Final goodbyes....

This looks to be my final posting. I return the cable modem tomorrow so I will not have any internet service. It has been a great pleasure making the blog and I hoped you enjoyed following our exploits and enjoyed some of the images. This posting is a hodge podge of images of our last few days here and the things we will miss. There are many other things that could be in this posting but I thought it best to keep it brief. [I feel somewhat proud that this blog passed the 3000 hit mark before we ended...that is about 6x more hits than I ever imagined possible.]


Goodbye condo (we lived in the bottom left hand condo) and thank you Frank and Marjorie for allowing us to live in your wonderful place. Also thank you Mike, the general manager, for all his great advice and personal insight to the great island of Kauai. He was amazingly gracious and generous even though the bumbersticker on Mike's truck says -

"If you love Kauai, then send your friends to Maui"

I will miss the view outside of the post office down in Hanalei (we will also miss saying the hackneyed phrase - Another beautiful day in Hanalei).


This is looking across my favorite taro field to the lush mountains (notice Bat Ears?) at the back of the valley who are often shrouded in clouds and streaked silver with waterfalls.

We are really going to miss fishing for dinner. The island has a variety of beautiful and tasty fish that we have enjoyed over the months. This month it is baby weke season - when large schools of weke fingerlings (or as Ian likes to say - dingalings) move around the pier for 1 hour or so in the late afternoon. Here we are with the locals trying to catch our share using tiny hooks and itsy bitsy pieces of shrimp. It is great fun. 

Ian with one of the 4 baby weke's we caught. You fry these things whole and salt them and eat them like a french fry - head and all. They were quite tasty.  

We will miss turtle cave and jumping off the rocks into the ocean. Ian is making the plunge today, we had to go back one more time.

This photo captures two of my children's favorite things - the great friends they met here (Tai and Gio pictured here on the pier) and jumping off the pier. Shayne and Ian only got brave enough to jump off of the pier a couple of weeks ago so we have made many a trip to Blackpot beach to maximize their fun.


No surf?
No problem - we can jump off of things into the water.

Etel finally got her shell necklace made...all of the reddish shells are the Kahlelani shells she hand picked from the beach over the months we were here. The sunrise shell was found on her Kalalua valley trip, Vickie found this shell on the beach and was generous enough to give it to Etel. Thank you Vickie for making Etel's dream necklace a reality. 

We will all miss the exotic wildlife we have seen on the island - seals, turtles, fish, albatross, and these majestic Nene geese. Ian took this photo all by himself, I rather like it. 

I will miss the crystal clear water of the ocean and how it looks different every day and yet always beautiful. 

Of course I will miss most watching my children play in the surf as the sun sets and the sky is a swirl of pinks and blues. Goodbye Kauai and Goodbye all of the wonderful people we have met on the island.

Last hike in Kauai

Since arriving to the Princeville/Hanalei area I have been mesmorized by the twin peak mountain top seen here in the top right corner of the image [you may have to click on the picture to enlarge it to see the peaks]. I read once the twin peaked mountain being referred to as "Bat Ears" and it stuck in my mind because the two peaks are reminscent of a cowl of Batman. The offical name is Hihimanu but I have also heard it called Hahalua - the Hawaiian name for Manta Ray since it looks like the head of a manta ray. Anyway, I have always wanted to hike up to the top of that mountain and did part of the hike when I first arrived on the island. I knew the hike to the peak should not be done alone so I needed to find a partner in crime. I was very fortunate to meet a guy named Craig Pearson (also a great, honest real estate agent email him if you are interested in Kauai real estate). Craig is an ex-white water river guide, ex-rock climber, and current skate boarder and surfer who is also adventuresome enough to go with me on this hike.

This hike was one of the last things I really wanted to do while in Kauai. We left on Sunday morning at 8:30 am for what we thought was a 4 hour hike...but much like Guilligan's Island, we were a bit off on our estimate for the time it would require. .

We are just starting the unofficial hike to the top of Bat Ears (Hihimanu). This is Craig and we have already hiked over 1.5 miles. We were wet and getting a bit cold plus we had no idea how the trail would be or how far it would take us.

The ridge top trail....we were totally clouded in and could not see where we were going or how far we had to go. Sometimes ignorance is bliss because this was a much longer hike than we were expecting.... 

The strawberry guavas were ripe and we frequently snacked on the delicious fruit as we hiked along the trail. At one point we came upon a tree that was covered in Drosophila (fruit flies) engaged in a fermented fruit orgy. When Craig brushed past this tree a cloud of small flies erupted from the tree. It was quite amazing. This is a terrible photo, my great camera (Sony DSC-F717) actually stinks at taking macro pictures.

Can you see Craig in this photo? You have to enlarge the photo and then maybe zoom into the thin dirt trail about 2/3 of the way up the photo. This is ridge top hiking at its best.  

One of the intriguing aspects of this unoffical hike is the placement of ropes at difficult sections along the trail. These sections of rope taunted and enticed us to go further and further along the trail. We actually at one point thought we had reached the summit, remember that we were totally clouded in and had not reference to where we were in relation to the mountain ridge, when Craig notices a section of rope off in the distance telling us we had to go further.... 

This was the scariest part of the hike - a 60' + vertical muddy section where you had to pull and climb yourself up the wall. The unknown hikers who installed the ropes on the trail placed a plastic covered metal cable at this section because you have to rely so heavily on the rope for a long vertical section. Needless to say on a wet day like this one, your hands had a hard time keeping grip on the slick plastic. [thanks Craig for taking this picture of me]. 

As we approached the summit, Craig was impressed with how far we had come and that we actually were on that far away peak only minutes ago. All along this hike we would look back and be totally at awe with having gone this far.

The trail is so narrow in places, at two places I remember that the trail was barely wider than my shoe and it dropped vertically on both sides. The wind would be blowing and you just knew that if a rogue gust came along you would be sliding down a 2,000 ft wall getting the crap knocked out of you. I had to just stare at my feet as I walked over those areas. What was in my peripheral vision scared the shit out of me.

The twin peaks of Hihimanu. Beyond the first peak is a severe drop off that is currently beyond scaling so the trail stops at the top of this peak. You can see the small trail winding along the top of the spine.

Finally at the top of the first peak. The top is a small flat grassy area with three small trees. We were in a total white out, the clouds were thick about us and we could not see beyond 30 feet in any direction. I actually got vertigo from staring out into the blinding white abyss. I would stare into the white clouds hoping to see a break in them and after awhile, I noticed small spots in my vision, I could see the digital noise created within the nerves of my eyeballs - the random firing of rods and cones that created small dots within the sea of white.

If I take 2 steps beyond my backpack into the heavenly white wall I would plunge straight down over 2,000 feet to my certain demise.

Finally the clouds cleared and we could see the beautiful Hanalei river below us. Unfortunately, the Hanalei bay side never cleared so we could not enjoy that spectacular view. Craig, you have to return to this hike during a clear winter day and send me pictures. [I am posting this on Monday, the day after this hike and of course today the sky was blue and the mountains were clear. Oh well.]

This is a different view to the peak, as seen from the Dolphin Fish market in Hanalei. The red line indicates the second half of the trail, after we had already hiked 1.5 miles on the Okolehao trail and then we jumped off of that ridge to follow this ridge trail. Notice the car in the foreground for reference in scale.

I want to thank all those adventurers before us who took the time to place the much needed ropes along the trail. Thank you. Craig and I replaced two ropes along the trail, and we were proud to be able to help in the trail maintenance.

Pali Ke Kua

I thought I would spend the last postings on some of my favorite places we have seen here in Kauai. This is a beach just down the street from where we live. This beach is called Pali Ke Kua (thank you Tavia for telling us about this beach!) and is adjacent to another sweet beach called Hideaways. In the distance is the western rim of Hanalei bay.

Pali Ke Kua is a small beach of amazing beauty. It is hardly busy and few people come to this beach because it requires either you stay at the swanky condos or you swim in from Hideaways beach that sits just around the point at the end of the beach. Great reefs are off shore with a great diversity of fish to see.

This beach has something for everyone. The snorkeling is fabulous, the fishing is great, there are a myriad of tide pools and trapped fish and hermit crabs, and the shore holds an occassional shell.

Max loves the beach this much.