Chocolate, shaved ice, yukeleles, and gorgeous scenery – what more do you need?
We spent a week on Kaua’i, the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands and the greenest – it is known as the Garden Island and you can see why – towering pleated cliffs and mountains all covered in verdant greenery – it’s also one of the wettest places on earth and yes, we experienced that as well!
We’ve driven the length of the island as far as you can in a rental anyway – the centre is pretty much off limits and there is no road on the west coast due to the huge imposing Na Pali coastal cliffs – best seen by boat or helicopter apparently. We’ve visited the Waimea Canyon (the Grand Canyon of Hawaii) and driven up to the Kalalau lookout (avoiding major pot holes but worth it).
It is best to go there first before the fog or rain comes in, and we were lucky enough to make it just in time. Stunning views, and you really do expect to see Dinasours (well, Jurassic Park was filmed here!). We didn’t get a chance to do any of the hikes because it bucketed down, but there are lots here of varying different lengths and difficulties.
We made a major error with places to visit here as you really do need to book up about 30 days in advance, so we didn’t get to any of the botanical gardens (although our AirBnB has such a stunning garden I’m not sure we missed anything!!) or the Haena State Park at the very top of the island – although we did drive up there – gorgeous scenary, valleys of taro farms, lovely beaches and lots of surfers and windfoilers riding the waves. We did get to Kilauea lighthouse,
now a wildlife refuge where we saw Shearwater chicks, Great Frigatebirds and the elusive Nene goose.
We saw (and heard) the Spouting Horn
and watched sea turtles swimming, explored tiny old towns like Koloa and Kapa’a, visited an old sugar plantation house, saw the Wailua and Opaekaa Falls and generally chilled.
We visited the Lydgate Farms Kaua’i Chocolate, where we were treated to a very informative talk about how cocoa is grown (each tree can grow for about 50 years with its prime harvest being up to about 20 years), whilst also tasting their delicious chocolate. I personally am not keen on dark chocolate, but I found their 70% was lovely, not at all bitter but still with a wonderful depth of taste. Needless to say, we ended up buying some, along with some chocolate covered mac nuts! They had harvested some beans about 3 weeks ago, but we could still see the tiny flowers and small pods growing on the tree trunks.
It’s definitely worth the trip, and you can also do a 3 hour tour if you have a chance.
In the lovely little town of Kapa’a we sampled our first shaved ice, which, although I was sceptical about, turned out to be delicious (watch out for brain freeze tho!!).
Then we came across a yukele shop, and were given a demonstration of various different techniques by a very knowledgeable gentleman.
It’s a lovely island which needs a car to explore, is slightly more expensive than Big Island but maybe because there are some high-end resorts and golf courses here. Oh, and there are hundreds of roosters here – the forest reds and, accordingly to local lore, a Hurricane enabled domestic chickens to escape, and now they’ve interbred. All are protected!!! There is no need for alarm clocks here!!!!!
