Day 6-12 : Kauai’i

Kauai.  A little Island with a whole lot of awesome. Our main focus on this island is the Kalalau Trail. The Kalalau Trail leads from Ke’e Beach to Kalalau Beach along the Na Pali Coast and provides the only land access to this part of the rugged coast.  Camping is strict and allowed at only 2 points along the way. A permit is required and because it fills up often, we booked 6 months in advance.

We flew into Kaui after a battle-royale with Hawaiian airlines. Never have we been weight-checked for a carry on. Laaaaame.  If it's a turbo-prob yes - but a commercial airline?  $50 for anything over 25lbs....Not cool Hawwaiian, not cool.

The jeep worked out so well on Hawaii - why not again? So we rented another jeep and headed to yet another Marriott (thank you points once again and to Brian who spent more than half his year in them to get said points).

Tip: if you like Poke like we do - head to any local market daily for the variety of Poke bars. Even Sams Club has a fantastic Poke bar. Add a little avocado - and oh man .. Poke-to-me.

This Kalalau Trail obsession started with a movie believe it or not. A Perfect Getaway. A thriller about a couple hiking the Trail while on their honeymoon (and that's all we're sayin').  It's great.  We watched it years ago and you really get a sense of the trail itself and what it's like to be on it. We had never heard of it and wondered if it in-fact was a real hike you could do in Hawaii.  And thanks to Google machines, we read all about it.

Add Bucket list item #28: Hike the Kalalau Trail.

The trail is a 22 mile round trip hike snaking along the Na Pali coast - worth a little pre-training. 3 days is the suggested minimum. We wanted 5 days but some permit dates were sold out so 3 is all we get. It traverses 5 valleys before ending at Kalalau Beach where it is blocked by sheer, fluted pali. The 11-mile e way trip is graded but almost never level as it crosses above towering sea cliffs and through lush valleys. The trail drops to sea level at the beach.  So all geared up we hit the trail.....

Well, when weather poops all over your plans.... you make make lemonade? - (is that how the old saying goes)?   Plan B: Explore more of Kauai. Along the side of the road we picked up a cute little hitchhiker from Germany. She did not hitchhike from Germany.  Stine (Steena) is working her way through the US and Canada on a work/travel plan. For the next few days she will be our travel buddy.

Being the master-divers that we are (not) we decided to do a shore dive. A first for me (M). Poor Brian has to endure the wussy Marisha dives that are shallow, clear, shark free, current free, and pretty much perfect conditions not to die. Easy yes - but shore dives are very cool. I am a fan.

Another cool little spot we just happened upon had a natural lagoon carved out of the rocks. Mildly dangerous to climb down into it - but why would you NOT? It's just begging to be dipped into.... If we could describe how to find it we would, but we found it by chance and supposedly (from a local) it is not accessible due to the tides. So - lucky us.

On what is suppose to be the last day of our hike along the Kalalau Trail, the trail has opened back up and people are being allowed back in. We have an early flight to Maui tomorrow but have decided to spend our last day here doing at least part of what we came here for.

If you hike the trail for about 6-8 hours round trip  you can hit Hanakapi'ia Falls. On the way we got to experience enough of the trail to get the picture of what it would be like to hike it all and have decided not to scratch it off the bucket list just yet in hopes of coming back some day to do the trail in its entirety.

Open invites for anyone wanting to join us for a future 5 day'er.