Haloha!

11/2/2013

A mixture of hello and aloha, credit to a friend of Dad’s who began to say hello and realised he hadn’t said aloha so he changed half way through, therefore creating Haloha!

Sunset

The rustling of palm trees, the sweet scent of coconuts and the sound of waves breaking on the shore is more than enough to make you love Kauai. The beautiful flowers in bright colours are everywhere on the island and add to the amazing views. There are not many places in the world where you can swim with a turtle, relax and read under the shade of a coconut tree, swim and surf all in the same day. The locals are friendly and give a great atmosphere to the island. We spend hours at the beach soaking in the sun and taking some great shots of the amazing fish with our go-pro. We found a sea snake, a fish with a horn and lots of huge colourful fish. Golden sand and clear blue water (not to mention the wildlife) makes it paradise.

Poipu Beach

In Kauai we did a day car trip around the island. The island has an untouched atmosphere to it. It is so tropical and green. Palm trees, flowers and fruit give Kauai its beauty. On the way we stopped at many look outs, at lighthouses, canyons, mountain ranges, villages and more amazing views. Mum and I went on a hike through the rainforest to see the Napali Coast. Awesome views of the 6-foot waves and the beach followed us the whole way up the mountain. We really got a bird’s eye view from up there. With volcanic rock in sleek shards and a wild pineapple trees it was a really interesting walk. In our thongs (flip flops, jandals, slippers whatever you call them) we were only intending to go to the first platform but its beauty drew us higher and higher (much to the annoyance of the rest of the family who were waiting in the car).

Valley

Halloween is huge in America so we joined in and went to a corn maze. Kauai Christian Fellowship every year designs a whopping 4-mile maze of twists and turns. A lady told us that one year, they had to evacuate people it was so hard. She said it was an easier maze this year. Even so it took us 1 hour to get out. We started it in the evening and by the time we were out it was pitch black. To make it better (or worse) the older kids dressed up as zombies and scared us. When it’s pitch black with only your torch it can be pretty freaky when someone jumps out at you. Timmy was crying. We even had to ask the zombies the way out in the end. It was fun all the same. When we got out the stars were amazing. They covered the sky.

In the spooky corn maze (it was darker; mum just had the flash on)

The beaches in Kauai range from little coves with no waves to huge and roaring 20+ foot waves. Our local beaches were Poipu Beach and Brennecke Beach (or as the locals call it “Break Neck”). Poipu was a nice flat swimming spot popular with tourists and locals alike. The snorkeling was amazing. Huge fish that come in schools of five plus, reflective fish that give the impression that they’re rainbow and angelfish roamed around the shore not more than 10 metres out. From the shore we saw a seal frolicking and showing off in front of the cameras and families of sea green turtles floating in the shallows.

Brennecke Beach was our bodyboarding spot. Slightly dumping, the odd big set but forgiving. The life cycle of the Brennecke wave: The waves start as massive hills in the distance. Then they move in. A couple body boarders miss it, a couple gets dumped and a couple successfully catch it then pull off when it breaks. A few turtles swim through it, their shadows illuminated in the wave. Swimmers dive under it and it picks up its final riders, the little grommets aka Lachie and Timmy. Then it crashes on the sand bank and is pulled back into the ocean. If you get dumped you get tossed around lightly and hop back on your board. It’s a whole another story at Manly Beach. In Kauai the waves help you gain you confidence in the ocean. It is the same at my favourite beach, Hanalei Bay. It’s no wonder so many pro surfers and bodyboarders come from Hawaii.

William at Hanalei Bay

Small wave at Brenneckes

There are chickens all over the island. Roosters crow in the morning and hens and their chicks waddle around. They also dig heaps of ditches, which probably have caused the odd twisted ankle. Why? In 1992, hurricane Inici swept through Kauai destroying the many chicken pens in the island. The chickens expanded and turned wild. There are chickens everywhere you look!

The Native Hawaiian dance of Hula is a great opportunity to experience the origins of Hawaii. At our local shopping centre they had a performance on from the local dance school. Their costumes were stunning. The dancers stomach and hip muscles must have been super strong with the amount of moving they do. I gave it a go myself (and failed). It was extremely hard. At the end Timmy and I got ‘lai-ed’. My lai was made out of frangipanis. I made my own lai too out of blossoms I found.

Waikiki was our final stop on our extravaganza. Waikiki beach is probably the most famous beach in the world. It was crowded with travellers from Europe, Asia, America, Africa and more. Dad, William and I went surfing on the calm rolling waves. They were very small and you couldn’t really do much on them, but it was fun catching them and (if it was a good wave) cruising down the beach. William survived a conk on his head by another surfer’s big fibreglass board. Unfortunately he lost enthusiasm and never caught a wave. As I write this we are about to go stand up paddle boarding (SUP).