Helicopter Ride

We opted for the helicopter tour ride around the island, as it is the best way to see everything. Most of the island (~20%) is privately owned, and additionally a significant part is preserved in parkland. On top of this, there are two enormous mountains smack dab in the middle of the island (extinct volcanoes) that limit access through the center of it. THE highway (yes, there is frustratingly just one) only partially encircles the island 3/4 of the way around, so driving isn't an option for all of it either. To the air! Get to the choppa! The waterfall you see is the same one featured in Jurassic Park, and owned by that super rich family (The Robinson's: hint, make friends). They issue land use/landing permits to people.

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National Botanical Garden

We visited the McBryde Garden at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. We opted for this one because it seemed the most interesting (the Allerton Garden is more manicured). I think we were right! It had breadfruit trees, "spices of life" featuring plants used medicinally and for food preparations, lots of orchids, plants important to Hawaiian culture including koa nut, taro, and canoe-making plants, as well as other native Hawaiian plants. It featured, in particular, plants that have been part of conservation efforts.

The property itself is huge (2000 acres), and gorgeous. Descendants of the original family still live in a beachfront "bungalow".

We passed "suicide trees" whose bark and sap cause painful skin reactions, and whose fruit causes death within 30 minutes. This one teenager with his family looked longingly at those, and it seemed 30 minutes might be too long.

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Nounou Forrest Preserve Hike

We parked by the Southeast entrance to the Nounou Forest Preserve, and hiked up and in. It was damp and hot! 80 degrees with 85% humidity, moving fast makes you sweat. The initial ascent is perfumed by the strawberry guava trees that you hike under: the blossoms were in full bloom, and the fruit ripening, falling to the ground, some overripe and fermenting. It's really heady, somewhat wine-like, and saturating and permeating the entire air with this heady sweetness. It's really indescribable. The ground is squishy, from the frequent damp, ranging from mist to full rain, and the constant leaf litter; this was very "jungle-y", in some places the trail seemed to disappear or the vegetation so thick as to make you duck. It was actually refreshing to ascend to the top ridge of the Norfolk pines, and get a breath of fresh breeze. It kind of blew my mind to see full-grown Norfolk pines in a forest: they are usually tiny little things in pots grown as novelty table top Christmas trees.

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Snorkeling with Fishes

More snorkeling! More fishes! Exciting. Especially the yellow ones. Those are my favorite by far.

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Quick Snorkle Trip!

Just a quick dip in the ocean to see some fishies!

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Dive Trip!

We did a SCUBA trip with Seasport Dive Shop today off the South Shore. After a short lesson on the beach, we did two tank dives. The first was at Stonehouse, where there were some pretty neat things to see. This was mostly to get the feel of diving, for those of us beginners. Andrew stuck with me, even though he is certified. The second trip was out at Sheraton Caverns; this was significantly more interesting. These are collapsed lava tubes: Kauai is the oldest of the islands, and this is where lava initially flowed out to the ocean, creating tubes where hot lava flowed in the middle, cooling to form outer shells, or tubes as the outer layer cooled. The ocean has battered and worn these over centuries, creating these open caverns. In this particular area, green Hawaiian turtles come to hang out and rest. They shove themselves into the shelves created by the worn lava, where they hold their breath for up to 3 hours (!). We got to see several, although only captured one on camera (boo). We also saw a hammerhead shark while traveling from one location to another (don't worry! not while diving!). To finish off the day, spinner dolphins followed our boat for a ways. Whee!

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