Noordam approaching Nawiliwili

The only last-minute tour offered at our port stop in Nawiliwili was a 3-hour tour on the bus that said hop on hop off, but really wasn’t. It ran shuttles to a mall for the first couple hours in port, then the tour which was just the one bus with the same people getting off and back on at each stop rather than an actual hop on hop off bus that would drop people at stops and come by later to pick them up – which usually involves more than one bus on the route. The tour sold out before the last group came to the mall so we were lucky to have come on an earlier shuttle while there was still space available even if it did mean hanging out in the mall a bit before the tour. We had more than enough time to get a bit of shopping done.

bus at a tour stop and lots of feral chickens

Everyone showed up for the noon tour with time to spare, along with one confused couple expecting a shuttle ride back to the port even though the driver had made it quite clear when he dropped people off at the mall that the last shuttle back would be at 11:30 and after that people were on their own. He took them somewhere in the mall, I assume to find help for them arrange for an uber or taxi or something to take them back to the port.

hala tree

Though the driver was originally from the east coast of mainland USA, he had been living in Kauai for some time and was quite knowledgeable with plenty of information and interesting tales between stops. Along the way he pointed out extra things to see as we drove by like the shell of a hotel where an Elvis Presley movie was filmed. At the time the movie was filmed it was a nice hotel, but between then and now a hurricane pretty much destroyed it.

Opaeka’a Falls

Our first stop was at Opaeka’a Falls. A pathway led to an overlook of three side-by-side waterfalls. One of the trees alongside the path had fruit that looked something like pineapples, but they’re really not. Pineapples don’t grow on trees. They grow individually under the ground, one per plant. The tree was a hala tree, a native Hawaiian species. The fruit is edible, but is said to taste like a combination of sugar cane and mango rather than anything resembling pineapple, and also looks nothing like a pineapple on the inside.

Wailua River

The other side of the road had an overlook to Wailua River, the largest river in Hawaii. A scene from an Indiana Jones movie was filmed there. A scene from Jurassic Park was also filmed somewhere along that river, though not at the place seen from that overlook.

Spouting Horn

Next we stopped at a place called Spouting Horn, one of the few places without a Hawaiian name. A rocky shoreline with a series of blowholes, of which the two main ones at Spouting Horn were the largest. The smaller hole had the biggest splashes, each proceeded by a loud noise which seemed to come from the larger hole, though I could be wrong about that. The guide said that originally the larger hole produced by far the biggest spout, but at some point in the past a local farmer dynamited the hole because it kept spraying saltwater in his field and ruining his crops. So that was either an extremely large spout or his farm was way too close to the edge of the sea. Or both.

flower on a tree

Along the way we passed by many large banyan and monkeypod trees as well as flowering trees like plumeria and lots of fruit trees including banana and papaya. Kauai is called the garden island because of the abundant rain and excellent growing conditions. It’s the oldest of the Hawaiian islands. Though it was volcanically created its volcano has long since gone extinct as the earth’s plates shift.

monk seal

The last stop brought us to Poipu Beach which is not just a popular spot for humans. Monk seals and green sea turtles like to rest and relax there as well – even with a crowd of people there. One end of the beach had a snoozing monk seal, surrounded by caution tape that people weren’t allowed to cross and a sign saying it was a 2-year-old male who had been lying there since early morning. The guide said they sleep there while digesting a recent meal. It was quite sound asleep, never moving or even batting an eye.

green sea turtles

On the other end of the beach a ring of cones surrounded two large green sea turtles, one all the way up on the beach and the other far enough down that incoming waves would partly cover it until they receded back from shore. The turtles were more alert than the seal, with open eyes and a bit of movement. Both those animals are on the endangered species list.

feral rooster

Far from endangered, feral chickens were everywhere, often in quite large numbers. They’re descendants of chickens that escaped their coops during hurricanes, mainly Iniki in 1992. A lot of the islands we visited on our Noordam cruise had feral chickens.

hen and chicks by Poipu Beach

Some of the roosters are quite colorful. Mostly we saw adult birds, but one hen by the beach had a family of half-grown chicks. Wild boars are also a human-introduced nuisance on the island, but we did not see any of those. We did see a phone booth by Poipu beach though, something not seen all that often anymore.

phone booths still exist

All of the homes near that beach are relatively new and very expensive. Since all the original buildings were completely destroyed in a hurricane you would think they would put in some sort of effort to replace them with hurricane proof construction, but they all just looked like ordinary houses.

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