2011 Kauai-year of the Shark

2011 Kauai---trip #10 to Kauai!  

Feb. 10-25 Year of the Shark!: vog; Hanapepe gallery night; Waimea Canyon; Na Aina Kai garden; Kanikapila Kakou concert

On about our 5th trip to Kauai, we had read in one of the visitor booklets that if you vacation to Kauai 10 times, you'll have a good chance of eventually moving there. I wonder if that'll hold true for us, too!?  Unfortunately, with this being our 10th trip to Kauai, there's still no plans for that move as of yet.

I imagine if this had been our 1st trip to Kauai, I still would have been blown away by it's beauty, but since this was our 10th, the weather made this trip ever so slightly disappointing. We had Kona winds for the whole time, which I have mixed feelings about. I like the warmer more humid weather it brings, but dislike the vog it can also bring. This year the vog was really bad because the volcano on the Big Island was being especially active. Our crisp vibrant colors of the distant hills weren't there for the whole 2 weeks of our visit. The first several days we didn't even get to see the brilliant blue/green ocean colors due to constant cloud cover. We did have quite a bit of rain, too, but that in itself doesn't bother me that much. It's the constant cloud cover and vog that were disappointing this year. Our usual routine of snorkeling all day then finding a sunset didn't work out well this year. We still snorkeled quite a bit, but by sunset, the clouds were usually too heavy to produce a pretty sunset, so most evenings we ended up just going out for an early dinner instead.

The past 2 years I've booked our flights to arrive a day or 2 before our timeshare stay started and left a day before our stay ended in order to get AA award tickets. This works out pretty well especially since we've had ocean view rooms the last 2 years and it was nice checking in when we could enjoy the view, instead of after 9pm and a long day of flying. It's also nice having the condo all day on the last day until we had to catch our red eye flight.

2011-Feb 10---Travel day:  STL-DFW-LAX-LIH

2011-Feb 10-12: Plantation Hale

2011-Feb 11: South Kauai

2011-Feb. 12: Wyndham Kauai Beach Villas, Lihue

2011-Feb. 13: Lawai, Poipu, Hanapepe

 2011-Feb. 14: Waimea Canyon

2011-Feb. 15: Anini, Kee, Tunnels

2011-Feb. 16: Kee, Tunnels

2011-Feb. 17: Na' Aina Kai

2011-Feb. 18: Anini, Hanalei

2011-Feb. 19: KBV Oceanview, Poipu, Lawai

2011-Feb. 20: Lawai

2011-Feb. 21: Anini

2011-Feb. 22: Salt Pond, Waimea pier

2011-FEb. 23: Lawai

2011-Feb. 24: East Kauai, Kee, Tunnels

2011-Feb. 25 (last day): anini

Flights home were long but uneventful. We were able to fly non-stop from LAX to STL so that cut several hours off our return flight. Arrived home about 1:30 pm from another wonderfull, but too short, Kauai vacation.

2011-Feb. 25 (last day): anini

Finally!---a beautiful sunrise! I had been up many mornings looking for a pretty sunrise and we didn't get it until the day we were leaving. So I took this picture from our lanai.

While we were sitting at our diningroom table eating breakfast, these 2 whales started frolicking. They were pretty far away, so the picture isn't the sharpest, but it was still neat to watch.

 Also got to watch some guys frolicking on the rocks

For our last day, we headed to Anini where we spent most of the daylight hours.

 our tradition of letting the flowers from our leis go in the water and watch them go back to shore to ensure that we return.

 saying good bye to some of our friends.

When it was time to get dinner, we headed to Olympic Cafe for another fish and chips dinner.

Back at the condo, we were able to dry our stuff and finish packing, then lounge around the condo until it was time to head to the airport.

About 8 we left the resort.

2011-Feb. 24: East Kauai, Kee, Tunnels, Kilauea Light house, Shark!

It was a beautiful morning on the east side. But all the rain the day before washed lots of dirt into the ocean by the river mouths. There is a drainage ditch next to KBV, so lots of dirt was washed into the water by our condo.

The north shore was suppose to be the place to be still, so we decided to head north. On our way, we stopped by Lydgate to check out the red dirt washed into the ocean from the Wailua River. It was pretty daunting.

We continued up the East side.  This is near Kealia

 Love stopping and checking out the view from the lighthouse lookout.

Love this section of road through Kilauea on our way from the lighthouse look out.

Decided to check Anini out.   I was surprised to see the water calm and clear here and wondered if it would be as clear farther North.

  Found a guy playing a keyboard there at Anini.  He was really good! But we didn't stay long since now I was wanting to check out Kee or Tunnels.

 a north beach along our drive.

When we got to Kee, the ocean was calm and clear. We spent several hours here. First I walked down the beach marveling at the calm water and reflection of the clouds in it.

The rocky shelf by Kee.

 While snorkeling, we came across another eel we had never seen before. I believe it is a magnificent snake eel.

Also saw several more coronet fish, but this is the first one I've seen at Kauai with the intricate markings (had seen them in the Caymans before).

This is another new guy to me---a Hawaiian knife fish.

With the calmness of the water we were able to get way out by the opening in the reef. There is where I found this large school or Moi fish.

And another look of the Napali with it's reflection in the calm water.

We left Kee in hopes of getting a parking spot at Tunnels and catching a sunset there. We did get a parking spot.

Here's another new encounter! Fortunately I didn't see it coming or I probably would have flipped out. I was actually standing in the water taking the picture above of Bali Hai when it came up from behind me. When I went back into the water, this white tipped reef shark was about 10' off to the side of me and vearing away towards the deep water. Since it was going away, I took this picture, then I went the opposite direction and figured I'd had enough snorkeling for one day. Knowing things look a lot bigger under water, we figured it was probably only about 4 or 5 feet long even though it looked like it was Jaws at the time!  I even tried to warn another couple about my shark sighting and their response was, "You're not from here, are you?"  Then they took off to the exact spot where I saw it.

Still hoping for a nice sunset, I wandered around the beach for awhile.

Not the prettiest of sunsets, but not too bad.

When we were leaving the beach, I was looking for the hummingbird that I had seen the last time we were there. It showed up, along with a couple friends. As I was taking pictures of it, I realized it had antennae and therefore couldn't be a hummingbird, even though it was the same size and had the same hovering and darting motions. Someone later told me it's a hummingbird moth. Definately an interesting insect.

2011-FEb. 23: Lawai, Shipwreck Rock, Moir Gardens

Looked like it was going to be a gorgeous day. So we decided to head south again. We headed straight to Lawai beach and into the ocean.

Here's the usual managerie of fish greeting every new entry in hopes of a treat. We never feed them, but many people do, so they are not afraid of humans at all.

Lawai is noted for it's many "cleaning stations", as well as the best place to find turtles. At this particular cleaning station, an unusual goat fish showed up for a cleaning. I've never seen any of these blue goatfish before.

Also don't remember seeing these Black stripe Hawkfish before either, but saw a few of them at Lawai this year.

 a file fish

 the not so common saddle butterflyfish along with a rock mover wrasse

 male bird wrasse

 christmas wrasse

 black triggerfish

 we can almost always find turtles here.

 female redlip parrotfish

 blue stripe snapper

 orange bar surgeonfish

 general wide view at Lawai

 After a couple hours snorkeling, we started hearing thunder. Then came the lightening, so we got out. Everyone else in the water also got out. Then a tour group actually entered---lightening and all!  They were probably a group from the cruise ship trying to enjoy their one day on Kauai. 

The rain quickly followed. Hoping to wait out the rain, we decided to hang around the south shore awhile. So to kill time, I happily wandered through another garden---the free Moir orchid and cactus garden at Kiahuna Plantation resort while Ken waited in the car.

 This is a little gem.  It's actually the landscaped yard of a resort, but it was started years and years ago by the original owner of this plantation home now restaurant on property.  And it's free!

 I did get caught in some rain, but I had my underwater camera, so didn't care.

 Half the garden was orchids, the other half was cacti.

 oil and rain on the pavement---looks like a heart to me.

Then we went to Shipwreck Beach and walked up to the top of it to get a better vantage point for viewing whales. Saw some whales spouting in the distance, but not much breeching.

one of Hawaii's notorious rainbows.

 view from the top

 The clouds continues to build and more rain started, so we headed back down the rock.

 At the bottom, we saw a few people gathered around a young lady laying motionless on the beach. That particular area is a very popular boggie boarding area because of it's rough surf.

Don't know what happened, but a fire truck and ambulance were arriving as we left. There are always some accidents that happen while we're out there on vacation. One year 2 touring helicopters crashed within 3 or 4 days of each other. One time a surfer was attacked by a shark. One time a family vacationing there was knocked off Lumahai Rock(called lumadie by many) and the father and mother were killed, their son lived. Another time there was an ocean kayak that disappeared and the lifeless boaters were found in the ocean a few days later. There have been a few other drownings and many near drownings when we've been there, too. Then this year a glider plane crashed into the ocean and the dead instructor and student were found in the ocean a day or 2 later. It may be paradise, but it is a deadly paradise.

When it rains, a trip to Na Hoku jewelers is a logical expedition to me! So we headed to Na Hoku. I'm getting quite the nice collection of jewelry from there. This time I liked the uniqueness of a reversable palm tree/rainbow sterling silver pendant and necklace. Ken was more infatuated with the inlaid koi pendant and sterling necklace---so he got me both!

We'd also heard rave reviews of Keoki's Paradise, so we decided to give it's happy hour a try. Can't believe we had never gone there before! It was very nice. The early bird dinner looked really great, too, but we settled for appetisers this time---fish and chips, and edamames, and a beer.

No sunset, just more rain.