Steffi & Gerry: Trip around the World
Travel Blog of our Honeymoon around the World
Second island hopping: from Kauai to The Island of Hawaii (better known as Big Island) via Honolulu, Oahu.
Unfortunately, a flight from (finally) sunny weather into the rain. It wasn’t that bad, we quickly visited the Rainbow Falls which are close to Hilo, but at our time of visit in the late afternoon no rainbow could be seen at the falls.
First day without rain on Hawaii! Having already completed our bucket list for Kauai, we didn’t expect much of this day. But it turned out really well. We googled “Kauai easy hikes” and stumbled across Maha’ulepu Heritage Coastal Trail, close to Shipwreck Beach.
It was a nice coastal walk with remarkable coastal sceneries and a cave to visit (Makauwahi Cave).
On our way back we have been rewarded with whale sightings on the horizon.
And we finally went into the sea and had some fun with the breaking waves. 🙂
Kauai is a beautiful island, but large part of it is de-facto inaccessible. For once we ignored the ecological conscience and booked a scenic flight with a helicopter. There are many companies, but Jack Harter adds a special thrill: doors-off flights with a Hughes 500.
We didn’t have cloudless sky (hardly ever occurs on Kauai) but still good flight conditions. First highlight was the flight over Manawaiopuna Falls, better known as “Jurassic Falls” (helicopter landing sequence in the first Jurassic Park movie). The pilot even played the movie theme – marvelous!
Soon, we reached the Waimea Canyon (see earlier blog entry), now from above and much closer to some great sceneries.
We again crossed one of the wettest places on earth (once more hidden in dark clouds), but soon the sky opened: we have reached the Napali coast. Postcard scenery again!
Fortunately, that was not yet the end, also the flight over the Hanalei Valley was breathtaking. And for once the clouds somehow fit into the scenery; dozens of waterfalls within a rainforest-like landscape, coming out of misty mountains… a perfect fit for any fantasy movie.
Indeed, the list of movie sequences shot on Kauai is long! Just to name a few:
Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Jurassic Park (1, 2, 3), Jurassic World
King Kong
Six Days Seven Nights
Tropic Thunder
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The Descendants
Time to explore the Garden Island. First stop was at the Spouting Horn, a blow-hole which erupts sea water like a geyser.
Then we drove into the Waimea Canyon, also known as “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”, and there is really something about it.
Sadly, we had to skip our hiking plans, as it started to rain and the trail was very muddy. We drove deeper into the canyon, but the weather got worse – no wonder, as we got close to one of the wettest places on earth: Mt Waialeale, which means “overflowing water”.
But, where’s rain, there’s also a chance for rainbows. And indeed, on our way back we got a few good rainbow-in-the-canyon pictures.
A short flight took us to the “Garden Isle” Kauai. The weather changed almost every 15 minutes, but we managed to escape the short showers and enjoyed a late lunch with cold drinks on Coconut Beach at pleasant conditions.
We joined a small group with Trips & Tramps. It’s a scenic drive to Milford Sound with some good photo stops, e.g the Mirror Lakes.
As written in the previous article, Milford Sound is known as the wettest inhabited place in New Zealand and one of the wettest in the world (up to 9 meter rain per year!). Travel guides write it basically rains every day. Might be a bit exaggerated, but you get the idea. However, we had a warm and cloudless day and a wonderful time cruising through the fiords. After spotting some seals we wondered if we could also view some dolphins. Well… no, but even better. Even the captain and the tour guide were surprised, as a tresher shark jumped out of the water – multiple times. Hard to believe, but we have the footage. Gerry’s theory: the beginning of a Sharknado!
The ride back to Te Anau had to be earned. We did the Key Summit Trail hike and enjoyed New Zealand’s alpine region. Well, that was a day, even to our (now very high) benchmarks! Thank you, land of Kiwis!
A driving day to the Fiordland National Park, and an escape from the rain, too. Ironically, Milford Sound (our next destination) is the rainiest point of New Zealand! But forecasts are very promising… the sunset in Te Anau (pronounced similarly as the Italian “ti amo” just with an “n”) at least made us hungry for even more sun.
Short form of what we did today:
• Picked up our rental car (Kia Sportage)
• Took the curvy road till Kuranda
• Tried a few walks, but “River Walk” would have been literally walking in the river
• Admired the impressive Barron Falls
• Escaped the rain at Kuranda and enjoyed the green landscape of Atherton Tableland
• Nice lunch / coffee at “Coffee Works” in Mareeba
• Wine tasting (mango wine!) at de Brueys Boutique winery
• Spotted rock wallabies and turtles at Granite Gorge Nature Park (highly recommended!)
• Talked with a local from Atherton who was on exchange program in Zofingen (close to us)
Out of the desert into the rain forests. Stress on rain, as we got really wet that day. But it’s the rainy season, we knew it and we took it as it was.
With umbrella and rain coats we walked through Cairns, had a really good sea food dinner and watched cricket with a few beers at “Rattle N Hum” pub. A boxing day (December 26) which could be worse!
Good morning sunshine – let’s go up to 250m on the Sydney Eye Tower observation deck. Sydney Tower is 309 meters to the top of the spire and the tallest building of the city.
Then we used our Opal cards to get to the famous Bondi Beach.
We just arrived at our hotel again before it started raining, and later on, hailing (golf balls in size).
