Kathleen
and I had made a decision to roll on to another hotel, so we
broke camp at the Cliffs and headed east on the island's ring
road toward Lihue. Our next place was on the beach at
Wailoa just sound of Kapaa. It was an easy day and a short
drive on the only road.
The photos below are what we saw.
Several
days prior we had found a restaurant called the Bistro where we
had a great meal. Since we had to go right past the location
on the way to the next hotel, it seemed only natural to eat
there again. The building next door is called "Kong Lung
Center" which sounds rather like some form of disease.
Outside the restaurant we spotted these interesting flowers.
The flowers were
floating in a rain barrel, so I am guessing that they are
water lilies.
It
rained off and on all day and the trade winds were stiff
resulting in some pretty big wave. We came past the Kealia
beach south of Anahola and decided to pull over for a few photos
of the surfers.
I only
had my 70mm lens so these photos are heavily cropped.
Happily, my camera has plenty of pixels.
Several
of the surfers were actually quite good. They're biggest
challenge was getting back out through the pounding surf for
their next run.
This
wave is perhaps 6 feet tall.
This
fellow is at the end of his ride and is cutting back over the
wave.
This
fellow made a number of runs while we watched. He was
pretty good.
Before setting up camp
at the next hotel, we decided to turn toward the center of the
island and check out one of the big waterfalls in the
area. The photo above is Opaeka Falls. It is
easily visible from a lookout point on the road, but it is
quite a ways back into the jungle. I never checked to see
if there were trails that would have allowed us to get closer
as we were getting rained upon during these photos. The
viewpoint was from a high, steep volcanic ridge.
Just
down the road we got a view of the Wailua River and its lush
valley.
A substantial
portion of the valley floor was cultivated, but in the distance
I could not identify the crop.
To the
east, the river dumped into the ocean. Our hotel was just
north of the mouth of the river, in Wailua.
There
were quite a number of homes hidden in the trees on the
hillsides.
Next day
we headed up the road to Wailua Falls on the upper Wailua
River. The locals call this "Fantasy Island Falls" as it
was shown in the TV show.
The
falls are really magnificent but have no easy path to get to the
pool below, so we were content with watching from above.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2016, all rights
reserved.
For your enjoyment only, not for commercial use.