February 2024 Hawaii Cruise Day 9
Kauai, Hawaii
Today we joined one of the best optional tours we have ever been on in the over 1 dozen cruises we have been on. I do not count yesterday‘s visit to the PCC as an optional tour, because that was not actually organized through the cruise company; I don’t know how any optional tour could ever beat that!. We were gone from 8:30am until 4:30pm, traveling by tour bus and flat-bottom boat to several places here in Kauai.
We traveled about an hour or more to Hawaii’s version of the Grand Canyon in the Waimea State Park . It is considerably smaller than its Arizona cousin, but incredibly beautiful.
Next we traveled down to the ocean to see the Spouting Horn Park. There are holes in the lava rock by the ocean, and when the waves hit the shore, some of the water travels into the underground tubes and into the holes to make it look like a geyser. Not quite Old Faithful, which we saw last May, but impressive nevertheless. Our tour guide said that if we time things just right by flushing the toilet at the right moment, the geyser will erupt even higher! I have my doubts. I didn’t test her suggestion.
Next we stopped for lunch at a nice buffet restaurant. We enjoyed park, chicken, and fish (well, Anne enjoyed fish), salad, and rice. We sat with a newlywed couple from France who could not speak much English, but we enjoyed the limited conversation, and it gave me a chance to step back in time to my 12 years of French studies as a child. Japanese has replaced all the space in my brain that was once occupied by French.
After lunch, we went on the Wailua River Cruise. All 150+ people boarded a flat-bottom boat for a 2-1/2 mile journey into what seemed like a jungle. In fact, one of the scenes from the first Indiana Jones movie was filmed right there. Or, so our guide told us. We stopped at one point and walked a short distance into the ocean to a beautiful, secluded grotto where we watched a woman do a wedding hula dance. Apparently it was an opportunity for couples to renew their bows.
Hawaii, and especially Kauai, has an abundance of a particularly annoying wild animal which are everywhere you look. They are wild chickens! They seem to be as plentiful in Kauai as squirrels are in Tennessee. We were told they were brought to the islands a long time ago by the Filipinos and were used for cock fighting. Apparently, these creatures are considered sacred or special as it is illegal to kill them. But our your guide encouraged us to stuff a few of them in our bags and bring them home with us. I’m not sure that would be entirely legal, so I declined. But there seemed to be a constant cacophony of cock-a-doodle-dos everywhere! When we stopped at the grotto, the guide was trying to talk about some serious historical facts and was constantly interrupted by these annoying creatures!
After our river cruise, we stopped at a lookout point to view a waterfall, the Opaeka’a Falls that, at one time, was a source of fresh water shrimp. But these days the shrimp have found better quarters as they are no longer found at these falls.
Our guide, who doubled as the bus driver, was fantastic. She was funny, witty, very knowledgeable about Kauai history and culture, and kept all of us entertained throughout the 8-hour tour. We were very exhausted by the end of the day, but greatly enriched.
We got back to our cabin just in time to change into our “Cruise Elegant” attire to enjoy a delicious dinner. Tonight’s featured menu selection: Locally grown, free-range Chicken…?
Comments
Post a Comment