No sightings of whales yet. No boat tours around famous NaPali Coast being offered due to the stormy winter season, the road to the Kalalau Trailhead is closed, the trail itself, too, as well as Limahuli (Betanical) Garden. Not because of the recent storm, but already since the last hurricane went through in April 2018. So much for the famous Northwest coast, seems like the only views we can get was from the airplane and from the distance:
Well,,, we'll find something else to do, no doubts about that. Though, actually today was a pretty lazy day. Still struggling with my cold. We drove up north to Hanalei stopping at a couple of overviews and beaches, one of them Pine Trees Beach (left pic), where we watched the surfers. Seems like they really love the rough conditions at this time of the year!
The Hanalei Valley (pic below) at the foot of Hanalei’s misty green mountains, is covered by fields of taro ("kalo” in Hawaiian), a plant which grows in flooded patches and is used to make poi, a Hawaiian staple starch, kind of comparable to bread.
In the whole northern part of the island there are plenty of apartment/condo buildings, vacation homes, timeshare complexes and villas - it seems like this is rather a destination for wealthy American "snowbirds", mainly elderly people, and not so much for regular 1-week-vacationers (as Mauai was). There are some big luxury resort hotels, but not too many hotels in total. Will see how it looks like in the south tomorrow.
Hanalei Town, west of Princeville, mostly consists of Ching Young Village, a mix of shops, galleries and restaurants in a beautiful setting. There is the old Waioli Mission House and some historic markers explaining Kauai’s Polynesian history. Note the little lizard on the mask, it was real!
Drove a little further south, to Anini Beach, to see whether swimming is possible and, yes, the beach was sandy, the water calm, due to a riff far outside, where waves break. Finally we were able to take our first bath in the ocean on Kauai! Sunbathing, however, was not an option today, still too windy and when the sun was hidden behind clouds it was cool. And, yes, we became fancy with our beach chairs! We found them (as well as snorkeling equipment, boards, umbrella, cooler) in our apartment's closet.
Stopped at the bakery and at a farmers' market to get fruit/avocado and bread for tonight's dinner and called it a day, catching up with work while sitting on the balcony.
,,, and watching birds from the balcony: chicken, of course, egrets (pic) and the not-at-all shy cardinals, a whole family:
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