On our way to Australia, we took a few days to visit Kauai, Hawaii. We had been there once before in 2012 just for a day while on a Hawaiian cruise. We didn't get to see it all, so decided to return for another visit.
We stayed at the Hotel Coral Reef in Kapaa right on the ocean. The location was beautiful, but the hotel could use some updating and sprucing up. For $300 per night, I was expecting a little better.
We've been to Hawaii before, and there have always been chickens running around all the islands. This time, however, there were more than ever.
Many years ago, red junglefowl roosters were brought to Hawaii from Polynesia for cock fighting. Over time, some got loose and reproduced. Feral chickens became a part of life. In 1992, there was a severe hurricane than hit Kauai very hard. Many chicken coops were blown away, and more chickens became wild. Now, they are everywhere! There are notices for tourists not to feed them, but I don't think most people follow that rule.
This fun driftwood swing was behind our hotel.
There are so many beautiful flowers and plants all over Kauai. Here are just a few. The flowers of the Pulmaria tree are used in lei making.
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| Pulmaria tree |
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| Hibiscus |
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| Hydrangea |
A bit further down the road, the canyon was fully visible. Such a beautiful place!
We visited Wailua Falls the last time we were here in 2012. There seems to be much more vegetation growing along the road, so it was harder to get a good picture this time. The first picture below is October, 2023. The second is January, 2012.
We visited the Kauai Coffee Plantation. The first picture below is a coffee plant. Each tree only produces one pound of coffee each year. They sure have a fantastic location with beautiful views.
There was a self-guided walking tour at the plantation. A mama feral pig and her three babies were hanging around the path.
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| Mama pig |
We did a tour that took us to many places where movies have been filmed on Kauai. This bay had a beautiful rainbow.
Opaekaa Falls was in Blue Hawaii. So was the Coco Palms hotel. The hurricane of 1992 also destroyed that hotel. It has been bought and sold several times since then, but development keeps being put off. It is really in bad shape.
The field below was part of Jurassic Park.
Do you see the profile of King Kong in this next photo?
The Kilauea lighthouse was in the movie Lilo and Stitch.
These Albezia trees are all over the island. They remind me of scenes from Avatar which was also filmed on Kauai.
We headed all the way to the north end of the island to Hanalei Bay. Another beautiful spot!
Mount Waialeale is at an elevation of 5,148 feet. It's in the clouds below. It gets on average 450 inches of annual rainfall, making it the second wettest place on earth. In 1982, they had a whopping 683 inches of rain. Wow!!
The latest version of The Jungle Cruise movie by Disney was filmed on the Wailua River.
We did another tour with Mountain Tubing Adventure where we went tubing down former irrigation canals that were dug out of lava on the former Lihue sugar cane plantation. Hawaii stopped exporting sugar cane in 2016. High labor costs made it impossible to compete with other countries. We went through several tunnels that had been hand dug out of the lava. It was a great tour. They drove us through parts of the plantation and explained some of the history, and then we went tubing. Here's the vehicle we were in. I don't have any pictures of the actual tubing, but I've included two from the web.
So, after five days in Kauai, we boarded a plane for a ten hour flight to Sydney, Australia.
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!
