Living in San Giorgio di Pesaro and Kingston

One of the highspots of Kauai, in terms of scenery is the waimea Canyon apparently called the Hawaii Grand Canyon by Mark Twain. Having seen it from the heliocopter we decided to drive round the island and see it from the ground. It was worth the effort. Apart from seeing the canyon we also had a high and a low experience in terms of cafes. On the way to the canyon we decided to stop for a drink and seeing “Obsessions Cafe”. Nice name , bad cafe. Inside it was rather dingy and decided to go safe with a coke for Bill and an Orange  Juice for me. Bill drank most of the coke and decided to remove the lid to see how much drink was left and saw ants floating aro9und. On the way back from the canyon we stopped at the Hanepepe Cafe and had freshly made sanwiches and salad and resisted the tempation of passion fruit and coconut cake.

The day after the helicopter ride we decided to go low key and visit an ethno-botanical gardens not too far from the hotel. We opted for the guided tour and met our guide Sue under the breadfruit tree. She explained that the idea behind the gardenwas to try and create zones within the garden which would show the vegetation in different periods. So at the beginning of the tour we were shown many of the “canoe plants” first brought to the island in their canoes by the first polynesian settlers. This inclued the taro plantwhich had been the mainstay of Hawaiian agriculture until the 19th century. After canoe plants we walked uphill into the other zones of the garden – plants endemic to the island and introduced plants which eradicated less vigourous native plants. It was a really interesting tour with Sue not only talking about plants but also telling us some Hawaiian legends. The tour lasted two and a half hours and was worth every minute.

The reason for going to Hawaii was to go on a helicoper ride round the island of Kauai. As the middle of the island is inaccessible by road it has to be seen by helicopter. We arrived at the offices of  the company and were discretely weighed so that they could balance the helicopter. We were linked up with a young, thin, newly married couple from New York with them in the front with the pilot and us in the back to provide ballast.

After our security talk, and being strapped in we were off. Wow. It was rather scarey at first and then we started to relax until either we seemed to be heading straight into a cliff face or when we banked steeply to avoid the cliff face. We had opted for the open door ride which mean tit was very windy but the advantages were that it had only 4 passengers, clear views for pictures, and the disadvantage that  despite the seat belts I had a slight feeling of being able to fall out. Jason the pilot gave a commentary about the island’s history, films made on the island etc. but most times we were absorbed in being stunned by the views – flying over a canyon floor far below, or past cliffs twice the size of the Empire State Building. It was a great trip and well worth every dollar – would love to do it again.

After our few days on Big Island we took off for Kauai. We arrived about 6.00 and got the hire car to drive up to the north coast of the island. By the time we got there it was pitch black and we had real problems finding the hotel. We knew it was near a town called Princeville but couldn’t see any signs for the hotel. We stopped in a garage to get some advice but with my 2.1 degree in geography I got the directions mixed up and we headed off in the wrong direction. It didn’t help that the roads were narrow, dark and incredibly busy as the day we travelled was labour day and lots of people were out for the day. We stopped a second time and got new directions – look for a supermarket called Foodland and a fountain and at that point turn left. We drove back and still couldn’t find the place and began to get ratty with each other. We stopped off at another shopping centre and Bill noticed that a small shop was called Foodland.Not the big sign we had been looking for. We turned left and driving down the road finally noticed the name of the hotel. So we arrived about 1 hour late and not in the best of moods. At the hotel the receptionist explained that Hawaiian law only allowed hotels to put signs at the beginning of their street. As our hotel was a street of a street it was not possible to  put a useful sign saying Westin Hotel this way.

The hotel, once we got there, turned out to be very comfortable. In fact it was really a studio flat with a large bed/living room, kitchen area, bathroom and more importantly a washing machine and dryer as after a week travelling clean clothes were getting fewer. The small kitchen is well equiped including a microwave oven with buttons to cook to cook everything from baked potato, to popcorn (as Bill is demonstrating).

Our third day  was a lazy day by the pool and beach in the morning and then in the afternoon a short drive round the area. Very relaxing.

On the second day on Big Island we went to see the volcanoes. We didn’t see any flowing lava which was rather disappointing but the whole thing was so incredibly impressive. The volcanoes in Hawaii are shield volcanoes which means they just keep oozing lava and growing.

Part of the road around the top of the volcano was closed due to high levels of sulphur dioxide but it was still possible  to drive part of the way and see the core  of the volcano still smoking. It was lying in a sea of solidified lava and diagrams explained how the top of the volcano had collapsed creating the cliffs on which we were standing, with the dried lava below and then in the centre the crater.

It was also possible to walk through a “lava tube” created 500 years ago – literally a long tunnel in the lava. Finally one drives for about 30 minutes over lava fields running from the top of the volcano down to the sea. The scale of the lava fields and the amount of lava produced over thousands of years was incomprehensible.

On our first full day on the Big Island we decided to go up to the north peninsula. Our first stop was at Hapuna Beach – almost as nice as Torrette Beach. . From there we moved on to Pu’ukohola Heiau which is an ancient Hawaiian temple site. An interesting place but unfortunately the temple area is considered very sacred and so closed to the public. From there we drove through the small town of Hiwa which had some nice art and crafts shops and restaurants and onto their equivalent of Lands End. A couple of photos and then back for lunch.

We had lunch at the Bamboo Restaurant which according to the guide book is one of the best on the island. It is very low key but the food was good. We both had salads and felt very virtuous. However, when the waitress offered desserts we crumbled opting for home made passion fruit cheesecake.

view from hotel terrace	view from hotel room
water feature	hotel pool

We are staying at Fairmont Hotel. It is built on a very ancient lava flow. In the 1960s they decided to create hotel complexes along the coast. From the main road one turns towards the coast and you travel for a couple of miles across the brown/black lava flows and then the the landscape changes into beautiful manicured lawns and shrub lined roads. The hotels are landscaped with beautiful gardens complete with cocount palms, tulip trees, banana trees, hibiscus shrubs etc. All very artificial but very lovely gardens.