Today was our last day in Hawaii. :( We leave very early tomorrow morning for Thailand :) and boy is it going to be hot there!!!
We were up at 5:30 am this morning... And not because we wanted to be I might add!!! I haven't told you this yet, but there are as many hens and roosters on this island as there are humans, maybe more!!! And half of those roosters were sitting on our balcony this morning...or so it seemed!!!! So we had an early start to our day :) Apparently, the word on the street is, the roosters were once used for fighting , and then escaped during hurricanes etc. and now have led to this rooster infestation!
We headed down south and to the western side, before going North up to Waimea Canyon. You have to travel around the edges of the island to get anywhere!Very interesting to see the different vegetation from the wet, green, very tropical northern part of the island, to the far more dry, grassland, shrubbery type vegetation on the southern side.
The Canyon was breathtaking, so lush and green and boasts one of the wettest places on earth, with swamp lands crowning some of the peaks, the highest being 5263 ft. 420 inches of rain per annum. There were two guys in traditional grass skirts at the rim, waiting for gullible tourists...AKA Kari-Anne to come along for a photo op! Lol great fun, very interesting to speak to.
Headed back down from the canyon mouth, keeping a watchful eye for humpback whales along the coast. None to be seen.. Passed sugar plantations, saw salt pans, before stopping at our first beach for the day.. Salt Pan Beach..yup , you guessed it, right next to the salt pans :) Families camping randomly around the park surrounding the beach, slightly cooler this side ,less humidity maybe ? Had a walk along the beach before heading off to Po'ipu... I wouldn't be able to pronounce, nor remember any of these if I lived here for a year!!! It would seem every name starts with a K, H, P, N and then throw in all the vowels in random order and voila! You have the jist of it! Lol
The town of Po'ipu a lot of historical value, and explained within a little museum how, many of the immigrants came to be on the island. Labourers to work the fields , in exchange for a wage, children's schooling, medical costs, housing and food! :) sweet deal and they got to live in Hawaii. We had a stroll through the stores, bought a kao bracelet. The kao wood, is indigenous to these islands, extremely light. The first canoes and surfboards were made from kao wood.
Stopped at another little shopping village along the way , had lunch, meandered along before making our down to the beach. To right, snorkelling, to the left, boogyboard and bodysurfing...to the left we went! Had a nap on the beach...no roosters, crowing down there, or maybe the sound of the waves just drown them out!
While we were chilling there, someone yelled out whales, and there they were, in the distance maybe two whales. At least we got to see one! I kept scanning the entire afternoon, but we just saw them a couple of times and then they were gone. After our little snooze, we braved the waves and once again attempted bodysurfing. The waves were about 5 - 7 ft high and man did I get dumped a couple of times! Lots of fun though... It reminded me of when I was a kid messing around in the waves in Durban, getting dumped, ending up with more sand in your bathing suite than you ever thought possible, not knowing where you were going to end up after being tumbled under the waves, praying that your bathing suit would stay on! Oh wait... That's exactly what happened today! Lol. While we were out there waiting for the waves, what should we see, but a seal, checking us out. We saw him a couple of times before he disappeared . So cute.
Did laundry, repacked , alarm set, all ready for a early morning start. First to Honolulu , then to Seoul, before arriving in Phuket. We cross over a time line at some point, and so we lose a day in the process.
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