Sunday, March 31, 2019. Nawiliwili, Kauai, Hawaii
Another early morning greeted us with the sight of Nawiliwili looming ahead. We had to meet in the theater for our excursion so that we could be issued a sticker, and then herded down out of the ship and to our awaiting tour bus. There were 46 passengers in a 52 passenger bus so there were a few empty seats we could spread out in at the back of the bus. This bus had no issues with heating or air conditioning. It turned out to be a nice day with overcast and temperatures in the mid 70’s. It is a long drive from Nawiliwili to the Waimea Canyon, which was our first official stop, but our driver/guide did make a stop at a nice gift shop called Mariko, which had nice big bathrooms, free coffee, and a huge showroom with all sorts of souvenirs, arts and crafts, including Nihau shell leis that can cost a few thousands of dollars.
Our drive took us along the coast line for a bit. We stopped on the Wailua Heritage trail to see a landmark called the spouting horn, which is a blowhole that shoots spray skyward with tidal surges. There were also the infamous Kauai chickens roaming wild. We learned that there is actually an endangered species called Kauai jungle fowl, which looks like a chicken with black legs. The males of this species have no comb. Janet spotted a hen with her very well camouflaged chicks hiding near a fallen log.
From the coast, we headed inland and wound up a long series of switchbacks to over 3000ft in altitude to the Waimea Canyon overlook. The Canyon is beautiful and grand in scope, although it is a lot smaller than the Grand Canyon in Arizona and Colorado. The tropical vegetation and iron rich soils give it remarkable colors. There were a seemingly endless supply of helicopters flying through the canyon well below the canyon rim. This is certainly not allowed in the Grand Canyon, but perhaps there have not been any serious accidents yet over the skies of the Waimea Canyon to prompt the FAA to ban flying below the rim.
From the Waimea Canyon overlook, we had lunch at a very nice restaurant called Keoki’s Paradise. This buffet was set in a covered terrace set amongst beautify landscaping. There was kalua pork with cabbage, macadamia nut encrusted mahi-mahi and teriyaki chicken along with salad, fresh melons and pineapples. Then we headed back down to sea level to the Wailua river and Fern Grotto. This is apparently one of the very few permanent rivers in the Hawaiian islands that is navigable. The tourist boats are basically flat bottom barges with an outboard motor consisting of two big diesels in a mini tug boat connected to the back of the barge with a hydraulic pivot. There wasn’t much to see along the river in terms of wildlife aside from occasional stand-up paddleboarders, but we did pass a reconstruction of a native Hawaiian village that was used in a few movies. The fern grotto is pretty, but not terribly impressive because a hurricane several years ago ripped out most of the ferns, and it has taken a long time for the ferns to regrow. There were also a series of rock falls, which closed the actual grotto to access. Instead, the park built a viewing platform in front of the grotto. We were serenaded on the platform with a Hawaiian version of the Hawaiian wedding song made famous by Elvis Presley from his Blue Hawaii movie. We took a short walk through the tropical jungle between the fern grotto and the boat dock. The undergrowth is very similar to Costa Rica’s rain forest. There were tons of flowering ginger, and we saw some beautify purple banana flowers.
We got back to the ship and had dinner in the main dining room, and both ended up ordering more macadamia nut encrusted mahi-mahi and a Chocolate Journey dessert.
The evening Princess Theater production show featured the singers and dancers doing music from the 50’s in a show called Stardust. It was curious that there was an extra pair of lead singers worked into this show. Usually there are two male leads and two female leads. We wondered if the third pair were in training. The show was enjoyable and well done, although not as elaborate as the Stephen Schwartz productions.
We wound up the night with a few trivia games including a “Gift of the Gab” contest where you have to try to decode nonsense phrases by sounding them out. An example would be “Elf Habits Hoop”= alphabet soup. We thought we did pretty well figuring out 18/20, but a team in the back of the room who graded their own paper gave themselves a perfect score, which as a little hard to believe. We did a Jeopardy like trivia game, which we didn’t win, but did ok on, but we then finished the evening on a win with a “Miracle Lyrical” trivia game where they played music video clips and stopped them in the middle. You then had to fill in the next line of lyrics. That got us some more silicone Ruby Princess coasters.
They do have a Wake Show quiz with drawing each day, and somehow we have managed to get our names drawn from the pile of correct answers several times, so we have also been amassing Princess trivia prizes that way. We’ve gotten 4 coasters and a little blue journal so far.
Tomorrow is our last day in the Hawaiian islands before we spend 5 days at sea returning to Los Angeles. It’s too bad this itinerary doesn’t overnight at some of these ports of call since there is so much that you can do in Hawaii, and it takes such a long time to reach Hawaii from Los Angeles. We don’t have any formal excursion booked for Lahaina, Maui. We had spent 2 weeks on Maui in the past and have pretty much done all the tourist sites, so we’ll just take a relaxing walk through Lahaina.
