Saying Aloha!

We spent Wednesday hangin' out at the condo to rest up for our last adventure we had planned for Thursday. Wednesday we spent in the surf, sand and grass. The surf has been HUGE, so bad for snorkeling, but great for body/boogie boarding, surfing, etc. We would just go out on the beach and body surf mostly...and let the waves just hammer us! It is a blast, and very tiring. We are going to need to rest up after this vacation. So with the beach and reading under the palms in the morning and afternoon, and our afternoon chill (lunch, nap, frisbee on the luscious lawn in the pic), our day was pretty much spent. We ended up eating at Keoki's Paradise again for our last nice, big, $$ dinner, then walked back to the condo and creamscicles for dessert. We hit the sack kind of early, since the wake up call (by me) was at 630am on Thursday and, as teenagers, B&M would sleep much longer than that if undisturbed!
Ever since we got a guide book for Hawaii, Maddie scoped out zip lining as one of the top things she wanted to do while here. Since we were running out of time, and there were some thing I wanted us to do as well. we decided on a tour with Outfitters Kauai that had a bit of everything...kayaking up a (calm) river, jungle hiking, wagon ride through a huge working ranch in the middle of an ancient volcano caldera, zip lining, swimming and rope swinging back at Kipu Falls, and a powered boat ride back to the start. It was an all day affair, with 20 people on the tour and 2 tour guides (Aram the Surfer Dude and Nate the Cable Guy...super nice guys). BTW, the pic to the left is the last you will see of this adventure (sadness). Maddie was snapping some pre-trip pics at the check-in shop, and the camera battery pack ran out of gas--arghh. No extra pack, no time to charge. Oh well, this was one for the memory banks...and we could all relax and soak it in since we didn't have to worry about snapping pics every couple of minutes. It's all good! SO if you want some pics, browse around their website: http://www.outfitterskauai.com/KipuFalls.html . Sorry!
The trip started with a van ride to the kayak launch point, then a 3 mile kayak up the Hule'ia River past the Menehune Fish Pond (long story by guide), past the rope swing where Indiana Jones escaped the dart-blowing Natives in Raiders of the Lost Ark (swinging into the river and swimming to the waiting sea plane...remember?) Cool. The kayaking was so much easier than the ocean kayaking I made the kids endure...the water was calm and there was no wind...so they were cruising!! We had some good splash-wars with the other kayakers, the mangrove and "tourist bushes" (another longish story), and it seemed this leg of the journey was over with all too soon.
After abandoning the kayaks, we hiked through...and I am not kidding...a tropical rain forest jungle. It had rained the previous night (almost all night), and as we hiked you wouldn't know if you were in the Amazon or Indonesia or Kauai. Dark, dense forest, water dripping from the leaves, birds of all kinds singing, squawking, sunlight trying to find its way through the canopy...pretty awesome. I had to stop behind the group and visit the Liki-liki bush (too much coffee/water), and while making my way back to the bunch I hear thing loud grunt in the bushes next to me. I was thinking...whoa...that's a wild pig. And as I stood there, it grunted again and O could hear it snorting, but still couldn't see it. Knowing they could be aggressive and could have 6 inch tusks...I didn't wait around much longer. Aram was bring up the rear, so I asked him about it, and he said...oh yeah, there were quite a few out there. Hog encounter...nice. He also told me that many of the hard core natives hunt the pigs with dogs & knives..that's it. The dogs chase down the pigs (and he said the things can be HUGE beasts), grab a hold of it anywhere it can, then the hunters try to jump on and slit the pigs throat! A high adventure, high adrenaline sport! Too me, that is much more sporting than a using a rifle at 1000 yards. Right on dudes!
After escaping the wild boar, we came out of the jungle to a tractor pulled wagon where the caldera, refreshments and Hawaiian cookies awaited. (Not roughing it too bad, eh?) We rode the wagon through the caldera and some magnificent scenery. You could see how huge this volcano must have been, and where the side blew off millions of years ago. I mean this was many, many, many miles across in both directions! The property we were on was a 7000 acre working cattle ranch right in the middle of it (Kipu Ranch) and it reminded be much of Valle Grande in northern New Mexico (however a bit more verde!) We shot the breeze with the guides as we rode along and soaked in the surroundings. Ahhhhhh.... Right before we turned of the path to the next leg of our adventure we saw some more (friendly, female) wild pigs in the road the cutest clan of little baby piglets. Maddie so wanted one! I have to admit, they were really cute. When we drove up, the babies scattered but the moms ( and some peacocks - equally impressive) came to munch on some feed the guides threw out to them. It was interesting to watch the dynamics between the pigs and the peacocks competing for the same food...animal kingdom WWF! "And in this corner....."

To Be Continued...
(still lunch, zip line, Kipu Falls, hike, boat ride to come)
gotta go eat breakfast, pack and check out of here (maybe one more dip in the surf!)...sadness :-(