Hawaii Vacation: Part One

Here's a little breakdown of the first half of our vacation with some of the photos.

~Monday~
We both woke up very early because of the time difference. We headed out to the beach about 6 am to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful! We checked into a resort later that morning and were surprised with an ocean view! The rest of the day we spent on Poipu Beach relaxing and snorkeling.



~Tuesday Activities~
We decided to check out the sites and beaches on the south shore and stay close to our resort. First, we drove over to Spouting Horn. This is a small lava shelf where water from waves is thrust through an opening causing water and air to squirt out a blowhole.

Spouting Horn

After Spouting Horn, we wanted to check out the snorkeling at Lawa'i Beach. The water looked pretty rough, but there were quite a few other people out snorkeling so we figured it wouldn't be too bad. Wow, this was a great spot! We saw some colorful fish AND we saw a sea turtle! It was so cool and Mark dove down and followed it around for awhile.

We decided to do a little "off roading" to see the next beach. We had to drive down pot-holed dirt roads through sugar cane fields about 2 miles to get to Ha'ula Beach. There were only about 4 other cars out there and the views were amazing! The waves were really strong so we put on our water socks and waded in just to our knees and had fun getting knocked around. There is a little hike up some cliffs for even more fabulous views. Below are some pictures.

views from Ha'ula Beach
views from Ha'ula Beach

views from Ha'ula Beach - the small cliff we are about to hike up

views from the cliff

views on the hike down the cliff

~Wednesday Activities~
We decided that on Wednesday we would hike at Waimea Canyon. We loaded up our hiking backpacks and drove about 20 minutes to the town of Waimea, then we had to drive 20 miles up a winding road where we experienced about a 4000 foot rise in elevation.

We began at the Awa'awapuhitrail head and 4120 ft elevation. We made it about 3 miles into the hike to 2980 ft elevation in an hour and a half and then turned around and hiked back up to 4120 ft elevation and it was hard! Here are photos from the hike.

Crazy mushroom on fallen log
View of NaPali Coast

After our hike we stopped at all the "scenic view" spots on the way back down. Here are some of the pics.

Wild rooster - seen all over the island

I'll work on the second half of the vacation later this week or this weekend. Hope you enjoyed the visit. ;)