July 5th, 2009
Waiting for the Vegas plane.3 comments Bye bye Kaua’i, hello Las Vegas (after a 6 hour flight). This photo was taken on our one grey day, so hold back on your schadenfreude.
Kaua’i0 comments Completely different to the Big Island, this place is far more verdant. Waterfalls all over the place, and spectacular, vegetation-covered volcanic coastlines. It absolutely poured down on the day we arrived, but it’s been beautiful since then. The island seems to share its diverse weather systems with the Big Island, as it’s easy to drive from beautiful blue skies and 94 degrees (whatever that is in English… I don’t know, the car only understands Farenheit), to rain and 60 degrees (I seem to remember that 61 = 16) in about 15 minutes.
Had our helicopter tour this morning, which was superb. No doors on the ‘copter, so it was pretty blustery. But the ride was smooth and the pilot took us up a few otherwise inaccessible valleys, up to some outstanding waterfalls, etc. As usual, the photos don’t do it justice. Also went up to Waimea Canyon, which was more attractive than the Grand Canyon, though on a more manageable scale.
We’ve got 6ft waves on the beach outside the rather amazing hotel, so we haven’t ventured into the sea yet. The rocks look a bit too harsh for novice surfers such as ourselves. Found an almost empty beach this morning, which is 10 minutes away from the hotel, if your car can make it down the tracks - which ours can. So we might go there tomorrow. Also went to the innuendo-laden “Spouting Horn” today, which was like a Geysir on a beach. Made a strange noise, which (hopefully) accounts for its name.
Going up to the North of the island tomorrow, heading towards the areas that were completely flooded during last week’s storms. The Pacific hurricanes are a good 5 days away from here, and appear to be heading North of the islands, so we’re not bothered by those.
We’re both completely worn out at the moment, due to our veracious appetite for sight-seeing, so I’m hoping for a lie-in on Tuesday. I won’t cry over missed breakfast, as the hotel is unable to offer proper butter with its croissants. “Whipped butter”, “Macadamia butter” or “Maple butter” seem to be the options. Bloody idiots.
By the way, Hawaiians (or American tourists) have beaten church-going English pensioners into second place in the slow driving stakes. The speed limits here are ludicrously low, and most drivers rarely threaten them. Some of the roads near the hotel have a speed limit of 15mph, which is slower than the continental drift that formed these islands. It doesn’t seem like a major annoyance, until you realise that a 50 mile drive over to another part of the island can take all morning. Infuriating. Now I’m off to get some more after-sun.
Rain0 comments Yes, it’s been raining quite a lot, and it’s going to get worse if the tropical storm and hurricane hit (both are forecast to come pretty close). Leaving for Kauai in the morning, but Kauai had over 11 inches of rain yesterday. We’ve been OK with the rain here, as it barely rains at all at our resort. But it’s been a bit grim when we’ve been to other places. Our trip up to the observatory on Mauna Kea (I think) this evening had to be cancelled, due to ridiculously bad weather up there. The scientists fled, apparently - so if you’ve got a hot air balloon, I know where you can nick some pretty impressive telescopes at the moment.
Still getting to do and see loads of stuff, so the rain hasn’t really spoilt much.
Waterfalls1 comment Did something of a waterfall tour today, but the rain followed us around again. Still, some of them were were pretty impressive. This one is Akaka Falls (760ft) down the east of the island.
Washout0 comments Conditions conspired against up today, by almost literally raining on our parade. We managed to walk on a fairly recent lava flow, but the current activity was on a hillside, and couldn’t be seen due to torrential rain. We had to give up and turn back. Still, the hardened pillow lava was beautiful, and we did get to walk through a lava tube. Off to see some waterfalls tomorrow, but more rain is forecast.
