Hawaiian Dream Trek: Kauai

The flight to Kauai was uneventful. Todd was there waiting for us, when we arrived, as was our luggage, which had obviously travelled on an earlier flight than us. What I liked about the baggage claim, was that as we left they compared the stickers on the bag to the stickers on our tickets. That stops anyone taking the wrong bags accidentally or even on purpose.

We drove from the airport straight in the direction of our campsite only stopping on the way to shop for dinner. We decided on Burritos again and I made my " Schichtsalat " (a delicious German salad, click here for the recipe).

Sunset on KauaiOur campsite had cabins with bunkbeds so we didn't need to build up tents, it also had a kitchen, so we didn't have to boil water for washing up, it was already there coming out of a tap. After dinner we went to the beach and made a campfire. Campfires on the beach in Kauai are actually legal (the only Hawaiian island, where that is so). Ulrike didn't want to sleep outside, nor in the cabin on her own, so I joined her in the cabin, although I would have liked to have slept under the stars, but I got a good nights sleep in bed instead.

Trail along the Na Pali CoastlineToday was a nice long hike along the Na Pali Coast, which is just beautiful. The trail goes right along the cliffs edge, but there is so much growth that it isn't really frightening. The first part of the trail was 2 miles long and didn't seem too strenuous. And our finish was at a beautiful beach, which is only sandy in the summertime, in winter the waves wash all the sand away. We stayed on the beach for maybe about 30mins, then 5 of us (Mei, Albert, Ulrike, Marcus and I) went on the hike to Hanakapi'ai Falls (another 2 miles), someone had told Nicki and Marcus, that it was a difficult hike but except for the last bit, I didn't find it too bad. I was of course out of breath and sweating like a pig, but that memory will soon fade.

I didn't go swimming in this pool, the water so cold. So I only went in up to my thighs, Marcus and Albert went in for a swim, and a quick shower under the falls. The falls were beautiful twice as high at least as Sacred Falls. Speaking of which, there was a tragic accident at Sacred Falls on Sunday (Todd told us about it on our return from our hike). There was a landslide and 7 people (in the meantime 8) died and about 40 were badly injured. The rocks some as big as small cars came down the mountain right by the pool. We were only there 4 days earlier, it makes me feel a bit sick just thinking about it. Especially as we had sat at the waters edge and said: " Just think, all these rocks here were once up there! " Scheisse!

Anyway back to the hike on the Na Pali Coast. We didn't know about the Sacred Falls Tragedy, so we weren't bothered at the Hanakapi'ai Falls. The hike back from the falls to the beach was mostly down hill so that was quite easy but we all still needed a little breather at the beach. And then we set out on what we thought was the easy part of the hike. We were wrong! We had forgotten just how far we had gone down on the way in, and every time we thought we had reached the highest point and could relax and start going down, we'd turn a corner and find the trail was still on it's way up! Not to worry a couple of Traubenzucker kept us all going.

But I even had problems with the going down. I love my Teva's, but towards the end of the hike, I could feel every single stone through them and my feet were really aching, but I made it!

Although when we found Todd and Nicki on the beach, I must have looked knackered, as they both commented on it. But that way I got a little rest, before we set off to our next campsite.

The next campsite again had beds for us all, actually it was a real surprise, as not only did it have beds the two cabins had kitchens and towels for everyone. Wow!

Todd cooked for us tonight. Hawaiian, I really enjoyed it. It was pork wrapped in a Tara leaf with sweet potatoes (which were purple) and Poipoi sauce, which was also a purple colour and looked a bit like that slime stuff kids play with. I can't really describe what it tasted like but the texture was a bit strange (like what the dentist uses to take an imprint of your teeth!).