We kicked off our second full day in Kauai’ with a trip to Eggbert’s in Kapaa, which was right in front of our hotel. They are known for their awesome macadamia nut pancakes!
After breakfast, we drove over to Lihue to Kaua’i Backcountry Adventures, where we had reserved tickets to go on a tubing tour! It’s a mountain tubing adventure where you can float down the historic irrigation system of the former Lihue Plantation — it’s a ditchy and tunnel system that was once used to irrigate sugar crops, but is no longer used since 2000. It’s now exclusively used for tubing tours.
Below is a video that Dan took of “sleepy grass,” a type of plant that closes its leaves temporarily when touched. I’d never seen anything like it before!
Once we reached the tubing site, they filed everyone into a single line and put us on tubes, and we just floated on our donuts in the river.
At the end of the tubing tour, we got out of the water and enjoyed a sandwich lunch in the mountains. They then took us back down the mountain in the army vehicle again. Our tour guides were very funny and friendly, and the tubing tour was pretty fun without requiring too much physical effort. My kind of activity! 😉
For the rest of the afternoon, we drove up to the Northern part of Kaua’i, to get some beach time. Our first stop was Tunnels Beach.
Dan was taking a video of the sea turtles at one point (below), when a current pushed him forward towards the turtle’s butt. The turtle got spooked and quickly swam away….
After spending a couple hours snorkeling at Tunnels Beach, we drove further north to see what we could find. We came across this super creepy-looking wet cave. I looked it up later and found out it was called Waikanaloa Cave. Sea caves are formed by thousands of years of ocean waves pounding against the lava and eventually etching out a cavern. At one time, the ocean was up to this point.
Desperate to get away from the scary cave, we continued on our way up the island and arrived at Ke’e Beach, where a much more pleasant sight greeted us.
After Ke’e Beach, we started making our way back down the Eastern part of the island. There was a slight drizzle, after which we found this rainbow over the Kaua’i landscape!
We stopped by this souvenir vendor area on our way back, but most of the shops had closed up by then. We vowed to return the next day!
For dinner, we decided to check out Kalapaki Joe’s in Lihue, a sports bar that one of the tubing tour guides had recommended as having great nachos and happy hour specials. The food was good, but the service was mediocre….
We returned to our hotel, stuffed and ready to pass out. The next day was our last day in Kaua’i, and in 24 hours, we’d be boarding a plane back home to San Francisco. Check back for Day 9, our last day in Hawaii! (Finally, right?)
July 19, 2010 @ 10:08 am
Awesome Posts btw Dan and Misono! I love the sea turtle shots. Ahhh soo beautifullll!
– And thank you for the bday gift! It will come in handy this summer for sure!
July 19, 2010 @ 10:26 pm
Thanks! You’re welcome! 😀
July 19, 2010 @ 1:31 pm
I <3 the turtles!
July 19, 2010 @ 10:23 pm
Aren’t they amazing? Dan was able to get so close! 😀
July 20, 2010 @ 7:19 pm
Thank you for bringing a holiday-feeling to my room 🙂
July 19, 2010 @ 1:44 pm
Looks like you had a blast! Happy for you!
July 19, 2010 @ 10:24 pm
It was so much fun; thank you! 😀
July 19, 2010 @ 2:44 pm
Wow, amazing that you got to be so close to the turtles!! I only saw them when we were on the boat and they swam away REALLY fast when we approached. :O
July 19, 2010 @ 10:24 pm
I know, I was really impressed that they didn’t run away when Dan got close to them. We were really lucky to be able to get these shots! 🙂
July 19, 2010 @ 7:08 pm
Great photos! Before I saw the caption for your second rainbow picture, I was about to write the same thing as a comment, hahaha.
July 19, 2010 @ 10:25 pm
lol.
I actually only saw that video last week when my coworker showed it to me… along with the Double Rainbow song that has recently been going around. 😛
July 19, 2010 @ 11:20 pm
Thanks for the comments everyone! The Tunnels Beach is a must go in Kauai. The turtles were amazing to swim with.
Maui 2012: Day 3 | Blooming by the Bay
August 14, 2012 @ 5:29 pm
[…] discovered some sea turtles while snorkeling! We’d seen them last time we were at Tunnels Beach in Kauai two years ago, but it’s always such an exciting experience to see them. Sea turtles in […]