Hey guys!

It's Tuesday and has officially been a full day since I've left Kauai and returned to Oahu. Since Bella and I left on Saturday morning, I'll start by recapping the events from Friday night to the present day. 

I've always left packing for trips to the last minute. This trip was no exception, and on Friday evening I found myself packing hours before my flight. After class Eric and I went to Target to grab some travel sized stuff, and when we returned we both left to pack. I finished a little past midnight, and got about 3 hours of sleep before being woken up by Bella asking me where I was. I went to get Eric, but he wasn't feeling good, so Bella and I left to go catch our flight- hoping he would meet us at the airport.

Hours later and we were in Kauai! The flight from Oahu to Kauai is about 40 minutes and we were there before we knew it. When we got to Lihue (the airport) we went to the car rental place, Alamo, to pick up our car. By now it was 8:00 am and this is when things started to look bad. 

Bella and I booked our car on a website called "Car Rental 8". For $33 a day, the website seemed perfect. When we approached Alamo, we were told immediately that there "was no car" and that "we don't rent to people under 25". This was a huge problem, because Bella and I had already paid for the car. I explained the situation to the woman at the counter, telling her that we already paid and that if Alamo doesn't rent to those under 21 than why would they rent to me in the first place? And, unsurprisingly, she responded with a "can't help you." and went about doing her own work- offering no other solutions to the two girls obviously stranded without a car. Thankfully, the two men inside the store in charge of getting cars were more help, offering us various solutions and suggesting some possible alternate companies. I decided to go with a place called "Island Cars" and, thankfully, was able to rent a car for $50 a day. 

Bella and I then walked to the Island Cars and waited as our car was prepared. It came out to be $100 for the weekend, and the car was a forest green Ford Explorer. It was a 4 seater and was quite the car, missing various buttons and had some "possibly broken possibly working" brakes. However, we were desperate for a car and decided we would take it. Unfortunately, because we had been robbed of $140 from Car Rental 8, Bella could only pay for one day of the car, which is understandable but unfortunately put us at leaving Monday morning, instead of Tuesday. 

Once we got the car, I heard from Eric, who told me that, in addition to not feeling well, he had also lost his phone this morning. As a result, he missed his flight and had no choice but to stay behind. He wished us a fun trip and told us he would be out one day. 

After getting the car, our first stop was McDonalds for breakfast. As gross as it was, we knew that before starting our road trip that we would need to eat something. At McDonalds we grabbed our food and then planned out the rest of our day. The first stop on our itinerary was Hanalei, where we would go and see some beaches and hike the Na Pali. 

From Lehue, the drive to Hanalei was arguable one hour long. For those curious, there are two main roads in Kauai- one which goes north and another that goes West. If you're considering planning a road trip throughout the island, you should know that there is no road that goes across the entire island. You will have to backtrack, as unfortunate as that is. However, Bella and I were fine with that and decided that we would spend the night at Haena beach and spend the next day seeing what's south. 

Once in Hanalei, we stopped for a bit to look at some shops and get lunch. Apparently Kauai is known for its red clay, and "red dirt shirts" are very popular. So are the roosters. They are everywhere! Seriously, I know that I've complained about the ones on Oahu but those are nothing compared to Kauai. Never in my life have I seen so many roosters! 

After Hanalei we drove a little more (maybe 30 minutes?) and ended up at Haena Beach park, a quaint little beach that bordered the Na Pali. This beach is also camper-friendly, and where we decided to sleep our first night here. 

The beach was incredible. The sand contrasted to the water, one being golden and the other being a deep blue. There was quite a few people, but none were tourists. It was very refreshing to be where there were no tourists and where there were no huge hoards of groups gawking at everything and snapping excessive amounts of pictures. In fact, nowhere we had been on Kauai was like this. Nowhere on Kauai could you see groups of tourists, massive amounts of Japanese people, or garbage. Truth be told, Kauai was cleaner than Oahu. It had no big buildings, and truly felt like a place uninhabited. 

The view from our tent

Unfortunately, looking back I've realized that I took very few pictures. While that should go to show you how much I enjoyed the trip, I can't help but wish I took more for the sake of the blog. 

Regardless, after setting up our tent (and tanning...and napping...) we decided to walk to the Na Pali Coast trail, where one can hike to the lookout, where you can view the edge of the island. 

There were huge caves on the way to the park. Were these the ones Pirates were filmed at? We'll never know.

Bella and I at the lookout. As you can tell by my hair it was very windy.

Myself on the trail

The hike was half a mile up. The first part, which is only .25 miles, is quite easy to get to. After that, the trail gets pretty rocky, but still bearable. The whole trail itself is about 11 miles long, but given that is was becoming dusk, neither Bella nor I wanted to hike the entire way. As one local told us, the point at which we stopped was, in his opinion, the best (and windiest) part of the trail. From here, we stayed for about an hour and waited for the sun to set. The coast was very foggy, but the waves were incredible. According to the lifeguard back at Haena, the swell on this day was very unpredictable, and could get up to 50 feet. 

Back at the base we decided to call it a night and go to sleep. While it was only 7:30, the two of us were exhausted and needed the sleep. We didn't know it, but we would only get about 4 hours of sleep before forfeiting the tent and opting for sleeping in the car, instead. After moving to the car we slept for a little longer and woke again at 6, where we decided to get breakfast and head south. 

We left Hanalei shortly after and went to McDonalds, where we grabbed breakfast and charged our phones. Here is where we also heard from Eric, who told us he was fortunate enough to find a flight later that afternoon. With a few hours before his arrival, Bella and I went to the Waimea Canyon (aka the Grand Canyon of the Pacific) and Baby Beach, before driving to the airport and picking him up. 

Before the canyon we made a pitstop to Wailua Falls, one of the more touristy things to do on island. While there, Bella and I decided we would hike to the bottom where we could swim. Most people don't do it, but the hike is a relatively short one (20 minutes down, 15 up). The waterfall, from the bottom, is very serene. There's also a third waterfall that can be seen, but I believe you can only see it if you hike to the bottom. 



 Left- view of the waterfall at the bottom
Right- view of the waterfall at the top

For size reference, I'm much smaller than the waterfall. I would say its about a 100 foot (at least) waterfall.

Up next was the canyon. The canyon is, in my opinion, pretty interesting. Maybe it's because we didn't drive up high enough, but from where we were it looked like a very deep ditch. However, there was red dirt everywhere, and many of the people around us seemed fascinated by it. I wouldn't go here for a full day, but if you have a few minutes to spare this is quite the stop.


The beach was next and, to me, was what I like to call "The Cromwell's of Kauai". In other words, this beach was less sand and more water/ coral. Like Cromwell's, the only thing you could really do here is lay out and tan. The water actually goes pretty far up, and many of the homes were feet away from the edge. We stopped here because, apparently, you can see monk seals, and I had really wanted to see one. However, it was just my luck that we didn't see any. 

After leaving the beach the two of us went to Lihue and picked up Eric, who we then took to McDonalds to get something to eat. After lunch (I didn't have any because at this point I was sick of the food) we went to a different beach, Lydgate Park, where we were going to swim but, after feeling how chilling the water is, decided otherwise. 

After the beach the three of us drove back to Princeville where we stopped to see the Lighthouse that was also home to many, many birds. It's called Kilauea Point National Wildlife Sanctuary, and is only open Tuesday - Saturday. Unfortunately this meant we could not go down to the lighthouse, but we were still were able to get a pretty great view from where we were standing. Also, once we left, we were able to get a quick peak at the sunset. 

Bella and I on the car. Photo courtesy of Eric.

Once done we drove back to the Lihue area and got dinner at a nice Mexican restaurant. I can't remember the last time I had Mexican food, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Afterwords we drove back to the Lydgate park and decided to camp here for the night. Unsure if this beach was one that we were allowed to stay at, we opted to sleep inside the car instead of taking out the tent. This turned out to be a good thing, as it was extremely windy and there was quite a few people there for something called Baywatch. 

In the morning we woke up at 4 and had the car returned by 5:00. It was hard leaving the car, but even harder leaving the island. I was torn between staying for an extra day or leaving, but I decided that it would be best to go home. Given that I came back and slept for 10 hours, I would say that I was right in coming home Monday instead of Tuesday. However, knowing what I know now, I would definitely stay for a few more days instead of the weekend. 

I hope you guys are enjoying your spring break!

Until next time,

Aislinn