Kauai -

Na Pali part I – Hawaiian cliffs, doplhins and barking sands

Gosia — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 20:29:59 +0000

In the area of the green Hawaiian island of Kaua’i you can find a hidden treasure – Nā Pali Coast State Park. The name Nā Pali in Hawaiian means in cliffs, so you can figure out what is the main its attraction. The 17-mile cliff coast stretches from Ke’e Beach to Polihale Beach. Nā Pali cliffs are reportedly among the highest in the world and reach more than 1000 meters above the turquoise waters of the Pacific. They have been shaped over the centuries through erosion activities, like many caves along the coast. Nā Pali cliffs can be seen in three ways: from the air, land and water, and each of them guarantees completely new experiences and emotions. Nā Pali from the land Cliffs can be seen by taking a tour along the Kalalau Trail. This path starts at the end of the scenic route 56, called Kuhio Highway. The Kalalau Trail starts at the beautiful Ke’e Beach and ends at the spectacular Kalalau Valley. Camping in Nā Pali Coast State Park is allowed, but only after obtaining special permission. On the Kalalau Trail there’re two places to put up the tent – Kalalau and Hanakoa. During 11 miles of hiking trail, you’ll see beautiful valleys, verdant vegetation and amazing views of the coast. You can also take a shorter trip to Hanakapiai Beach and Hanakapi’ai Falls. The length of the route from the Ke’e Beach to Hanakapi’ai Beach reaches 4 miles. Unfortunately, swimming there is prohibited, and further tour along Kalalau Trail requires permission. When in 1960 National Geographic published an article titled “Kalalau Valley – the garden of Eden” cliffs began to be frequented by hippies wanting to settle in this beautiful place. In order to protect the unique nature of the park, it was necessary to limit the influx of visitors through the introduction the permission to entry. Currently camping is allowed up to 5 days and costs 20$ per person. However, the route can be continued without permission, turning left in the direction of Hanakapi’ai Waterfalls. Total length of the route is 2 miles one way, and the path is quite flat and leads through the dense bamboo forest. source: https://www.hawaii-guide.com/kauai/hiking_trails/kauai-hiking-maps There is one more possibility to admire Nā Pali cliffs from the land. It can be seen from the two viewpoints: Kalalau and Pu’u o Kila overlook, while exploring Waimea – the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, located on the other side of the cliffs in Kokee State Park. You’ll find the post here. Nā Pali from water An unforgettable experience guarantees a boat cruise. In the course of the cruise you can see the huge peaks of the coast, paradise beaches and coastal caves. Most tours stop at the Treasures Beach, where you can snorkel with turtles and colorful tropical fish. However, the greatest attraction are dolphins, playing in Pacific waters. The most popular for this area are spinner dolphins, well-known for their eagerness to play. Well, apparently, the best fun for them is to escape from the boats, heading Nā Pali coast. Dolphins like to draw attention to the fireworks jumping over the water mirror where they operate in the air, hence their name spinner. With some luck, besides dolphins and turtles, whales also can be seen. Boats pass by the so-called Barking Sands. This name came from the characteristic sound of the pacific waves striking the shore. The sound of the waves resembles a dog barking. It’s caused by a unique sand composition which due to the impact of waves makes a distinctive canine sound. The beach reaches 25 miles, and the water there has a brighter color. This is the most favorite doplhins’ playgound. On the other hand, the land close to Nā Pali coast is occupied by the United States Navy. Military base located here, is an important part of the Pacific Missile Range Facility. This is one of the world’s largest training grounds. In addition to numerous ships and fighters, there‘s also spaceport. It’s best to take a cruise in the morning when the Pacific is calm. Boats sail from Allen Port, where you can find many trip operators like: Kaua’i Sea Tours, Na Pali Explorer, Captain Andy’s, Liko Kaua`i Cruises. Another interesting option are canoe trips diuring which you can visit the interior of the coastal caves and see the cliffs and inaccessible beaches like Hanakapi’ai or Honopu from a very close perspective, not to mention turtles and dolphins. Trips start in Ha ‘ena and end in Polihale. How about just going to the beach… The best way to finish visiting the coast is a trip to Polihale Beach, famous for the most beautiful sunsets in Hawaii. During sunset, Nā Pali cliffs take different shades from red to orange. This is the longest beach on the island, and who knows maybe even the widest. Polihale in Hawaiian language means “home from the underworld” and according to old Hawaiian beliefs it’s the place where souls go to “Po” – the underworld. The biggest advantage of Polihale Beach is that it’s off the beaten track and there’re usually very few people here. You can get to the beach by going to the end of Highway 50, where, after passing previously mentioned the Pacific Missile Range Facility, you must turn left on a gravel road.

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Hawaii – four islands and some beaches…

Gosia — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 08:11:54 +0000

I must admit that I have a problem with spending leisure time at the beach. I cannot do it and I treat beaches as a part of a sightseeing plan. I can spend 2 hours maximally at one beach. Of course, I don’t spend this time on sunbathing. Hawaii turned out to be a perfect place for me. There’re a lot of beaches which can be explored 😉 and what’s more important they varied a lot! Every of four islands, which I’ve visited has something new to offer. O’ahu O’ahu it’s the most popular Hawaiian Island. Here’s famous Honolulu and the majority of tourists arrive here as a first place, and usually the last one. So you can imagine how crowded can be the most popular beach on O’ahu – Waikiki. Bearing that in mind and in view of the tight itinerary, I had only a glimpse of that beach from a car. A little bit later, I could admire it together with whole Honolulu, from the Diamond Head peak. There’s one invaluable advantage of Waikiki beach, while it’s always overcrowded, other beaches, which are located farther from Honolulu are desolated. Like Lanikai Beach – situated in the north-eastern shore. On the other hand, western part of O’ahu Island guarantees amazing sunsets, and even possibilty to see turtles basking on the sun. However, the most beautiful is Hanauma Bay. It’s the only one beach in Hawaii where you need to pay admission. It’s a strict nature reserve and an ideal place to observe underwater world as well. More about this beach and its surrounding you’ll find here. Maui An interesting example which presents the variety of Hawaiian islands is Maui Island. You can rest here on beautiful, white sand beaches with emerald water, like Polo Beach. But then again, on the other, eastern part of the Island, close to the famous Hana Road you can spend your time at black-sand beaches like Waianapanapa State Park. Big Island Beaches located on the Big Island can also be divided into, let’s say “hotel beaches”, which look like those, well known from holidays catalogues. As an example below – Mauna Kea Beach. Sometimes they’re surrounded by golf courses and even the access roads to them, make a great impression. On the other hand, on Big Island you can encounter also wild, rocky beaches, where you can put up a tent and have whole these places for yourself. Kaua’i According to the law, every beach is public in Hawaii. However, it can happen that the beach is public, but the access to it is private or what’s even worse, it can be inaccessible in view of the terrain conditions. One of such beaches is located on my favourite Hawaiian island – Kauai. It’s surrounded by the impressive cliffs of Na Pali Natural Reserve. I’ve had opportunity to see this marvel form air and ocean perspective and I must admit that this experience belongs to the category marked under the label “metaphysical” but I’ll write about it another time 😉 Close to Na Pali, you can rest at beautiful Tunnels Beach, which has great conditions for snorkeling, surfing or kitesurfing. The ocean bottom here was shaped by volcanic activity which created special tunnels – nowadays the habitat for a large variety of fish and unfortunately sharks, so be careful 😉 Another interesting beach is Polihale State Park – here you can see the first cliffs of Na Pali Reserve. This beach is located off the beaten track and it’s really secluded. What’s more, according to one Hawaiian guy, there’s one unwritten principle that sunbathers can lie at least 300 meters from one another 😉 ‘ On the other side of the Na Pali cliffs you can relax on beautiful, wild Ke’e Beach. As you can see, in case of beaches, you definitely won’t be bored in Hawaii. I know that I’ll get back there, as during my stay I saw only a little part of these marvelous islands 😉 ” order_by=”sortorder” order_direction=”ASC” returns=”included” maximum_entity_count=”500″]

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Waimea – the Great Canion of Pacific

Gosia — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 01:29:45 +0000

My love for the mountains has started since the moment I made the first step. Every holiday I used to spend with my father traversing mountain trails. These vacations were so much so that monothematic that in fact I went to the seaside at the age of 14. To some extent these experiences have formed my stubborn character. They also helped me to distance myself from some bad experiences which are sometimes beyond control. Mountains hide incredible mystery, beauty combined with nature unsteadiness, admiration co-occurring with thrill and what’s the most important: climbing effort rewarded by amazing views. It’s no wonder that before my trip to Hawaii, I knew that Kaua’i Island would be one of “these” places. This island with the population of 60 thousands residents and the area of 1,4 thousand sq m is relatively small but it hides spectacular, even surrealistic landscapes. Here you can find everything, starting from steep cliffs look like cut almost by godlike intention, huge waterfalls and ending with wonderfully carved valleys. To top it all off everything almost sinks in the lush greenery. Justifably Kaua’i is called The Garden Island. One of the main tourist attractions is Waimea Canyon. It’s approximately 16 km long, 2 km wide and up to 900 m deep. Although its relatively small dimension, it is called The Grand Canyon of Pacific. This natural wonder was created around 5 million years ago by the process of volcano collapse. Lava flow almost intentionally formed horizontal stripes on the crater walls. The rest of this magnificent creation was made by erosion, mainly in form of the floods which went down from the peak of Waialeale mountain. Waialeale Mountain with an elevation of 1569 m is the wettest place on Earth. Annual rainfall reaches here approximately 12 000 millimeters. Waimea in Hawaiian language means “red water” but besides red color it stuns by its orange, yellow, green and brown shades. We can reach it by serpentine Canyon Drive. There are a lot of vantage points along this way. The most beautiful are: Waimea Canyon Lookout, Pu’u Hinahina and Pu’u O Kila Lookout. But nothing compares to “meeting this phenomenon face to face”. The most popular and beautiful is Canyon Trail, starting from Pu’u Hinahina Lookout. It’s quite easy trail. It takes 2 hours and leads to Waipio waterfalls. Just before the waterfalls there’s a short but very steep slope. Walking there after rain can be really dangerous and it can lead to fast and close “meeting” with the canyon floor. After crossing this slope ironiccaly it can happen that you won’t see the main point of this trail – Waipio Falls because of the rainfall shortage. But in my opinion these waterfalls are not as spectacular as the whole trail winding along amazing canyon walls. Views from its peak are amazing and seems even unreal.

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