Now that I have life all squared away (or as situated as I can be at this point) I decided that I could spend my weekend exploring. So Sunday morning I picked up Rick and we headed on our journey to the north shore. Took the road as far north (and subsequently west) as we could go…
We cruised past Lihue and headed up a little road to Wailua Falls which is one of the easiest falls to access on the island. Just drive up and gawk at the twin falls. Nice, but quite a few tourists. There are a few hiking trails down to the bottom of the falls which may have to be conquered on another day.
After Wailua we headed north and mauka again and saw the ‘Opaeka‘a Falls. They weren’t nearly as impressive as the first ones of the day, but still neat nonetheless. Across the road from the ‘Opaeka‘a Falls was a lookout over the Wailua River which apparently was sacred land for ancient Hawaiians. The river valley was used for a variety of crops but is now pasture land. There were some temple ruins as well, but we didn’t wander around there.

We stopped at a little burger joint with ono in the name (which is Hawaiian for delicious or the best) and although the burger was ok, it wasn’t fabulous. Oh well. Don’t know until you try. Headed northward through Anahola and to Kilauea where we stopped at the Kilauea National Wildlife Refuge and the Kilauea Lighthouse. Definitely a highlight of the day. It was $3 to get into the refuge and they had a lot of birds—mostly nene and albatross—and did a lot of bird rescue missions. Binoculars were free and the views of the coast were amazing. There was a little island off of the tip of the cape called Moku‘ae‘ae Island, a bird sanctuary. Awesome view of the ocean crashing upon the rocks. The lighthouse was kind of small, but has the largest clamshell lens in the world. Built in 1913 and replaced in the ‘70s by a smaller beacon that lies makai of the original. We spent a lot of time here taking in the view, watching the birds and the waves. And taking some pretty sweet pictures…
It was hard to beat Kilauea. Headed west and the roads got narrower and windier. It seemed as though there was a one-lane bridge every ½ mile or so. The houses here were nicer than on the south shore—more yuppie. More touristy. Kept driving and came across some caves, the first of which was a dry cave. It was really big, really deep. Hard to photograph. I made Rick stand in front of it in hopes that it would show you how big and deep it is. Really cool. Drove past the wet caves—it was cloudy and going to rain so we didn’t venture in there. Maybe another day. We kept going until the road ended at hiking trails that head to the Na Pali Coast but 11 miles one way was a little out of the question today. There are a lot of really nice beaches on the North Shore as well, but again, it was spitting rain all day.

I thought that going to the end of the road would make me feel rockbound, but so far so good. There is still so much to explore even though I’ve seen most of the coastline of Kauai. And so many trails and adventures yet to explore. Rick made the comment today that it’s all beautiful and you know that it’s all a different place, but there’s only so much beauty you can distinguish from one place to another. It all gets to looking like the ocean, a beach, a waterfall. It sounds crazy, but it’s true. You can only be a tourist for so long. Then you have to start living it.