Kauai Day 3

This was our last day waking up to the sound of crashing waves. As our luck might have it, the rain finally let up and the sun poured into our windows. We really wished we had more time to just sit in the condo all day, read a good book looking out into the sea and sip on tea. Now we know why everyone we talked to the island said we have to visit Kauai for at least a week.

We had to find the trail which led to the beach below from our cliffside condo. A short walk away and we found it! It led us to a lava shelf where Elton decided to pick me a Hawaiian delicacy for breakfast - Opihi. It's a limpet that is extremely rare on O'ahu but can still be found on Kauai. Being the type who always finds a way, he managed to find two pre-historic looking rocks and headed towards the crashing waves on the edge of the rocks. Something about a man hunting food for a woman. I really started having an appetite even though it was only 8am in the morning! The springy texture of the raw clams coated with the salty sea water made it the best raw breakfast I'd ever had. Actually, it's the first time I've ever had anything raw for breakfast!

After hanging out by the crashing waves and surviving a raw meal, we climbed back up to the condo to have our breakfast with another local favorite - Portuguese sausage. I thought it would be spicier. Nevertheless, it was a nice twist on the regular breakfast sausages.

Since the sun came out, we were determined to do our first Kauai activity closest to us in Princeville - kayaking the Hanalei River. We took turns kayaking and stand-up paddleboarding. Standup paddleboating turned out to be a lot easier than I thought though I imagine it would be a lot more challenging in the sea rather than the river. It was a good try. Besides it was a good workout for my abs and arms.

On the way down to the Lihue airport, we decided to make a little stop at the much touted about Anini Beach. Not quite the white powder sand beach I imagined. Apparently, beaches in Hawaii are all crushed coral sand, not the powdery white sands (what I'd like to call feet-sinking-sand!) on many Malaysian islands. Still, it's a beautiful long stretch of quiet beach, good for snorkelling, swimming or just to walk along and pick shells. While walking, we sipped on this Hawaiian beer called Longboard. It's a really good malty beer. Made me think of Black and Tan.

Anini Beach

Opeka Falls was next. It was a little too far from the lookout point to really appreciate so we decided to go to the famous Wailua Falls. Unfortunately, our new Magellan GPS is almost useless when it comes to roads in Kauai. We got lost again. This time, we stumbled along another beautiful grove of tree tunnel. These trees towered about 50 to 60 feet overhead. Breathtaking! Not sure what road we were on but at least our little Magellan helped us find our way back to Lihue in time for our flight!