We woke this morning in our new condo. We had arrived late last night and didn’t have much chance to get the lay of the land. Switching condos is our fault, really. We had delayed making decisions about this trip and at the end had to decide among a limited number of options on where to stay. Nothing we found had been reviewed by previous renters so ultimately we decided to divide the risk among two rentals. The one we just moved to is clearly the nicer of the two. The decor is dated but it is impeccably clean, and the view of the ocean from this unit is better.
We got up and relaxed for a bit taking in the sight sound and smell of the Pacific, noting that the wind today was a bit less intense and even seemed to be shifting somewhat to a warm southerly.
As midday approached we found ourselves buying lunch at Foodland. I bought local ahi poke and dried squid, because why wouldn’t you go to Kroger for raw fish?
There are no big cities on this island. Kauai is small. It has an area of 562 square miles, with a population of 66,000. The central portion of the island is sparsely populated, with most people living in the series of small towns that dot the north, south, and east coasts. The west coast of the island, the Napali Coast, has no roads or cities. We will be going there on Monday.
After some casual local exploring we finally started heading south. In the middle of the East Coast, at Kapa’a, we directed inland.
Again the curves rolled and twisted upward, as we hurtled around blind corners with a vigor I haven’t seen since the Amalfi coast. The GPS said we were close but short distances take unusually long times to travel here.
Yet not this time. We had arrived at Wailua Falls. I’ve sort of lost track of the waterfalls we have seen on this trip, but we were much closer to these than most. Just beyond the overlook, two streams of water plummeted over the cliff to the rocks below and we could feel a very low level rumble in our feet. As we stared at them from such a close vantage a strange thing happened and our eyes adjusted to the constant downward movement. Consequently, when we looked back at the solid cliffs adjacent, the rocks seemed to rise up.
It was very trippy.
Next stop was a brief foray to the Koloa rum company. They make rum in Kauai using local sugar cane. I would have liked to see how the rum is made but this was a tasting. I don’t think I would go out of my way for this, but it was on our route and it was a good time.
The road called (don’t worry, we didn’t taste much) and we continued our drive south. Next stop was another spectacle of nature at Spouting Horn Beach Park. Here, a shelf of lava over the ocean shoots out a jet of water when waves hit at the right frequency and amplitude.
As the rhythm of the waves rises and falls, the hole gurgles and groans like a caged specter, spitting out her wrath in frustrated mists only to again lie quiet, biding her time patiently. We watch the waves, in search of a clue to her next move, hardly breathing until the time is right and the seas cooperate, and a wheezy whoosh of air presages a spout of water blowing forth as she bursts free of her chains. And then once more she pauses while we wait.
She is glorious.
From there we walked around the the beach a bit and explored the area before returning to the condo, with a brief stop for dinner on the way. We settled in early tonight because tomorrow will be an early morning.
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