the monson's: hawaii . part III

so i think this is the last hawaii post! for the last part of our trip, quin and i separated from the group and flew over the beautiful island of kauai! it is a whole different ball game over there. so different from oahu in many good ways. we love oahu because we know it pretty well but kauai is absolutely gorgeous. way less busy than oahu and more laid back almost. all of hawaii is laid back of course but kauai was just...more. haha.

anyways, we arrived to kauai in the evening and went to the rental car place to get our car. when we arrived and were checking in there we got talked in to renting a dang convertible! dang sucker tourists we were. we had our compact car all ready to go and then were convinced to upgrade to the camaro. after some coaxing, we decided to go with it. it ended up being pretty fun having one and driving around with the top down but we felt like the ultimate tourists! no local would have a convertible! it was fun though and we enjoyed it.

our first night there we checked in to our hotel which was absolutely beautiful as well. right on the ocean. then got some dinner. we saw a local listing to check out a restaurant called dani's! so naturally we wanted to go there and check out my restaurant. but, unfortunately, it was already closed for the night! dang it. so we settled on a pizza place then snuggled in for the night.

the next day we had a tour planned to kayak the wialua river. this was a blast!! we met up with our group, went over some "safety" rules, then headed down to the river. the wialua river is a fresh water river that runs in the middle of kauai. it was so pretty. we kayaked about two and a half miles down the river then parked em and hiked to a water fall called secret falls. the only way to get to it is by the river. we got to swim up to it and stand underneath of it. it wasn't flowing very heavy that day, said the tour guide, but we still enjoyed it.

we then ate some lunch there on the side and then hiked back out. kayaking is funny because both you and your partner have to be pretty in sync to go anywhere. we have both been kayaking before but never with eachother! so we bickered a little at first until we got the husband and wife bond haha. which really isn't that great of a bond with kayaking!

after we got back, we drove to another water fall just up the street that you could see from the road. seriously, kauai is full of waterfalls!! then we drove over to the north shore, stopped at a couple beaches and shops, and drove until you couldn't drive anymore. there is pretty much one road that goes around the island and then stops on either side of the na pali coast. you can't drive along there! it was gorgeous and at this time we did enjoy having no top over our heads.

the next day, we drove over to poipu beach which is the beach to go to while in kauai apparently. so we decided to check it out. we were only there for like five minutes and we saw sea turtles and a sea lion just plopped up right next to where we were sitting! it was so fun. he just climbed up on the sand and plopped down and closed it's eyes. so cute! we went snorkeling here and swam around until our next activity. we wished we could have spent more time here.

we headed over to our next thing planned which was an evening catamaran ride to the na pali coast. the only way to reach this coast is by hiking, boat, or helicopter. we first wanted to the helicopter ride but quickly opted out of that when we found out how expensive it was! maybe next time. so we chose the catamaran ride instead. which we loved anyways so it was worth it!! we started out from a marina on the west side of the island. our captain and crew was awesome. they told us what everything was as we went along. it wasn't a measly boat ride either. it was so fun! people got sea sick and i'm sure that was miserable but we loved it. they had free drinks galore and snacks. on our way over to the coast we saw about fifteen spinner dolphins. the captain said they usually aren't there in the afternoons so it was rare that we got to see them! the pretty much just swam all around our boat. i couldn't get enough pictures. i seriously took like thirty pics of just dolphins. one even had a little baby with it.

after our stop with the dolphins we made our way to a little snorkeling spot. we just jumped off the side of the boat and snorkeled around for awhile. it was pretty fun to be out further in the ocean and to be by some awesome reef. the water was pretty warm too. we then hopped back on board and finished out the rest of the na pali coast. it really is the prettiest thing about kauai. next time i want to make the eleven mile hike through the jungle and hike to it. you can camp out on the beach there. it would be a blast and so serene. on one of the beaches is where they filmed part of one of the pirates of the caribbean movies. johnny depp was once there! haha.

we went up most of the coast then headed back to where we came from. they fed us some delicious dinner and we watched the sun go down. it was a pretty perfect day. it's pretty rare to get to the see the sun go all the way down and touch the ocean. usually there is always clouds in the way. it was also pretty awesome. we highly enjoyed this activity we did and would so recommend it!!

the next day was our last day. sad. our flight didn't leave until way late so our hotel was super nice and let us check out at five pm! we spent the morning on a drive up the waimea canyon. i was surprised at how much it looked like zions national park, right outside our back door. i wasn't as impressed as i should have been by this. probably cuz i was expecting something different and i probably would have rather spent the rest of my last day on the beach. it was really pretty though and we are glad we did it.

well that wraps up our amazing trip to paradise in the hawaiian islands. we missed it so much we have already planned our next trip back. this time to watch all the surfing competitions! merry christmas to us.