Nawiliwili, Kauai – Fourth Port of Call

The last stop in the Hawaiian Islands is at the port of Nawiliwili, on the island of Kauai. It is near the city of Lihu’e. We are scheduled to rent a car from Thrifty again today, this time it is a Jeep Wrangler. We were once again awakened by the alarm clock and wake-up call on the phone as a back-up, both occurring at 5:15 AM. Our scheduled time in port today starts at 7:00 AM, and we have to be back on board at 3:30 PM, a short stay.

Due to the short duration of our time in Kauai, we were waiting at the gangway at 7:00 AM so we could get started as soon as the ship was secured along side of the pier. The security crew was having trouble getting the ramp into place, so it was not until 7:30 AM that anyone was able to leave the ship, taking 30 minutes from our already short port time. After getting through the port terminal building, we saw the Hertz and the Alamo shuttles lined up outside, but no shuttle from Thrifty was in sight. There were several other passengers getting cars from Thrifty, and one of them was able to contact them by phone. Unfortunately, they were under the impression that the ship would not be letting passengers off until 8:00 AM, and had not yet left their office.

The shuttle from Thrifty at the the airport arrived about 7:45 AM, and everyone that was in line piled into the shuttle, about twice as many people as there were seats. We had gotten on in the first few people, so we had seats near the front. However, the people who actually were standing and had gotten on last were off first the shuttle first. We had to wait in line behind one person before we could get our vehicle, but when it was our turn, the process went quickly since once again we had once used the Thrifty Blue Chip Service.   All of the paperwork was already completed, and all we had to do was show my driver’s license and credit card, and sign the paperwork.

We were on our way by about 8:05 AM, once again using our GPS for directions to the Waimea Canyon. Similar to all of the other island stops so far, it was not far in mileage, but took about an hour to get there due to the lower speed limits, a maximum of 50 mph, and passing through several small towns on the way.  Once we got to the town of Waimea, we turned onto the Waimea Canyon Drive, another winding road similar to the Hana Highway. Luckily, Stephanie did not need to read a lot about the scenic areas, they were clearly marked as overlooks on the roadway, thus avoiding any issues with motion sickness.

The weather had been a little cloudy early in the morning, but cleared some as we rode up to the canyon. We did not see many cars going up the road, so we were thinking we would not have to deal with many people today. We made a few stops on the way to the main canyon overlooks.

Once we got to the first overlook, we were actually surprised to see one bus load of ship’s passengers were already there. We had not seen them pass us, but later determined they had gone up a different road to the canyon. There was another road that could be taken for the first one-third of the route, then the two roads merged into the main canyon road. Our guidebook had suggested taking the alternate route, the route the buses had taken this morning, on the way down, as it offered better views of the coastline. The entire round trip to see the canyon overlooks is 40 miles, and changes in elevation by 4,000 feet.

The overlook was quite crowded, and we had some difficulty getting pictures without there being a lot of “friends” in the picture with us. We waited a little bit, only to see two more buses arrive. We decided to go ahead and go farther up the canyon drive to the other overlooks, hoping to keep ahead of the buses. It was very windy and cool there due to the altitude, and once again, we were glad we had our jackets with us.

We soon learned that the initial overlook was the only one that the large buses could get to due to the narrow and very winding canyon road to the top. The only other ship’s passengers we saw afterward were in very small groups being transported in tour vans.

In addition, the other overlooks were actually better, although they did not show the part of the canyon with the most coloration. We did find some other pull over areas that offered better views of the actual area known as the Waimea Canyon.

Next, we stopped at the Kalalau Pu’u o Kila Lookout, which was the highest point and also the end of the paved road. There was a trail from that lookout, and we hiked down the initial portion of the trail to get some good photos.

There were periods where the clouds would roll through the valleys, and then clear up, and the sun would emerge. Then, occasionally, we would get showered on with some misty rain, then it would clear up again. This area is known as one of the wettest spots on earth, receiving over 365 inches of rain per year.

We drove back down to the Kalalau Lookout, which we had passed on the way up to the top. Again, the views were breathtaking.  We could see a waterfall in the distance, and occasionally, helicopters tours would come into the canyon from the ocean and fly through the canyon. They appeared to be very small in relation to the size of the mountains and canyon.

We wanted a picture of us and the view without the ugly green railing, so we found an area where a gate was open and went to the area below the actual fences in the concrete lookout deck. It was very obvious that others had done this same thing, there was a well worn trail to the “good picture” spot. There was a large flat area where we set up the tripod, and took our pictures with the breathtaking background.

We made a couple of other stops at pullover areas, taking pictures of the very colorful canyon. The sun had come out more, and it added a lot of color to the canyon.

We then started back down to the bottom of the canyon, taking the alternate road called the Koke’e Road. It was apparent that is was a better road for buses, which confirmed our initial assumption that the buses had come up this route, which was why we did not see them as we were heading up the Canyon Road this morning.

It did offer some better views of the ocean, but it was so windy, there was a lot of mist and salt spray in the air, making the views a little hazy.

We headed back to Nawiliwili and determined we still had enough time to go past that town and head out to see some of the nearby waterfalls.

We headed over to the Wailua Falls, which was the largest of all of the waterfalls we had seen on any of the islands. It was very impressive.

Next, we drove over to the Opaekaa Falls Lookout. This waterfall was not as large as the Wailua Falls, and it was quite a distance away from the lookout, but still offered a good photo opportunity.

 

We made our last stop at the Walmart in Lihu’e, it seemed like everywhere we went in Hawaii there was Walmart. We picked up some more provisions knowing this would be the last stop where a better selection of item would be available, and not be too expensive.

We then drove to the airport to drop off the rental car, and headed back to the ship on the Thrifty shuttle bus, arriving at the ship about 3:00 PM, 30 minutes before we needed to be back on board. Although our stay here was short, we ended up being able to see everything we had planned on, plus a couple of additional sites.

After going through security to re-board the ship, we headed to our room to enjoy the nice view of the harbor.  At about 4:00 PM, and the ship eased away form the dock, and headed out to sea.

We will not see land again for four days, crossing around 2,200 nautical miles of ocean to our next port of call in Pago Pago, American Samoa. We will have some time to rest, and should be able to catch up on the blog posts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset Pictures Leaving Kauai