500 Doors-Off Helicopter - ALL WINDOW SEATS by Airborne Aviation Tours it was. And it was worth every single cent! On hindsight now, it definitely was a much better deal than USD250 for a heli with windows/doors. So all I can say is, I'm thankful for being in a good place to spend this kind of money.

Watching the first heli just... go away.

The heli! With us for scale. It looked so cute like a ladybird, with a similar colour scheme even.We were the tiniest 2 out of the 5 people (including the pilot) squeezed in the heli. So we were assigned to sit in front with the pilot in a space that was about 1.5 seats wide. 

My view from the centre of the front row. This meant I had more structures around my view but that wasn't too bad. Also, hadn't seen flight instruments as close as this since the aero days.

Gotta preface that no photo or video can do justice to actually sitting there squashed in that cute little bug of a heli watching paradise unfold below, paired with wind and various forms of precipitation. But I shall try anyway - a bit of spam coming up!

Yes, this is the view that comes with a doorless heli! I was the only one really ensconced in the middle, everyone else was literally living on the edge for that hour. Apparently the wind was very strong too and tried to snatch J1's phone away. But I was well-protected from all that haha.

The pilot provided commentary along the way tho I can't remember much except a few key moments. The first was when we crested a ridge and he went "Welcome~ to Paradise~~~".

It really was Paradise~~~ All those lush land formations and countless waterfalls as far as the eye could see. Nature's wonders!

From velvety green valleys to edgy red ones.

The Jurassic Park theme song played at some point over the transmission which added to the feels. One of those falls was used as a filming location after all. Another thing that added to the feels was the way the pilot kept calling the landscape gorgeous except that it came out like "guooorgeous" xD I think this is one job that is never boring.

Since it was a small heli, we felt every movement quite keenly. Particularly when the pilot banked hard (on purpose) such that the "door" opened in the direction of gravity xD In those moments, J1 was the only thing blocking me from dropping into open air. Aside from my seatbelt. 

Example of some mild-ish banking.

We felt the clouds quite keenly too at some points! It was super cool to go right through them (pun intended), like mid-air fog.

The tour took us from the lush valleys to out above the Na Pali coast. This portion was crazy stunning. I think my english will never be good enough to properly describe those scenes from that day. So it's a good thing we live in an age of technology good enough to capture at least a decent fraction of the experience! 

The following series of gifs (4-5x speed) depicts the journey out over the greens towards the knife-edge coast, nipping in and back out of an incut valley along the side and spinning one round above the North Pacific just coz.

My favourite part of that whole sequence was turning around inside the incut valley to face out towards the unreal turquoise ocean, and then flying straight out over the red carpet of rippled rock.

That was the climax of the tour. It's natural to think that we'd zoom straight back to base after that and end the tour but nooo there was still more to see! After hugging the coast for a bit, it was time to re-enter the greenery. 

The return leg was mistier (since we were entering one of the wettest places on earth) and the landscape rougher, such that I kept thinking of matcha-powdered dessert while looking at the hills. Then our little heli-bug flew us into the ancient crater of Mt Waialeale. Writing this, I wonder if those larger 6-seater helis (with doors) would even be able to get that far in. I guess we got what we paid for!

We spun one round in the misty crater and I happily enjoyed the aircon conditions while J1 claimed that she was getting drenched xD

Then, it was time to head back for real with some last views of waterfalls and farmland.

What a beginning to the Kauai leg that was. All that was left for the day was to check in and eat the abandoned lunch at the balcony. I somehow remember that the Kauai hotel was the first in a long string that required us to lug our luggage up and down stairs. Speaking about hotels, one thing I liked about Hawaii hotels was the free ice and water refill stations at the lobby (no such thing on mainland). Otherwise, and especially considering what they cost, US hotels were just plain lousy compared to other countries. The best accoms of the entire trip was J1's house.

Hotels in Kauai were veryyy expensive, but at least the view at our chosen one was pretty good.

There was also a beach almost right downstairs, not that we had the time for it...

That night's activity revolved around the shopping mall just across the road, with shopping mall referring to a cluster of shops around a huge parking lot rather than a single multistorey building. I.e. what can be done with an abundance of land haha. 

Shaved ice is a thing in Hawaii. This strawberry thing from Wailua Shaved Ice was surprisingly nice and easy to eat for an artificially flavoured thing. We finished the entire bowl. It could be due to the calculated fineness of the shaved ice, somewhere between ice kacang (too rough) and bingsu (too fine), for an optimal melt-in-mouth experience.

And then there was an impromptu Milky Way viewing at the lawn just downstairs from our room! We'd gone to the beach first but there was too much light interference from a nearby luau, so below the trees for a unique view it was. The thing about sky-viewing activities is that you can plan all you want but the clouds have the final say, so take what you can~

Forgot to mention previously another of our regular habits (aside from eating in the car): Devil's Plan! It wasn't always easy keeping up with the complex rules and interpersonal dynamics of this show, but it was engaging enough for us to watch ~2.5 episodes each night. Then we ran out and had to wait for the release of the final 3 episodes.

Chromecasted onto various hotel TVs which sometimes took some effort.

And of course there was usually some form of alcohol. Pictured here with supermarket cheese and crackers and snacks from Narita duty free.

4 Oct

We did the first of 2 hikes on Kauai on this day, but not without going for some specific breakfast - musubi! It was intriguingly like a giant sushi/kimbap haha. they all share the same seaweed-wrapped-over-rice concept, save for the very different fillings. That was followed by some interesting viewpoints enroute to the hike.

Breakfast was a rather tasty miso chicken musubi from The Musubi Truck and we got the OG spam version to go for lunch. Even with limited stomach capacity, I quite appreciated the large variety of food + abundance of poke on Hawaii. Eating all sorts of different food really brought out the holiday feels!

While established on google maps, The Red Dirt Falls were literally a roadside stop (park and climb over the barrier). After the previous day's matcha hills, we had heaped milo powder! There is no scale here and I realised it looks small, but the waterfall was a good 3m tall. It took some careful footwork to shuffle over the shifting milo powder to go up for a picture.

Quick stop at Waimea Canyon viewpoint for a closer-to ground view of the red and greens!

The hike itself was freshly selected the day before. I think I was given dibs since J1 had already pre-determined the second hike. For me, variety is king (besides worthwhileness and doability of course). Out of the top 10 hikes in Kauai according to AllTrails, there was only one that really attracted my attention - the Alakai Swamp Trail. The issue was that even getting to the trailhead required a 4WD and some driving skill+guts. So we found an alternative in the Pihea Vista Trail which would bring us on a different route to the swamp, with supposedly good views all through. 

Well it started out decently!

The Vista quickly went missing hahaha. We did see the Kalalau Valley floor a little, and then the fog curtain closed in and remained firmly shut the whole way. So all that's left is to talk more about the trail and terrain coz that was quite fun for me (which may not be the case for anyone who dislikes jungle bashing, J1 included).

Oh no...

The trail began with a dirt/mud path closely flanked by greenery. It definitely felt like we entered Jurassic Park hurhur. Coz fog aside, the vegetation even looked like those ferny types rustling with hidden dinosaurs. From behind my shades, it also took on this vibrant, almost unreal verdant tint. 

Into Jurassic Park! Tell me this doesn't look like a path to find dinosaurs.

The path got narrower the deeper we went.

There were some interesting features on this trail, such as the fence. And there was only one "correct" answer to the natural question hahaha. We were later educated that the fence was made to keep away rather more mundane invasive species like pigs and goats. Well, imagination made the experience more interesting xD

"What's beyond the fence?"
"Dinosaurs."

Another feature that made this trail unboring was this steep section that required a bit of scrambling (video from the way back).

The second part of the trail took us over wooden planks in varied states of maintenance. The worst of them were creaking broken see-saws with rusty exposed nails. We made sure to go one by one over each plank, just in case. Some of the planks were also raised some ways above the forest floor, like knee-height, so having a sense of balance was necessary not to go tumbling headfirst into the greens. But to me, this was all part of the fun haha. Since I hadn't done plank-in-jungle terrain before, it felt like a whole new playground to me! There weren't much views in there but we were well-occupied with watching our feet anyway.

It was 3.15pm by the time we reached the little river. Just across would've been the most intense uphill section of the trail, connecting directly to the start of the Alakai Swamp. So that was where we made the executive decision to turn back haha, also to get back in good time before dark. Anyway the whole reason I wanted to see the swamp was simply that it'd be interesting. The terrain would've been something like the planks portion except over bog. Overall, something different from rolling greenery and coastal views. But since the Pihea trail itself had proved interesting enough, I left without much disappointment. 

Selfie to commemorate the endpoint.

Still foggy when we exited Jurassic Park.

Another car-meal in the carpark with the spam musubi which was much tastier than it sounds.

Here, I would like to mention the chickens. Besides Pasir Ris, I've never been to a location so overrun with chickens. On Oahu and Kauai both, chickens (not dinosaurs) ruled the land~ It also happened that the roosters were especially handsome, much more so than our SG varieties, and they strutted as though they knew it. The resident rooster of Pihea carpark was particularly attention-seeking. While chewing my musubi, I found great amusement in watching it go up to every single car (including ours) and circle around the visitors' legs until they took notice. Eventually I got out of the car to entertain it too. Please see below, along with a selection of other eye-catching birbs.

There was still some sunlight left, and the drive out had its own memorable bits.

Notice the bumpy "horizon". There were times where the sky and the sea seemed to blend into one, especially when a layer of cloud sat just over the water a long distance away.

There was a farmer who flagged us down...

And managed to make us buy a very ugly, USD10 papaya.

And there were some goats.

We uh somehow almost drove into a military base and then we went to catch the sunset! Or at least we attempted to. Apparently I'm a very powerful cloud bringer (tho maybe I simply used up my own sunset luck on my solo trips......). Our fate was quite clear when we went to Kekaha Beach and saw the layer of clouds firmly settled in place, but we waited anyway. And it was nice, just to sit peacefully for a while at the beachside pavilion. That was when the rainbow appeared 🌈

Calming waves while we waited.

Not quite ending at the white car (ours) so no magical pot of gold appeared in there to offset my trip costs.

Maybe got hope?

Ok nope, but still a pretty timelapse haha, with some intruders.

And upon turning around from the "sunset", we confirmed our suspicions that (however faint) it was a double rainbow after all 🌈🌈

The day out ended with some expensive Japanese food then it was back to the hotel for more Devil's Plan.

Expensive raw fish on an island in the middle of the Pacific... most of these ingredients prob had to be imported, as with many things in Hawaii. Gotta be thankful for whatever trade channels help us keep our Sushi Express alive.

5 Oct

We went north after spending the previous day in the south of Kauai. One more hike to go too. But first, breakfast! Apparently acai bowls are also a thing in Hawaii, so I got my inaugural taste right there in Kauai after being put off by the price so often before in SG.

Can't remember what exactly we got from Kalalea Juice Hale (a Malaysia-esque roadside establishment), but it was good. With bonus mountain view!

Agriculture, from afar.

Artistic tree-shot at one of the beaches near Princeville. Those blue skies 💙

The day's hike was the Kalalau Trail which, according to wiki, is one of the most beautiful and dangerous hikes in the US. We hardly reached the dangerous bits coz hiking the full way (35km in and back out) required a permit and some body and mind of steel. So as with most other regular people, we did only the first section towards Hanakapiai Beach and back out (total about 6km). The trail was very popular and we took a shuttle in from a further meeting point since the trailhead carpark was prone to running out of lots. 

Agriculture, up close.

The start of the trail already screamed "tropical jungle". True to appearances, it was extremely humid along this coast-hugging trail, much more so than when we were deep in the ferns the previous day. I'm not learned enough in geography to explain why.

Also unlike the Pihea trail, this one was more on familiar terrain: forest floor and rocks. But mix in some mud and there were sections that really tested my footing. As a generally un-surefooted person, those slick rocks really were my personal bane. While shuffling around gingerly with my hiking sticks, I couldn't understand how other people were moving about so niftily in sports shoes and even crocs and even slippers (?!) 

Coast-side forest floor was nice. And these were the non-treacherous bits that I managed to keep my hands free enough to record.

Anyway, I had my views on this one (pun intended haha). Even this first "easy" section of the Kalalau Trail was quite undulating so me and my poor condition suffered. But the path brought us around the cliffside with generous views of the Na Pali Coast! 

Those ridges! Different view from the heli tour but still spectacular.

All those views were truly worth the effort, and we did have a great deal of those for about 3/4 the way. But after the bend with the red lalangs... Everything went downhill lol, literally. If I'd known what lay ahead... I'd have refused to budge an inch further down that path. That was the best place to soak in the vast beauty of the Na Pali coast, before turning back. 

This was my favourite point of the entire trail, and also my personal recommended turnback point.

Me being very happy right there.

Because beyond that, the trail brought us very far downwards (through a forest so no more views), across a sketchy river crossing, over a field of huge pebbles, to a beach. Hanakapiai Beach was just a beach. I'm not sure it would've made it to the top 50 beaches in the whole of Hawaii. Ok I guess the waves were something. The main problem was that after a short break, we had to turn around and go back through everything I described 4 sentences ago. This time, upwards. If desirous of a more positive view on this final section (if any), please consult J1 who was definitely surviving better than me haha.

Had a hard time on this one. The rocks were in no way flat and the water was knee-deep so we definitely minded falling in. There were 3 types of river-crossers observed here: (1) those who wobbled awkwardly over the rocks like us, (2) those who hecked it and went straight into the water and (3) those mountain goat-people who deftly walked over the rocks like they were everyday concrete pavements. I was super impressed by (3).

The beach. Only putting this here coz of the effort it took to get here.

The waves.

That night we rewarded ourselves with an interesting, and more atas than usual dinner at JO2 Natural Cuisine. That was also my 30th birthday treat, courtesy of J1. On the other hand, my gift to her had been a tube of Urah cream hahaha. Shabby by comparison but definitely helpful for 2 pairs of battered knees. Highly recommended for people ≥ 30 planning to do consecutive days of hiking, speaking from experience(s)~

Pretty drinks! We'd spotted the pinkish one at the neighbouring table and asked about it since it matched none of the descriptions on the menu. Turns out it was limited edition!

Pardon the ripped fish, I chose this photo coz I wanted to show the insides of a seared tuna since it was my first time trying such a thing!

The other main also featured a seared tuna. I was slightly apprehensive at first since I'd had half-cooked sashimi before and it was the worst thing ever... But thankfully this was nothing like that hahaha.

Then, back to the hotel for the nightly serving of alcohol and Devil's Plan! We also ate the ugly papaya which was at least very sweet and fleshy.

Would've been a healthy supper if not for the alcohol~

6 Oct

This was the day for island-hopping again so we kept the daytime plan simple, starting with brunch at Java Kai. There, we came across another Singaporean living in the US who recognised us from JO2 the previous night, seated just a table away. This is a good juncture to point out something I realised was so different from my other travels. The SG accent was non-existent in Hawaii. Not surprising given how inconvenient it was to get there. So that was how we got identified, happily chatting without restraint of an accent once described by a French classmate as "curving in weird ways".

One savoury, one sweet, both good!

We must've been shopping around for things to do when we settled on Smith's Tropical Paradise, a botanical garden conveniently distanced from the airport. The landscaping was pretty nice. 

It was very hot.

But the birds were the highlight. Specifically, the behaviour of the birds. It was Pavlovian Conditioning at its finest~ Observe:

Note that we went in without buying any birdfeed and yet were followed like Kpop stars. From the pigeons to the chickens to the peacocks and even the Jurassic ducks. It was highlyyyy amusing, especially when J1 got specifically followed by a family of chickens. Prob should've basked in it more since when/where else in life would we have gotten such fanfare xD

Time to bid goodbye to the greenery of Kauai.

Now that I've laid everything out like that it's plain to see - Kauai was exciting! Or maybe it was just us haha. Up next in Part 4, Big Island, which had its own special moments too! But let's see if we get to that in 2023, since there's still the year-end post coming up.

Kauai's alcohol~