Honeymoon on Kauai

Kauai is an island in the northern end of the Hawaiian islands, and it was Mary and my chosen honeymoon destination. We were there from October 12 through the 19. This blog is a collection of photos and thoughts from our trip! Enjoy!

Aloha from Kauai, Hawai'i! 

Just before sunrise, taken from our balcony. 

Mary in the living room of our condo. This place was bigger than our house! It had two bathrooms, and could easily sleep another 2-3 people.  

The master bathroom with shower. 

Our bedroom and a super-mega-king sized bed. 

Mary at the beach in front of the Princeville hotel 

Anini Beach, one of our favorites on the island. 

A view from our balcony 

Where the Chicken Run Free

Everywhere you go on Kauai, you will see chicken. From the white sand beaches, to the highest mountains you'll hear the clucking and the crowing.

Filipino immigrants to Hawai'i liked to train their chickens to fight and when they came to Hawai'i, they brought their chickens with them.

The first battle for chicken freedom on Kauai blew in with the winds of the hurricane of 1982. It blew down all the chicken houses and released all the chickens into the wild. Afterwards the chicken houses were rebuilt and stocked with new chickens. Then, ten years after the first, another hurricane unleashed not only its fury on the island, but also unleashed all these new chickens.

Compound that with the fact there are no snakes, mongooses (mongeese?) or other predators except people on the island...and you have a burgeoning chicken population!

A fowl customer..  

Smith Family Luau

One of the things Mary wanted to do was experience a Hawai'ian Luau. I'm sure you've all heard of them, or maybe even attended one. If you don't know, it's a meal/party thrown in honor of guests. Which makes our attendance at one very appropriate!

We went to one that was recommended to us, held by the Smith family at their Smith Family Polynesian Gardens on Kauai.

I know what you're thinking.."Smith? That doesn't sound very authentic!". This was explained by Freckles Smith, who is the patriarch of the family. Apparently, his great-great grandfather came to Hawai'i from England in the 1800s and settled down with a Hawaiian girl. How he was given his legal name of "Freckles" might be an even more interesting story..or maybe not.

Before the luau they took us on a tour of their botanical garden in a little tram that slowly snaked its way through their gardens. They introduced us to many varieties of plants and trees that grow on the Garden Isle. Trailing along behind us the whole way was a flock of various fowl, anticipating that we'd toss bread crumbs or other bird treats their way.

When the ride ended, Mary and I roamed the grounds before the dinner was to begin. It was here we confirmed the rumors. They were indeed letting people have as many Mai Tais as you could drink. While they were good, I only sipped some from Mary's..and Mary only enjoyed one. Apparently there was someone from state alcohol enforcement there, as they drilled into our heads one person could only carry one alcoholic beverage at a time. (More than one? Is this luau normally like a frat party?)

Then came the imu ceremony, where the baked pig is extracted from the ground before being carved up. Following that, we all headed for the dining area and pigged out.
Our admission paid for us to see a polynesian cultural show, which we watched afterwards.

A scenic shot of the Smith Family's slice of polynesian paradise. The place is a botanical garden and is chock-full of hungry and aggressive peacocks, chickens and various other fowl. Oh, they (so we were told) have the best traditional Hawai'ian luau on the island. 

I coerce a fellow luau-attendee to take a photo of Mary and I. We were wandering the Smith grounds before dinner. 

A breadfruit tree in the Smith Family Garden. We tried slapping some mayo and ham between two slices of the breadfruit, with disasterous results. It was then we decided breadfruit can't be eaten like bread. 

Before removing the kalua pig from the underground imu, two young members of the Smith family ritually blow the conch shells... fulfilling part of the Imu Ceremony.  

Freckles Smith discusses the Imu ceremony with the crowd as the two boys remove the pig from the imu 'oven'.  

Mary waits for the start of the Luau show.. 

Some brightly dressed Hula dancers at the Smith Family Luau show. After dinner, all 400 of us or so wandered over to the stage area and watched a cultural show featuring all the peoples of Polynesia and Hawai'i.  

A Hawaiian girl appears out of the darkness to dance among the tropical flora. I wasn't using a flash..in case you couldn't tell, so it's a bit blurry. 

Many Polynesian cultures were represented here at the Luau show.. here is a Maori (from New Zealand) girl swinging some fire bolos. 

A Tahitian Fire-Sword man demonstrating how to eat a fire-laden sword and not get heartburn. 

Mary has this thing about photographing feet..must be some artsy thing I do not understand..here she is documenting her footsies as we drive down the road.  

A view of the mountains from the road as we drove down to Lihue.  

Kauai by Air

One of the things I was looking most forward to on our trip was the helicopter tour. Our guidebook likened taking a helicopter tour on Kauai to "..going to the Sistine Chapel and not looking at the ceiling". I heard similar sentiments from many people who visited, or wrote a book about, Kauai.

It was easily the most expensive tour Mary or I have ever been on, but it was worth it in my mind.

The 60 minute tour left from the main airport in Lihue, and flew clockwise around the island. We flew over Waimea Canyon, also known as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific", the Na Pali coastline, the 'tunnel of trees' and, because we were blessed with unusually clear weather, the pilot flew us RIGHT INTO the crater of the extinct volcano, Wai'ale'ale'. (Try saying that 3x fast). I never figured out how to pronounce that correctly.

The whole thing was awe-inspiring. The only disappointment was the fact that the cheap replacement rechargables we bought to use if our main camera batteries failed (which they did just before the flight), died after only about 15 minutes or so. Luckily, I had decided to bring along my camcorder.

Emerald mountains on Kauai, the oldest of the Hawai'ian islands. 

The waterfall from the movie 'Jurassic Park' as seen from our helicopter tour. I'm not sure what it's real name is. 

A glaring (literally) view of the 'Cathedrals'..a rock/cliff formation that you must see to believe. It is one of those fantastic views of the Na Pali coastline. 

The final still picture taken from our helicopter tour, just prior to the death of our back-up cheap-o rechargable batteries that expired after 20 minutes of use. The picture shows the Na Pali coastline. We did get plenty of beautiful video, however.