I just spent an amazing weekend kayaking the Na Pali Coast and had a fabulous time. The trip truly was an adventure, so it may take me a few days to cover it all...
Search Na Pali and you'll see spectacular views (or look at some of my older posts). Basically there's 4,000 foot cliffs on the west side of Kauai that drop into the ocean. There are only a few ways to access Na Pali: hiking the 11-mile Kalalau trail, kayaking, boating, or flying. Tour companies will show it to you, but the only way you can physically be on the Na Pali coast is to hike or kayak (or swim, I would suppose). So when the opportunity came to kayak with some friends, I jumped on it.
Quick fact about me, I have no kayaking experience. Never been in one and hadn't canoed since my Girl Scout days. Outrigger canoes are easy; just pull the paddle backwards and the other 5 people in the boat will help you out. But my friend Rhian thought that Rick and I were "active" and "outdoorsy" and could handle it. So we were in.
A trip like this takes a little planning: it's about 20 miles of kayaking and 2 nights of camping. Due to the remote locations, we needed to bring not only food but drinking water. We also had to look at our space constraints--everything we took had to be securely bungeed to the top of the kayaks and everything had to be in dry bags. There were 8 of us on the trip: friends Rhian, Craig, and Amanda, acquaintances Sam and Dawn, Sam's new roommate Larry, and Rick and myself. It should be noted at this point that our friend Troy was supposed to go on the trip as well, but didn't get a good vibe from Larry and decided not to spend the weekend with us (this note proves to be helpful later in the story). Anyway, eight of us, four two-man kayaks, camping gear, and 2 days worth of supplies. Sounds easy enough...
Friday after work we headed to the end of the road and unloaded at Ke'e Beach. We didn't get there until dark and we spent a few hours unloading kayaks onto the beach and placing our gear with the kayaks. That night we had the luxury of sending things back with the trailer and car that brought us to the beach, so we set up a tent to avoid the sprinkling. The beach was pretty empty (you're not supposed to camp there), but there was a small group that were going to do a moonlight kayak to Kalalau that night. They were trying to get us to go with and the group was a little split on whether they wanted to go or not. Rick and I said we wouldn't be comfortable kayaking for the first time on the ocean in the dark, but we could go back with Troy who was taking the trailer home in the morning. Long story short, everyone decided we would launch in the morning as planned. I think it was for the best; even though the guy said he used to be a guide, I'm fairly confident he was under the influence of something more narcotic than the moonlight...
Saturday morning we were up early to load the boats. Rick and I were the first ones with all our gear ready and stood around waiting for whatever it was kayaking was all about. We both debated taking some Bonine I had brought for motion sickness, but seeing as how we had both been on small boats on the ocean and had never gotten sick, we opted out of the pills. We had planned a big breakfast that morning, but everyone was in a hurry and Rick and I ended up splitting a granola bar. We had teamed up according to experience, so I was with Craig and Rick with Amanda. Both of them were experienced ocean kayakers; we were put in front to just paddle and they were in back to steer and paddle. Sweet. Bring on the kayaking.
We didn't even make it out of the cove and Amanda was having problems with the rudder. Criag tried to fix it from our boat, but we ended up saying 'we'll see,' knowing that Amanda could steer without the rudder if need be. I could tell Rick was a little apprehensive, but a few moments later we were out from the protection of the reef and onto the open ocean.
I didn't realize that we would have to keep our distance from the island to keep from being pushed in by the waves, but I quickly became comfortable with the paddling and the view was amazing (sorry, no pictures--didn't want to chance getting the camera wet). After about half an hour of kayaking, Craig noticed that our boat was taking on water. We brought all the boats together, Craig jumped out and started pumping. I was having to move all about the kayak to keep it balanced so it wouldn't huli (roll over). Fine. We arranged for our heavy stuff to be put on other kayaks, and Amanda told me to head back to the front seat. Craig told me to stay in back to properly balance the weight on the boat. Great, now I'm in charge of steering. Luckily, our boat had rudders and I found it to be similar to steering an airplane when on the ground. All I had to do was make sure we were perpendicular to the waves so we wouldn't huli, and Craig told me all the rest.
About 10 minutes after assuming my new position, I got seasick. The tricky thing about kayaks are they're pretty tipsy. In order for me to puke over the side of the boat, I had to let Criag know so he could throw his legs out for balance, and I had to throw my butt in the opposite direction as my head. Heaving on the ocean was not fun. I had 7 other people watching me and really nothing in my stomach. After the first 'episode,' I had very little left and episodes 2-6 were mostly dry heaves. I would puke, paddle for about 20-30 minutes feeling pretty good, and then puke again. Not fun. I'm sure the view was incredible, and I know that looking at the horizon was supposed to help, but it's hard to focus on something when you're bobbing up and down and trying to steer straight. Uff da. Poor Craig!
I decided later Craig was a great partner for me. Not only was he a strong paddler, but he was so nice that I felt guilty being a whiner. I was a trooper, puking and then paddling like I was fine. Near the end of our (roughly) 3-hour trip, my arms ached and my stomach was empty--I felt so weak. It also didn't help that I had my eye on our landing beach for an hour before we actually landed. I honestly think that I fell asleep in the back for a little bit. But when the time came for us to paddle like crazy to beat the waves to land safely, I mustered up all the strength I had left. Craig told me to paddle fast and keep it straight. I did.
We hulied anyway. For some reason my first thought was about losing my sunglasses (which I did) and then I realized I was under a kayak. Criag and I got out safely with a few scrapes and bruises as our kayak smashed up on the beach. The cooler we had on the back popped open and broccoli and beer headed out into the surf. We all ran out into the waves and chucked it all onto the beach. From what I can tell, we only lost a few cherries and my sunglasses. Our stuff stayed dry. But I was defeated. I thought everything that could have gone wrong did, I was completely exhausted from the puking and the kayaking, and I dreaded the next day's paddle as it was twice as far.
We had arrived at Kalalau, and that's where my story will end today. More tomorrow, and I promise the adventure gets better!
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