Kayaking and snorkeling up north
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We had breakfast at the same spot up the road again. Then headed up north again to kayak and snorkel. The weather looks a bit dicey this morning, overcast and misty, but one thing we’ve learned is you never can tell. It changes quickly and changes from place to place. There are more micro-climates here than anywhere I’ve ever seen. It could be raining in one place and ten minutes down the road, it’s sunny. Or wait ten minutes where you are and it changes. Except for the top of the mountain, the wettest place on earth at 400+ inches a year. I suspect you can predict the weather there pretty well.
It continued to rain on us though on the way up, sometimes pretty heavily. We got to the kayak place and it wasn’t actually raining, but by the time we got paid and ready to go it was. Just a light drizzle though. Nothing we Oregonians can’t handle. Plus it was pretty warm out. We packed our cameras in watertight bags, I put on my Australia hat and off we headed. You could go down river to Hanalei Bay or upriver to the bird sanctuary. We decided to head up river. (Actually I secretly thought we could do both, but that turned out to be overly ambitious.)
The rain started coming down more heavily. But then patches of sunshine. It actually kept us from getting too hot but made it hard to take pictures. Marion had put ‘new’ batteries in her camera and they gave out after two pictures. Guess that’s why they were a dollar. The weather cleared at opportune times though, like when we saw the flock of egrets, and to take some pictures of the flowers that were floating all along the way like they’d been put there for a wedding or something. I should mention the egrets are quite plentiful. We see them everywhere. Pretty much any large grassy area is likely to have a few.
We saw a few other birds. A fairly big something we didn’t recognize flew across the river and back. Marion discovered a Nene along the banks, but he was in a pretty dark area and the attempt to photograph him ended up blurry. But still, they’re endangered and we saw one. We spotted a couple of turtles and a duck-ish looking thing with a bright red beak. They’re endangered too and when I can look up the name again I’ll put it here. Oh, and we also saw a heron-like thing flying. (Ok, I know bird names about as well as I know fish names.)
At one point there was a big splash in the water and something thumped against the bottom of my kayak. I never did see it but it was pretty good sized. It reminded me of that thing in the garbage chute in Star Wars. Luckily it did not attack us as we did not have any phasers.
All in all, not bad for wildlife. There are really no land animals other than wild pigs (which we didn’t see). It’s pretty much birds. The river was relatively boring though. Not a lot of variety. We did get to go under the one-lane bridge on the road we had come in on. And after about an hour and a half up river, it got very narrow and ‘African Queen’ like briefly before opening back up again. It was at that point we decided we’d had about enough fun and turned around. Another hour to get back during which time my back was complaining a lot. That’s the problem with kayaking. My back doesn’t like it.
But we made it back ok, just about the time that the rest of the hordes were starting to head out. So good timing. At least from that perspective. But as we docked the tsunami siren went off. VERY loud and went on for awhile. We wondered if maybe we shouldn’t get back in the kayaks just to be safe. But no one else seemed concerned. We figured it must be a test. As it turns out, they go off the first of every month. The helpful staff neglected to mention that.
We walked down the street and had lunch at Tropical Taco, because the name was kind of interesting. But the fish burritos were not anything to write home about unfortunately.
When we got back to the car we gave Captain Andy a call to book the cruise. “Did you try to book online”, they asked? Well yes, but it gave me an error both times. Well, turns out it had worked, both times, so this was the 3rd booking. But we worked that out and we’re set to go. And we got the Internet price and a free t-shirt for booking online.
We saw a brochure at the taco place for the kayaking that talked about the wharf in Hanalei Bay so we thought we’d go have a look at that. It was still drizzling a bit and there were low clouds over the hills so not much to see. But likely a very pretty spot when the sun is out. We decided it was time to go snorkeling.
We headed back up the road to Anini Beach, the beach we had found on the last trip up. And lo and behold, the skies were clear and sunny there, albeit a bit windy. The beach has a protective reef so it’s like a giant 3-6 ft deep swimming pool. But it had a pretty good current running through it right to left. We walked down to the left (down current) since there were fewer people down there. I asked a guy just coming in from snorkeling what he had seen. He said not a whole lot but suggested walking up the beach to go in and let the current bring you down to here. Good idea.
It was a bit to wavy for Marion who gets motion sick from it. So I went in alone. The tactic worked wonderfully but I didn’t see a fish or much of anything. So I swam out farther where I finally found some reef and a few fish. I snapped a few pictures with the underwater camera.
As I got down near where Marion was I started seeing a few more fish but was definitely getting into an area where the coral was pretty high and there wasn’t much water above it. A yellow striped fish caught my eye and was heading into the area. I started to follow, but I’d seen enough movies and read enough fantasy books to recognize the ‘tantalizing object that lures our intrepid heroes into danger’. Admiral Akbar’s words “It’s a trap” popped into my head (yes, I’m a nerd) and I frantically swam upcurrent and back into deeper water before I was dashed on the coral.
It took some effort to fight the current and get back to shore but not too bad. And I did finally see some fish so it was worth it. Marion and I hung out swimming a bit then rested on the shore a awhile longer. Turns out I should have put my shirt on because I had probably washed off the sun screen. I pinked up a bit but nothing too serious. That was the closest we came to a sunburn incident. Much better than other adventures in the tropics.
The wind started picking up which we had learned was a sign of impending rain. We decided it was a good time to head back to the car and just as we got there it started raining again. The chickens didn’t seem to mind. We headed back south.
Along the way we found a shell store and a fabric store that Marion had remembered and we stopped in. We found some good trinkets.
Back to the room to wash up and clean up. Then out for some dinner. Our original plan to eat at the Poipu Mall was foiled by a large number of people being there. Crowds are definitely picking up as the weekend approaches. So we tried the other mall where Bubba’s is. But rather than go to Bubba’s again we tried a new place. Turned out not to be so great but we made up for it by another stop at the Ice Cream/Cookie place for chocolate chip cookies.
We drove up the road towards Spouting Horn to see if the sunset would be good anywhere. We discovered the place to be along this stretch is the Beach House restaurant. It was a happening spot. But not for us. We went back to the mall where I made a small attempt at getting a decent sunset shot. But it just wasn’t that colorful.
We spent the evening reading and relaxing.
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