October 13 - Kauai

Today we landed on the island of Kauai in the port of Nawiliwili.  Yes you read that right, it is pronounced as Na Wili Wili.  The Hawaiian language is the most difficult language to read and pronounced. It seems that each word is a dozen syllables long.  The language has only 12 letters.

Kauai is noted as the garden island because of its lush rainforests.  I think it should be called the golf course island as there are many immaculate maintained courses.  On our entry to the Nawiliwili we passed a gorgeous course with the ocean cliffs defining the out of bounds.  During our tour of the island we noted several more professional quality golf courses.  The price of some of these courses exceed $180 US / round.

In early the morning there were many surfers in the harbor. At the end of bay was beautiful white beach.  Looking towards the interior of the island we could see sharp volcanic ridges that define the mountains and valleys.

Kauai has been used in several popular movies such as Jurassic Park and Raiders of the Lost Ark , where many of the jungle scenes were shot.

We took a tour to the National Tropical Botanical Garden.  The gardens were created and are currently partly funded by two millionaire families, the McBryde’s and the Allerton’s.  They have created two protected tropical paradises.  The gardens are located In the Lawai Valley and they claim to have several thousand different plants and trees.  The canopy from the trees makes it very pleasant to walk around in the rainforest and the colours and shapes of the flowers are amazing.

If you remember in the film Jurassic Park, there were scenes where the humans jumped into the root systems of big trees to hide from the dinosaurs.  We walked past these trees and the above ground root system is enormous. 

At one point in our walk through the gardens there was a loud shotgun blasts. Our guide assured us that noise was made by a falling coconut hitting the ground.  He said that many people are injured or killed by falling coconuts every year in Hawaii.

On our way back to the boat we stopped at Spouting Horn.  This is a lava tube that is on the coast line.  As it fills with sea water, the hot lava in this tube turns to water into steam and shoots it into the air making for a continual geyser.