The Island of Kauai is rumoured to be the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands and was the first to be named. We have now almost circumnavigated the island. I say almost because the road does not go completely around the coast and we would need to hike over mountains, enough said.
The beaches are all pretty wild and more like our west coast beaches in Auckland. Swimming is not allowed at some of them as they are so treacherous, in fact while you wait for your luggage at the airport there is a video warning you of the dangers. The reddish sand is littered with drift wood and it appears that people spend time building structures out of the larger pieces of drift wood along many of the beaches. There is no noticeable tide even though there must be one and for all of the surf shops, cars loaded with surf boards and costal car parks loaded with cars we have not seen many surfers or swimmers in the water.
The next township along from ours in Hanalei Bay and it is a popular tourist spot. It is a very ‘earthy’ and very quaint village. We spotted a small area with food trucks and decided that was where we would be lunching. Lance had pad Thai and I had a Brazilian dish. Both were underwhelming especially at a cost of $50 US dollars for the two.
Continuing around the coast the roads narrowed and the vegetation became ever thicker. We passed many local homes that ranged from bach (shack for you Aussies) style to really lovely beach houses. In many spots there were steep and muddy tracks down to the water and people were clambering down, but still no swimmers.
When travelling south from our village of Princeville there are many small townships where a tourist may stop, the largest being Kaapa’a. There are food places galore, all cheap looking hippy style cafes, food trucks and small restaurants.
Yesterday I forgot to mention that we lunched at Poipu which is at located at the southern part of the island. This is a bit more upmarket and has a small modern outdoor shopping quadrant and restaurant area. The Dolphin had been recommended to us by the concierge so we thought that we would give it a go for fish and chips. It was a great location and we sat on the veranda, but the fish and chips were just okay, they were just fish and chips like you would get at a takeaway, and we ate with plastic cutlery and had to scrape our own plates. Now don’t get me wrong here, I am not being snobby about this and I am happy to scrape my own plate, but not when I have just paid the equivalent of $75 NZ for fish and chips. But then I guess when you have a captive audience of ‘out of towners’ you can get away with it.
On the whole it was a pretty lazy day that gave Lance more practice driving on the wrong side of the road.
We did stop at a lookout that we had previously passed and is located opposite our village shops. Expecting more grand mountain vistas we were surprised to find a valley of taro fields! They look more like rice fields in Thailand than something from Hawaii
Dinner was had at Piazza in Princeville, only five minutes from home. The food was really great and the service was also great and they were very attentive. Lance had a salt and pepper style octopus, and it was tender with a crispy coating. Some pieces were just chucked and there was a variety of whole baby octopus from as big as my thumbnail to a decent bite. I started with ahi (tuna carpaccio and it was lathered in olive oil with a forest of olives and capers. Mmmm,mmmmm. Lance choose shrimp and scampi fettuccini and myself butternut ravioli. Again they were very good. No NZ wines at this establishment which gave me an opportunity to try Siduri Pinot Noir which comes from Oregon and was very nice. I must mention here that I have found that the Americans pour a healthy sized glass of wine, and I do ponder over what their thoughts might be when they come to New Zealand and we give them a dribble in the bottom of a huge glass. Anyway cheers to you, I had three!
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