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Saturday, 28th April


Joy oh joy at breakfast this morning – the grape jelly and strawberry jam had been joined by mango jelly. Thought this would be a welcome change – wrong. Mango jelly is very inappropriately named as it only contains about 10% mango – the remainder is CHILLI!!! Not a good way to start the day.

Today we had arranged a tour of the southern part of the island, which included the Waimea Canyon (which we flew through yesterday) and a cruise on the Wailua River to finish the tour.

Our first stop was at a blow hole at Spouting Horn, and with a southerly swell, we were treated to some pretty good blows. Cat was a little upset at a sign in this area – feral chooks are definitely fair game, but not cats! We continued to the old town of Hanapepe, which was the location for the shooting of “The Thorn Birds.” (This whole island is one big film location.) The jury is out as to whether it actually looks like a Queensland town. We passed the statue of Captain Cook at the site of his first landing in the Hawaiian islands before turning inland to the Waimea Canyon. Standing on a viewing platform didn’t quite have the same punch as the helicopter flight through the gorges and up over the ridges. We were able to work out just where we flew (see the picture of the canyon – we flew right up the valley opposite). It was still a pretty spectacular sight.

We had a short stop at the Kauai Coffee Plantation (about the only agricultural crop on the island) for a sample of some of their coffee – decided to stick with Maria’s from NQ Gold. Then it was on to our lunch stop at a golf club restaurant and lunch on the terrace. This was a beautiful spot and would have been quite happy to spend some time sitting in the warm sun and looking out over the golf course. We left Cat playing with some of the local birds – Brazilian cardinal and sparrows – while we ate and then realised he had jumped into a golf cart, ready for a round. At $88 for 18 hours, his mind was quickly changed!

We returned back through Lihue to Wailua and the boat waiting to take us up the river. We had a short stop at a lookout over the river and saw the green field the Harrison Ford can across (“Raiders of the Lost Ark”) after the big boulder chased him. The boat turned out to be actually a barge pushed by a large motor floating behind. We were taken to a landing and walked through the rainforest to a gorgeous grotto where we were treated to another rendition of the “Hawaiian Wedding Song” before returning to the river boat, some predictable hula dancing on the way back to the landing and bus.

It was cloudy most of the day, with a sharp shower during the morning – but definitely NOT cold.