Hi! Hello United States of America! Hi Hawaii! I’m back! But just barely, still enjoying this glorious Pacific island life. I spent just shy of a week in Hawaii, one night on Oahu and five on Kauai.
It was a wonderful segment of the trip, and served as a finale of sorts. I began this leg with my redeye from Osaka to Honolulu at 11pm on January 31. Within Hawaii I was most interested in seeing the island of Kauai, so I planned to rent a car and just spend roughly 5 hours scoping out Oahu and Honolulu. My flight landed around noon, thus I booked my flight out at 8pm on the first. Not too long after booking my flight to Kauai I realized my mistake. Hawaii is 19 hours behind Japan, being east of the international date line (Japan has the earliest sun of Asia, Hawaii among the latest in the world). So the net time of my 7 hour flight was negative 12 hours if going solely by the clock. I landed in Honolulu before noon on the 31st, so I had one and a half days here. Not a bad mistake to make whilst time traveling. I had been losing a few hours here and there as I widdershinned, so it was nice to regain it all back and then some with some good old fashioned going back in time.
I began my time in Hawaii with lunch on Waikiki Beach in downtown Honolulu.
I was now near the end of my trip, and in paradise, so I was willing to splurge here and there. One way was a pretty reasonably priced upgrade to the Camaro for my rental car.
This couple wouldn’t get out of my shot 
My first destination/excursion on Oahu was the Makapu’u Light House, access by about a 90-minute hike on the far east corner of the island.
lotsa birds I didn’t recognize 
No public access to the still functioning lighthouse 
lava rocks
I had made a list of good affordable places to eat on both islands, so I headed up Oahu’s west coast to get dinner at a place known for it’s poi and the meal was terrible. Oh well. Back to Honolulu to my hostel. On the way I wasn’t able to see the sunset directly but I got some nice views.
I made some friends at the hostel, Val, an Italian, and Max, Leon, and Lena, and we made plans to to head to a botanical garden the following day. We all piled into my Camaro and headed to Ho’omaluhia. It was a nice stroll along a path past well labeled flora to a manmade lake with a ridiculous number of fish accustomed to being fed.
one fish two fish 
three fish four fish 
five six seven eight nine ten fish 
After lunch we went to Kailua Beach despite the wind and rain. We didn’t last long, winding up at a smoothie bar before heading back to the hostel and saying our goodbyes.
Rainy Kailua Beach 
My final farewell to the island included the rain clearing up, and yet another rainbow in the Pacific (a good run of the Philippines, Japan, and now Hawaii).
Goodbye Waikiki Beach 
Now onto the Garden Island of Kauai. I stayed at a hostel here too – in part because the social environment is nice but predominantly because everything on this island was so darn expensive. I briefly considered camping, but this late point in my journey and required permits made it seemed like more work than it was worth. I wound up really liking Honuea Hostel here. And Kauai in general. Much quieter and small town feeling than Oahu, this place exuded the ‘island life’ vibe I came here seeking. It was relaxed, most travelers were more interested in spending each day hiking or surfing rather than partying or anything else. This type of person lent itself to the hostel having a good community vibe.
This “gentleman’s” supermarket attire reinforced the ‘hang loose’ vibes on the island (he wasn’t the only topless one)
I arrived late on February first, and the second was the Superbowl. I watched it as part of a quiet day where I got oriented with my local eastern part of the island. This of course included the best nearby spot to watch the sunset.
rocky 
drift woody 
sunny 
wavy 
crabby 
sunsetty 
pretty 
palmy
Geographically, Kauai’s development is in small clusters along the coast, while the center of the island is canyons and mountains and rivers and waterfalls. I wound up driving the entire coast over the course of my time here. My first excursion was to hike the Awa Awapuhi trail, on the west coast (accessed via the south). I didn’t plan to get too early a start, but one (or more) of the few thousand roosters on the island woke me up around 5am, and I was alert enough that I decided to get an early start. On the way to the hike I stopped at a few viewpoints.
I had heard rave reviews about the hike so I was surprised after a while that it seemed to all be through a dense non-exotic forest. It reminded me of a fairly leisurely hike in New York. The plants weren’t foreign and it slowly sloped downhill.
Chickens were everywhere. This rooster wouldn’t move off the trail.
When I finally got to the end of the hike I understood. This one was all about the payoff, which was superb. It ended in what I would describe as a green bowl, where the steep mountainsides had plant-covered ridges and wrinkles that precipitously dropped into the sea. At that time there were clouds on the horizon, positioned in such a way that you almost couldn’t tell where the sea ended at the sky began. I spent a good chunk of time here soaking it all in. Photos could not do this place justice, but I tried.
All in all the Awa awa hike took about 3 hours, and after an early start, I was up for one more. To the Canyon Trail I went, getting a more immersive view of the same feature I had seen from the roadside viewpoints. It was stunning. On the way I met Chris and Eric from Brooklyn and we chatted during the hike.
The Canyon Trail ended at the top of Waipo-o Falls. Not the best way to view (or photograph) a waterfall, but a great hike and vista nonetheless.
From here I grabbed lunch and then went to Glass Beach, known for the sea glass that washes up there. Something much bigger and more interested had washed up on the beach that afternoon.
I may or may not have rented a silver camaro convertible on both Hawaiian islands 
Then to Kauai Coffee. This wasn’t a predetermined stop on my itinerary, but I found myself driving by and I therefore couldn’t pass up an impromptu visit. Following this was a quiet evening. Driving around this southwestern part of the island was stunning.
The next day I again got up before sunrise and went on a hike, this time to Hanakape Falls. Today I sought the trail early because I needed a permit to park. I had on good authority that the guard shows up at 6:30am, so I arrived at 6:20. The sunrise wasn’t until 7:13, so I put on Ziggy Stardust and waited until it was light enough to hike. The trail was pretty, beginning with an overlook and then zigzagging across a stream (river?) 6 times over a couple of miles.
rooster on the trail, what a shock 
The plants and vistas along the way were great. Though this was some of the longest 4 miles of my whole trip. My pace was less than 2 miles per hour as I wound my way through the jungley, muddy, wet, steep, and rocky environment, intermittently enjoying the far reaching views.
why didn’t the chicken cross the stream? 
because it was chicken! 
Eventually I arrived at the main event, the 300 foot tall Hanakapi Falls. It was stupendous. I was the first one there that day, so on my way out I was often asked if it was worth it or other questions about the remainder of the hike. It was without a doubt worth it, I said.
On the way out of Hanakapi I enjoyed it all some more.
From Hanakapi I headed to Hana Lei Bay. Here I got food and wound up inadvertently napping on the beach once I sat down to enjoy the sand and sounds of the ocean.
From Hana Lei I went to drive back to the hostel, but the traffic was awful. I figured there was no reason to sit in my car for an extra 30-60 minutes when that time would be better spent sitting on the beach. Sunset wasn’t too far off, so I went back northwest (the hostel was southeast) to do a little beach hop and watch the sun descend. First was Ha’ena Beach, where the rocks near to shore made for some extremely calm water with beautiful reflections.
A (small) wedding! 
Then I drove back toward the trailhead of Hanakapi to Ke’e Beach, which has the westernmost exposure. I was again able to park here without a permit because the guard had left at 5:30, it was now after 6.
My last full day had rain in the forecast so I nixed hiking and decided to go waterfall hopping. Two falls were relatively short drives from the hostel, so I went along with Nikita, a native Chicagoan living in Alaska.
Back at the hostel a couple of guests, a father and daughter form Alberta, had arranged a potluck. I made guacamole. Later a handful of us went to the local bar for an open mic light that was surprisingly quite good.
My final day here leading up to my redeye, I checked out, and headed up the river. I went kayaking with Michael, who had just arrive dthat morning from Toronto, Sasha, a Russian who just got her PhD in Oregon, and Justine from Austria. We paddled up to a spot where we dragged our kayaks ashore to then hike to the secret falls. We were told we’d have to cross a river about knee deep. Due to all the rain, it was instead waist deep, and we decided not to cross. Still a great way to spend a good chunk of my last day.
That evening I checked out another couple of beaches before grabbing dinner and saying my emotional farewell to Kauai and Hawaii and non-mainland USA.
And there you have it. I found Hawaii to be quite nice. While most of the tourists seemed to be American, most of the hostel guests were foreign. The locals were mostly nice, while some were trashy. The typical pattern seemed to be that natives were pleasant and transplants varied from good people to bums. Before I got there as I saw the prices of things I became concerned that it might just feel to me like a much more expensive Philippines, but it was different. Flora and fauna were different, but so were the landscapes, food, people, vibe, etc. Hawaii is an amazingly unique place with it’s tradition that’s been merged with American culture, and jaw dropping volcanically formed islands. Definitely a worthy destination, which just so happened to be perfectly positioned to break up my trip from Japan to the US into a couple of digestable Pacific flights. I can’t promise I’ll return, but would like to.
Widdershinning Weiss 