North Shore Day

Now who would have guessed the title of today's blog?

We got away early (before 9 am), and I think it's the best thing to do. Although we don't beat everyone to the sights to see, we certainly beat a lot of people. We decided we would head up as far as we could go on the north shore.

The end of the road is called Ke'e Beach. The waves were certainly rolling in there, and everywhere along the north coast, for that matter. We got a few shots at the beach, including a couple of these trees where the roots are a mass above the ground. Gorgeous spot.

We wanted to do a bit of hiking. The Kalalau Trail starts here and goes for 11 miles along the Na Pali coast. No, it wasn't in us to do. We went for a measely 1/2 mile, which is adventurous enough considering the rain during the night made everything wet, muddy and slippery. It's pretty well all uphill, partially up a stream bed. I can't imagine what it would be like if there was water pouring down the stream! In fact, a sign at the trailhead says to beware of rushing water on the trail. Hello? What are you supposed to do about it when you're half way up?

The whole northwest corner of the island is a jungle. Everything is so lush and green.

At the 1/4 mile point, you can look back at Ke'e Beach.

At the 1/2 mile point, you can look ahead at the Na Pali coast. Beautiful and rugged. I'm glad we saw it from the helicopter as that gave us a closer perspective of what it was like.

Speaking of helicopters...I can't imagine...this was at the 1/2 mile point on the top of the cliff, where it was VERY windy. I can't help but think you'd have to be a very good helicopter pilot to manoeuvre onto this little patch. It's a sheer drop-off on the other side! (It says "Helicopter Emergency Landing", in case you can't read it).

Wet cave just outside Ke'e Beach, right beside the road. That's Gerard down there.

These are the weirdest bridges we've ever seen. They are 2 separate bridges, but there's a short little piece of road between them, maybe 25 feet, that curves, so the bridges are at about a 75 degree angle to one another.

This is a cute little church in Hanalei. Is this the same town as in the song "Puff the Magic Dragon"? I think it's pronounced "honolee".

We had lunch at Wai'oli Beach Park on Hanalei Bay. No swimming here, except there were some beginner surfers out there. The waterfalls in the distance are taken from the beach. Waterfalls like this are everywhere in the hills/mountains, due to the amount of rain up there. In fact, Mt. Wai'ale'ale is the wettest spot on earth (not far from Hanalei) with an average of 428" of rain per year. But the coast areas are no more than any other place.

Some signs along the way that struck me rather funny.

The nene (geese) look like they need to be fed!

I'll leave this one to you.

We stopped at the Kilauea Lighthouse - a beautiful spot. The island offshore is Moku'ae'ae Island, and is a bird sanctuary. Apparently there were a couple of monk seals there but they heard we were coming and slipped into the water just before we got there.

However, we did see whales spouting just over the island, and I did catch the back of one. It is there!

I never get tired of the power of the ocean.

OK - so I have to tell you - we were planning to go to Tunnels Beach which is apparently an amazing snorkeling spot. But, we left our bathing suits at the surf shack! Sorry again, Shelly. I did remember the underwater camera though. We plan to go back again in a couple of days.

And now we're under a tsunami watch! Yikes!