#10-27 Visiting the Islands

Maui

7-18-20

Maui Plantation

Beautiful landscaping. A tropical paradise—and a perfect setting for a wedding (which was going on as we took the tour)

A very unusual flower!

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Flowers, Banana trees, Coffee bean bushes and Sugar Cane fields were all viewed from a tram with a really cute young girl driving it. She even showed us how to husk a coconut.

It was a weekend and we even got to go to the swap meet!

A real Woody was parked inside the gift shop. Very Cool

We waited by the bus under this beautiful flowering tree. On to our next stop which is Iao Valley.

Iao Valley is a box canyon. During the tribal wars one battle was fought in this valley. Because there is only one way in/out the men who were boxed in fought until their death. The story goes that there were so many bodies at the mouth of the canyon they formed a dam that stopped the flow of water in the river.

Charlie and I hiked up to the lookout and took pictures of the Iao Needle. Frank stayed below, he said he didn’t need to get any closer. I needed the exercise. We spent quite a while on the tour bus getting here. It was quite a hike. The picture below was taken about half way up to the lookout point.

Above is the river that flows through the valley, and below is a recreation of a village house that represents the kind of living that would have occurred during the habitation of the valley. This was a really interesting tour.

Kona, Hawaii (The Big Island)

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Kona was the only port we entered where we had to use shuttle boats to get into the dock. The orange covered boat is actually one of the lifeboats off the ship. The ship is in the second picture. And you can see we had kinda cloudy weather. It almost was trying to rain!

Our tour today was to a cove to go snorkeling. By the time we arrived at the cove the weather cleared and we snorkeled with about 100 other people. I was sure we were going to get hit with a flipper! Charlie and I snorkeled, and Frank stayed on the boat. He just didn’t feel comfortable enough in the water. His control of the right leg is still not 100%.

On our way back to Kona (about a 30 minute ride from the cove) we stopped at a lava cave. I hope you can see the beautiful color of the water. It is a protected area and it was just beautiful. Our boat captain took us all the way into the cave, and showed us the rock crabs that cling to the rocks.

Then we proceeded to another cove where the dolphins feed and play. Below is a video of one baby dolphin that was really having a great time jumping out of the water. There must have been 20 or 30 dolphins swimming in this cove. It was an awesome sight!

In the background is the baby dolphin jumping and in the forground you can see the fins of the adults swimming

On our way back we were lucky enough to watch the landing of a big tuna. Hopefully you can see it laying across the middle of the boat. It must have been at least 150 lbs. Lucky fisherman!

Kauai

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Our tour on the Island of Kauai was seven hours long. We really saw and did a lot!

Here we are at the “Grand Canyon” of the Hawaiian Islands. Thirty years ago when we were here with my Mom and Dad, it was all fogged in and we couldn’t see it at all. The view from the view point was staggering and very colorful. Kauai gets the most rain of all the islands. Somewhere between 300 and 400 inches a year in some places. No wonder it is the “garden isle.”

The Grand Canyon of the Hawaiian Islands. Beautiful!

Legend of Spouting Horn Video. One stop on our way back from the Canyon.

The Spouting Horn in action in video above.

Wailua River and Fern Grotto on Kauai Island

Just before we stopped to have lunch, our driver let us walk to the lookout point to view the falls and the river below. It was beautiful.

After lunch we drove to the Wailua River and caught our boat for the trip up the river to the fern grotto.

On board the boat we were entertained by singers and dancers. It made the trip go by fast. This is a river that is well used by the public. We say dozens of kayakers.

The fern grotto and park were almost destroyed by a hurricane in the 90’s and closed for an entire year while the parks department worked on it. It is now owned and maintained as a state park.

When last I visited the grotto, you could actually walk up under the hanging ferns. Now the ceiling is unstable and there have been rocks the size of a small car that have fallen off. So it is unsafe to walk under.

The hanging ferns under the rocks inside the grotto. A small waterfall soaks them all the time.

The State park built this viewing platform and now the weddings and visitors to the grotto can only get this close to the cave that the ferns are growing out of. It is still a beautiful sight. The Hawaiian wedding song is sung and danced to for every tour. It was beautiful. A great ending for our longest (7 hours) island tour.

The picture below was taken by our tour guide and the fern grotto is in the background.

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Above the flowers in the park were beautiful .

The back side of Kauai. Steep cliffs and small valleys where at one tine villages were established. Only accessible by small boats. These pictures were taken from our ship as it passed by the island.