Day 20 : Kauai - Falls, plane tour, Waimea Canyon

We got up at 4 this morning, loaded up our stuff, and headed off to the airport (thanks Steph for being a trooper!!!).  We arrived on Kauai at 7 a.m., picked up our rental car, and headed out to see the Wailua Falls.  It’s a spectacular falls that you can drive up to…no hiking necessary!

We had a plane tour of the Na Pali Coast line scheduled at 930 a.m., so after we were done visiting the falls, we ate breakfast at a local place called Dani’s (fabulous) and then headed to our plane tour.

Chris initially wanted a helicopter tour instead of a Cessna plane tour, but I wasn’t sure if my new found motion sickness would be able to handle a helicopter tour, so I booked the Cessna instead.  We took off and went down the south side of the island, through Wimea Canyon, which was absolutely beautiful,  and then towards the West side of the island and up to our much anticipated Na Pali Coast line on the North side. 

Breath-taking is not descriptive enough of a term to use to describe our views.  They were absolutely amazing.  Green, lush, jagged peaks and mountains, waterfalls, and beautiful beaches were all over the place.  Most of the beaches were relatively empty, and the water was beautiful and clear.

Towards the end of the trip, the pilot did a quick turn to get a better look at the water falls that we had driven up to earlier.  My stomach did the turn with him, and I was really glad that we were pretty close to the airport.  I made it the last 10 minutes without getting sick, but I definitely thought I was going to.  After we got off the plane, I thought I might get sick, but after a few minutes and some water, I was fine.  I’m not used to this whole motion sickness thing!

Same Falls as earlier this a.m., but from the air!

After the beautiful plane tour, we headed to Costco (yes, we’ve now officially visited Costco on all 3 islands) and picked up some dinner foods and water and then headed to our B&B to check in.  This B&B was really inexpensive, and the only place we could find on the South side that was open for the night, so we took a risk and went for it.  Although the accommodations were pretty bare boned, it was clean, had a private shower and bathroom, and a queen sized bed. 

We headed out to Wimea Canyon to see the oversights and do the Canyon Hike to the Waipoo Falls.  After stopping at all of our overlooks and taking pictures, we got a pretty late start on the hike.  We left the car at 430, the hike time said 3 hours (4 miles), and we knew the sun would be down shortly after 6 p.m..  So, in typical Chris and Kara fashion, we hustled in the trail, stopped to admire the gorgeous Canyon views, and hi-tailed it on up to the Falls.  The trail was a moderate one…steep in a few places, rocky, and slippery, so booking it through was a little bit challenging.

We made it to the waterfall, sat for a few and enjoyed the scenery, took a few more pictures, and then high-tailed it back to the car. 

We made it to the car at 6:15 p.m.  By the time  we got off of the canyon, it was pitch black.  We headed back to our B&B, ate dinner, and passed out.