Kauai by air, land and sea.

Aloha, again! Here's the rest of the recap of our adventures on Kauai. At every turn, there was something to see, experience and enjoy. I personally felt we had a good combination of being busy and simply relaxing.

Kauai by air.

One thing we heard was a "must do" when visiting Hawaii was a helicopter tour. Supposedly, the most scenic helicopter tours are found on Kauai. We didn't really give it a second thought and pre-booked our tour with our travel agent.

Neither of us had ever been on a helicopter, so we didn't know what to expect. It was quite a rush! It moved swiftly and quickly through the air. It felt a little like we were floating on air. The tour we took (Sunshine Helicopters) basically circled around the entire island. I tried to enjoy the time in the air so I didn't take a ton of photos. Plus, taking photos through a moving helicopter's glass windows doesn't really paint a great picture of what we were seeing firsthand.

The best thing about seeing the island by air is seeing areas of the island that are otherwise unseen. One of these areas is at the center of the island, known as the wettest place in the world – Mount Waialeale. This area averages 450+ inches of rainfall a year. At the foot of this mountain is the Alakai Wilderness Preserve, rich with vegetation and unique plant life. A highlight was seeing Manawaiopuna Falls, known as the "Jurassic Falls" since being featured in the opening scene of the Jurassic Park film. We also saw Kahili Falls, a series of waterfalls.

We flew over the NaPali coastline, which can only be seen by foot, air or sea. This coastline is distinct due to its jagged edges. While flying over the ocean in this area, we saw a whale in the water. Pretty damn neat!

We also flew over the Waimea Canyon. Coined by Mark Twain as "the Grand Canyon of the Pacific",  this canyon is 16 miles long, 1-2 miles wide and 3,6000 feet deep. Stay tuned ... we'd get better views of this next!

Kauai by land.

Kauai is also known for its hiking. When we were traveling to the airport in Honolulu, the driver asked where we were going. Upon hearing Kauai, he said "so you're going to do some hiking, huh?!" And hiking we did!

The first area we ventured to was the west side of the island where the Waimea Caynon is located. This area is vastly different than the rest of the island ... it is drier with yellow-toned grass and red soil. We drove along Waimea Canyon Drive toward the canyon. The road winds into the mountains and ends in the cool forests of Kokee State Park. Along the way, we pulled over at different look-outs to get a better look and take photos.

Once we reached the park, we traveled to Kalalau Lookout and Puu o Kila Lookout … which provided views of the NaPali coastline and Kalalau Valley on one side and the vegetation of Alakai Swamp on the other. These look-outs stand about 4,000 feet above sea level.

After taking in the views from the look-outs, we started on our first hike of the trip. The hike was named "Canyon Trail" (for obvious reasons). The trail was mostly dirt with lots of tree roots and occasional areas of rock. Although there were hills in some areas and loose soil in others, the hike, overall, was fairly moderate in difficulty. It was about 4 miles round trip.

About halfway through the hike, we reached the canyon. At this point, we were literally on the rim of it. Neither of us got terribly close to the edge! Seeing a helicopter fly through the canyon put into perspective how small we are and how large the canyon is! Take a look at that tree, hanging on for dear life!

The hike continued toward the waterfall. We reached a small waterfall pool along the way before reaching the top of Waipoo Falls. A waterfall isn’t necessarily as scenic from this viewpoint, but it was very cool, nonetheless.

On our way out of the canyon, we stopped at what ended up being the best look-out, which gave us a marvelous view of where we had just hiked.

Our next hiking adventure was on the north side, along the NaPali shoreline. We started our hike, again, where the road ends (makes finding the trailhead easy!).

We began on the Kalalau Trail, which, in total, is an 11-mile (one-way) trail. The trail was slightly more difficult than the Canyon Trail with lots of uphill climbing. Along the way, we stopped to take in views of the ocean, trying our hardest to get a good glimpse of a whale. We saw the movement of one but no tail or leaps. The waves of the ocean were large and powerful. The sound of them hitting the shore in some areas sounded like thunder. It was definitely strange!

After two miles, we reached the Hanakapiai Beach. This is a very rocky and dangerous beach. We only really viewed it from afar as we had more hiking to do. We would leave the Kalalau Trail at this point and venture inland toward the waterfall, Hanakapiai Falls.

This trail wasn't much of a trail, but rather an unmarked narrow path along muddy, slippery terrain. We passed tall bamboo, crossed multiple streams, climbed up rocks and trekked through lots of brown mud! Our Keens were a great footwear decision – yet – we still found ourselves slipping and sliding around from time to time! Every step was calculated ... almost a mental puzzle of which way is best. Foot goes here, hand goes here.

The reward at the halfway mark of the hike was the 400-foot Hanakapiai Falls. Simply breathtaking! It was amazing to be at the bottom of a waterfall. There were some people that jumped into the pool there, but I've heard it is extremely cold! Just as we were arriving at the fall, it started to rain on us. Of course ... as we reach the highlight of the hike! It wasn't a heavy rain, and at first we thought it was the mist from the waterfall. It did rush our photo taking a bit, however. It kept up like this for awhile on our hike back but eventually gave way.

The hike back was far more difficult than the hike in, particularly the Kalalau Trail. Those hills felt a lot steeper with heavy, tired feet! We made good time, however, completing the 8-mile hike in about 5 hours. This hike was memorable but not for the faint of heart!

As described above, we’ve seen our share of the waterfalls Kauai has to offer. Beyond the Waipoo, Hanakapiai, Kahili and Manawaiapuna Falls, we also saw two other waterfalls from the roadside – Opaekaa Falls and Wailua Falls. Both of these are located on Kauai’s east side.

Some other land beauty we saw was the 30-acre botanical gardens of Smith's Tropical Paradise Garden Luau. Upon entering the premises, we were given a tour of the garden. There were many different types of plants here. The luau was kicked off with an Imu Ceremony, which is the unearthing of the traditional pig, cooked in an underground oven. This was followed by a buffet dinner and capped off with dance performances. I'm still trying to figure out how those hula girls are able to move their hips that way...

Kauai by sea.

As most tropical places, the views of the ocean were like something out of a travel magazine. The prettiest blues, the rhythmic moves of the waves, the soft, heavy sand. Pictures don't really display the true colors and movement we saw firsthand. This was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean.

The beach near our condo was the Poipu Beach. It was a gorgeous beach with plenty of sunshine throughout the entire day. Since we were on the south side, the waves were gentler. The north shore waves were bigger and more dangerous. Swimming in these waters was not advised. While we were there, a poor 28-year-old man from Chicago got swept off to sea while taking photos on a rocky area of the north shore. How horrible.

We spent the afternoon of our first day on the island sitting in lounge chairs on the beach, listening to music and watching some surfers try to catch a wave. There’s something so soothing about listening to the steady sounds of the incoming waves. Since the beach was so close to our condo, whenever I had a little "down time", I'd go down there to relax.

Poipu Beach wasn't the only beach we explored. One day while driving around, we decided to "off road" it to another beach east of our resort. The road was extremely rough and bumpy .. but that was half the fun! The beach that we arrived at was fairly secluded and definitely scenic. The beach's name is Shipwrecks Beach. We hadn't planned on traveling to a beach while on our drive so we didn't have our suits. We walked around and took some photos.

One of the must-do's on my "activity list" for the trip was snorkeling. The nice, yet intimidating, part about snorkeling in Kauai is that most of it is self-guided. No need for a boat ... just you and your rented snorkel gear. The gear was around $50 for the time we were there. Pretty cheap entertainment! And entertainment it was! After getting settled into my breathing (I panic a bit at first when it comes to snorkeling!), I saw a world of beautiful and unique fish. There were so many colorful ones ... in all shape and sizes! We'd swim a little, and then Ryan would point out a neat fish, and then I'd do the same a bit later. The coral wasn't anything special, but it didn't matter with the marine life we were seeing. I think we saw just about every fish on the handout we received from the snorkel rental place.

While driving to our north shore hike, we stopped along a steep cliff look-out. Ryan decided we should travel down it to the shore. The shoreline was lined with large, dark boulders. The waves rushed upon these rocks, creating an effect that looked like white foam. It was a really cool sight. The climb up the loose soil of the cliff back to the vehicle was a bit of a challenge!

We stopped by the Spouting Horn, which was not far from our resort. The Spouting Horn is blowhole spout. This water spout occurs when the waves channel into a natural lava tube and up through an opening in the rocky coast. The Spouting Horn makes a bit of a hissing sound as the water shoots upward. Depending on the tide and size of the swells, the water may spout as high as 50 feet into the air. I’d say it was around 15-20 feet when were there.

We ventured to the Kilauea Lighthouse, located on the north side of the island. Unfortunately, the lighthouse area was under construction during our stay. Visitors typically can go to the area where the lighthouse is located and get great views of the ocean and whale watch. Big bummer! Even from a distance, the lighthouse and crashing waves made for a pretty view.

There were plenty of beaches we didn't get to see; however, there's only so much you can truly see in such a short time. We could view many of them on our drives along the island's highway or while dining out at beach-side restaurants. We watched paddle boarders (many, to our amusement, lost their balance!) while eating lunch at Kalapaki Beach.

I do wish we could have done a boat tour, however, with the rough waters, I was afraid of getting sea-sick. Some of the tours offered snorkeling, whale-watching and sunset tours. If we had stayed one additional day, I might have considered chancing it.

I did a TON of reading, planning and preparing for this trip. With all this research, I had some thoughts of what to expect, yet, felt, at the same time, I didn't really have an idea of what Kauai would be like. I feel like I ended up feeling somewhere in between. I was a resource for us as I knew a lot about the places we were going. Yet, experiencing the places and reading about them are two very different things. Everything ended up being better than what I had imagined.

The build-up, anticipation and worry about whether I picked the right island all went away once we were there. Kauai was the right island for us. The weather was perfect. Our condo was fabulous. There was so much to do. It was worth every article read and every penny spent. Kauai was the Hawaiian vacation we were searching for and it truly was paradise!