Kauai 1
Please return your seats to the full upright position and stow your trays. We are on final approach to Honolulu!
The seminar was held at the Mariott Kauai Resort. I'm a bit cheap, so I found another place, the Garden Island Inn, which was half the price and a pleasant 6-minute stroll from the Mariott. If you like all the state-of-the-art amenities, choose the Mariott. If you want a pleasant, clean, conveniently-located place to sleep at night, the Garden Island Inn fills that bill quite well.
The rear area of the Garden Island Inn has this impressively dense garden set into a small cliff. A waterfall runs down the rock you see to the right. Our room was on the ground floor adjacent to the waterfall. The sound of the water running through the night added a very relaxing element, making sleep quite easy to attain.
On the first afternoon, after my continuing education, we had planned to take a helicopter tour. However, on that day the clouds and winds were marginal for heli-touring. When the tour company said that they would allow us to re-schedule, we jumped at the chance and started toward Waimea Canyon. Something about canyon lands at sunset is just mesmerizing, and the wait at the heli-tour place resulted in our arriving at the canyon as the sun was setting.
The following day skies were much clearer. Still somewhat windy, but the folks at Blue Hawaiian Helicopters seemed reassuringly confident.
Hey, wait for ME!
All strapped in with an inflatable life vest fastened to her, Bev is ready to go!
Hey, who are those cartoon characters on that screen? The Blue Hawaiian helicopters have a camera in the cab and several outside the cockpit. Video is taken during the flight, with the view switching perspectives at various times. So, on the DVD you can buy after the ride, you will see random shots of YOU sitting there, then shots of the scenery. So, if you take this flight, make sure you don't pick your nose while you and your co-passengers are looking out the window!
Bev and I were lucky enough to get the front seats, which were 3 across (the pilot and us). There were seats FOUR across in the rear. Seating was determined by a computer and was supposedly based on individual passenger weight (we had to weigh-in at Blue Hawaiian's office), to distribute our mass in such a way as to make for the safest flight. I THINK that they also programmed into the computer travel partners, since it appeared that we were all able to fly next to our spouse.
Lihue International Airport. Pardon the reflections from the cockpit "glass" on this and several of the next photos.
See the resort with the blue swimming pool slightly below and right of center? That is the Mariott Kauai Resort, where the seminar was held. As you can see, it is right on the beach of a nicely-protected bay. Most of the green nearly surrounding the building is its expansive golf course. If you look just above the Marriott, accross the little road, you can see a much smaller pool which looks more greenish. Garden Island Inn is just to your left of the pool (difficult to see in this shot, but better in the next). As is apparent here, getting to and from the seminar required only a very pleasant and refreshing short walk.
You can easily see Garden Island Inn here. It is the blue building with the gray roof, immediately below and to the left of the shoe-shaped swimming pool. The pool did not belong to the Garden Island Inn. The dense garden with the waterfall you saw earlier is directly behind the Inn. The door of our room is about in the middle of the Inn (behind a lone tree you can see in the "courtyard"). The Marriott is just to your right from the road which curves up to the upper right corner of your screen. The building in the lower right (across the road from the Garden Island Inn) with the blue roof housed an ABC store, which had a few grocery-type of items, so when we decided to eat in our room we just crossed the street and grabbed our food. There are also plenty of restaurants within about 2 - 3 blocks, so you KNOW I was happy!
Blue Hawaii equips your head with noise-canceling headphones which are integrated with a cockpit intercom system. Bev is holding a microphone which we had available to pass around so that passengers could ask the pilot questions and he could answer them. With the noise cancellation, the ride was remarkably quiet and it was easy to understand the pilot even for me (with my hearing loss).
Blue HawaiihelicopterKauainoise cancellingmicrophoneintercom
What a view! These little hills separate the Lihue area from the south shore of Kauai. The village of Poipu (where folks with lots of money play) is on the south side of the hills.
Manawaiopuna Falls. This waterfall is prominently featured in the movie Jurassic Park, a movie which I may be the only one viewing this album to never have seen. Anyhow, it is widely called "Jurassic Park Falls" now because of that. And I may now be called "The Man Who Has Never Seen Jurassic Park."
From mountains to ocean.
Aahh! The spectacular Na Pali Coast! Waimea Canyon, from where you saw the sunset photos earlier (and which you will see more of later), is just over this range of mountains. These cliffs plunge from over 4,000 feet down to sea level. The highest point in this photo would be at 4,284 feet.
Look closely. Do you see the other helicopter in the photo?
Can you still see the other helicopter? It is still there.
The little white spot along the cliff just above and to the right of center is still another helicopter.
We are now north of the Na Pali Coast, near the mountain some call Bali High. The locals frown when tourists call it that, saying that they want to preserve the native language by using the native name for landmarks. But then when you hear them talking about it, you hear them call it Bali High. Oh well. Tom, the hike you mentioned, if it's the one I think you meant, starts at the base of these cliffs and goes over some of the Nepali Coast terrain you have just been viewing. I understand that there are a couple of miles of teaser, followed by 9 of gruel.
Haena, or very near there.
Looking east, toward Hanalei, "legendary" home of Puff (although Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton, who co-wrote the song, deny that it is the "Honalee" {original spelling in the original script for the song} of the infamous song).
I can't remember the name of this fall, and can't seem to find it anyplace on my map or on the net, but I THINK this is the one which our pilot said plunges for a 3000 foot drop.
Busy air space up here!
We are now near highest point on the island, at 5,148 feet. This is also supposedly infamous for being "the wettest spot on Earth," with 451 inches of rain per year. Actually, it seems to me that any lake would be wetter, but I'm sure that a hiker passing through here without proper gear would indeed find this place to be quite wet!
Mountains and cliffs give way to these delightfully decorated foothills as we head back southward, toward Lihue.
After a safe landing, our pilot and very knowledgeable guide lifts off again to take the chopper to wherever choppers sleep. By the way, if you are headed to Kauai, I strongly recommend a Blue Hawaiian tour! These EcoStar helicopters really ROCK (in a good way)!
For the next album in this series, click the following link: http://optimimagery.com/Travel/Hawaii-February-and-March-2009/Kauai-2/7759805_wqnrd/1/501894933_ErwSB
