Waimea Canyon Views

 Sunday, July 24

We drove up from our lodgings to the Waimea State Park to get a look at "The Grand Canyon of the Pacific".  It was perhaps an hour drive, counting stops along the way, up winding pavement and increasing altitude.  A couple of rough spots near the top lookouts due to potholes and such but not too bad.

Here is a preview of the canyon from HI Hwy 50:

Views from the main lookout point:

Our friendly Lyft driver Larry and Martha....

photo courtesy of Larry H.

Due to the crowded conditions in the parking lots at the lookout points, our friend Larry had us go check out the views while he circled the parking lot in the rental car.  What a guy eh?  He and Jane had been here before so...

At the Kakalau Lookout, we were basically on the other side of the rock formations which presented the eye-catching spires to folks on tour boats along the shore.

All the lookouts done, we made our way back down the mountains to the shore, ending up in the town of Hanapepe for lunch and a quick visit to its historic Swinging Bridge:

As we strolled by the closed shops of Hanapepe (Sunday is not a shopping day here), I saw this photo on the side of a building:

Lucky for us, the weather was nice and sunny during our visit to the canyon area.  It's apparently the wettest point in the Hawaii chain of islands with over 400 inches of rain each year!

Here's a pano from the main lookout point:

Surfers and a Rum Tour

 Saturday, July 23

Lazy day today, pretty much just hung around the resort in the morning and early afternoon.

Tried my hand at capturing surfers in motion, using shutter priority set at 1/1000th of a second and the telephoto lens.  More practice needed, still experienced motion blur, perhaps 1/2000th?

Later in the afternoon, we got in the rental car and drove over to Lihue.  Martha had booked us for a tour of a sugar cane plantation where rum was made some time ago.  The jungle has reclaimed most of where the sugar cane was and all that remains are small fields of other crops, and some animals.

There was some drinking of rum involved, it being a rum tour after all, so I wasn't paying much attention to camera settings.  Sorry.

Alpacas

Donkeys

photo courtesy of Larry.

We sampled 4 types of rums as our guide commented on their flavors and usage.

Mai Tai!

unorthodox pano by tour guide

photo courtesy of Larry.

This herd of pigs was gathered and waiting for us, 

tortillas were thrown from our "Safari Bus" for 

their snacking....

photo courtesy of Martha

Another rum concoction, this time with freshly

picked star fruit as garnish

photo courtesy of Martha

photo courtesy of Martha

Part of the tour were four nurses from the Philippines.  Martha of course made instant friends of them, commonality of occupation helped of course but there was rum involved too.  ;)

Martha and the nurses from Philippines

Martha photobombs a rather happy group of youngsters

A Cruise along the Na' Pali Coast of Kauai

 After a morning of prepping to go, we left the villa and headed west on Hawaii Hwy 50 towards the Kikiaola Small Boat Harbor near Kekaha.  It was not far and we got there early enough to watch the boats come in with the morning's tours.

We were taking a tour with Na' Pali Experience, in a six person power catamaran: Experience III with its Captain, Captain Roy.  A 28 year old skipper who kept us entertained and safe as we navigated occasionally rough waters.

There were 2-3 stops to briefly explore "sea caves", sadly, the waters were choppy enough and I wasn't really feeling that great, so only one shot worked out:

One of the other tour boats leaving the

cave area ahead of us...

Along with several short stops, it took us about 2 hours (probably more) to get to the turn-around point where the really scenic spires are located.  Along the way, we saw the end of Hawaii Hwy 50 West, a US Navy installation's buildings, radar domes and even a C-17 Cargo aircraft.

Here's some views of the spires area at the turn-around point, the water was quite choppy as we bobbed around trying to get shots:

Here's similar shots as we started back:

photo by Martha

Here's the pics of the "gang":

photo by Captain Roy

photo by Martha

A snack prepped for us by Captain Roy

while we took a brief dip.

As I mentioned before, I was feeling quite queasy most of the cruise.  I found it was best when I could stand and look forward, keeping the horizon level:

Jane, Martha and yours truly

Captain Roy