Jan. 22, 2014- Wed--Big waves on the North Shore


Every since we heard about the big waves arriving today --- up to 50', I've been anxious to shoot them.   So we were up early today.  Had breakfast in the condo---more eggs and the last of the pancakes from Olympic cafe.  About 10 am we headed off to the North Shore---equipped with both my cameras and all 3 of my lenses.  Only used the dslr and 2 lenses, mostly the 18-200mm zoom.  If it looks like we're in the surf, we aren't, it's the advantage of having a long zoom lens.  We made several stops throughout the day.
These were taken from the road near the path to Lumahai (I think).  We've  never taken the trail down, but I think that's where it goes.

close up of the rocks that are normally above water.

  

 Next stop was Tunnels.  We noticed yesterday when we were there that the high sand bar that we normally walked along was gone and the entrance to Tunnels was a dry sand river bed.  Today, that river bed was full of water.

 This is the snorkeling area of Tunnels---taken from the same place I took the above picture but zoomed in to 200mm.  No snorkeling today!

Next stop was Haena parking lot.  Spent awhile here.  The lifeguards there were yelling at anyone stepping foot on the beach. 

 Zooming in on the waves.

Bigger wave looking towards Tunnels beach.

Another view towards Tunnels.

sign on the lifeguard's station---note the surf height.

catching a curl

 When we had enough at Haena, we headed to Kee.  The lifeguard kept everyone off the beach, there, too, but let spectators walk on the high ground.  I walked down a bit 'til I got this Napali view.

At the end of the walk was this bay---which I assume was beach yesterday.

 back on the trail heading back to Kee.  I never knew this path was there!  It was a nice little walk.

 I wasn't as impressed with the views of the waves from Kee.  The waves actually seemed smaller here then elsewhere.  But I did like this colorful rooster there.  If only we had them wandering around in the snow back home adding some color to the midwest in the winter!  They would really stand out on all the snow we're getting this winter!

I'd say this chicken has good taste!

Heading back, we stopped at the other Tunnels parking area.  Got a pretty nice view of the Bali Hai mountain from there.

Then we stopped at Wainiha beach.  We spent quite awhile here.  This seemed to be the best place to watch the waves.   I have another picture of this area a few shots down when a bigger wave hit.

 close up of the rocky area

Looking straight out

another curl

 a little perspective

a little more perspective. (What you don't see is the beach sloping down in front of the boy.  But the surf would occasionally come all the way up the slope and almost to the tree line).

 Looking towards the right.

Zoomed in to the far right area.

 mezmerizing

 One more look at the rocky area with a bigger wave hitting it

Hanalei

 Lots of people on the pier even though waves were crashing into the pier and soaking everyone.

About 4 we decided it was time to eat again.  We tried to go to Tahiti Nui, but found out they don't serve food between 3-5 (later found out they do serve some appetizers, but didn't see that this time).  Too bad, we've never been there and have heard good things about it.  So we went to a favorite place of ours---Kalypso's. 

Happy hour beer and we shared happy hour wings and  a meal of fish and chips---LOVE the mango bar b q sauce on the chicken wings! 

Then we started our trek back----along with everyone else on the island.  This was a very small part of the line to get over the one lane bridge leading into Hanalei.

Decided to check and see if  Anini was rock'in.  It wasn't too bad inside the reef, but there were times the waves came up to the road.

 We decided to head to Kilauea and catch sunset.  Since we were a little early, we decided to check out the bakery for lilikoi dessert.  Got a piece of lilikoi coconut creme cake and shared it.

Still had time, so we checked out the lighthouse.  Not much going on there.

Sunset wasn't much to talk about.  The clouds had rolled in pretty thick on the north side by then.  It also got rather cold---in the 60's.  

Back to the condo from there.  Decided it was too cool to hit the pool or Jacuzzi, so got an early start on my blog today.

And that ends another fabulous, yet very different day for us, on Kauai.