Our big excursion of the day was the rescheduled air tour of the island with Wings Over Kauai in the afternoon. Thankfully, the weather was good enough this day to go up and it was an amazing way to see the island. More on that to come though since the flight was later in our day.
We enjoyed another lazy morning and breakfast on the lanai before setting out on another snorkeling adventure. This time we went to Lydgate Beach. Thanks to the rock barrier surrounding the swimming areas, this was a much easier place to swim and explore than Aninin Beach, despite the large waves nearby.
Though there wasn’t really a reef here, there was an abundance of fish that loved the frozen peas Kim brought. (I read about it in a novel (Christy Miller series) and it was a thought tucked away and I figured I would try it out when we stopped by Walmart and grabbed a bag of peas. We had no idea how much the fish would love the peas but there were so many and it was fun to see them swirl around me!! Especially the bigger blue/yellow tropical fish. And when I got out of the water and came back, they were back waiting on food. I’m not sure it was a good idea after reading reviews of not feeding the fish when we were home – but…it was a little late by then) Check out some of our underwater GoPro footage below.
After an hour or so in the water, we ate our packed PB&J lunch and enjoyed the beach a little longer before cleaning up and heading closer to the airport area. We stopped by Nawiliwili Park to watch the surfers at Kalapaki Beach. It was a crowded area and close enough to the water to see waves crashing over a nearby wall. Below is a short video of one surfer catching a wave.
After calling to confirm the flight was still on it was finally time to head over to the airport for our air tour. We looked at a lot of possible options for air tours, including various helicopter tours that went to iconic spots like the waterfall from Jurassic Park. Ultimately, we decided the small plane tour with Wings Over Kauai was our best choice to see most of the island at an affordable price.
Our pilot was a young man named Kamaka who grew up on the island and knew a lot of local history. We were also joined by an older couple from Minnesota who had done the tour before. Despite the expected moments of a small plane bouncing around in some of the wind and turbulence (and Kim feeling fairly air-sick/nauseous), it was a nice flight and we saw many of our favorite spots again from a new perspective. Though the plan was to do this early in our week, locations we saw were probably more recognizable and meaningful to see closer to the end of our trip.
The flight path started us on the southeastern side of the island, beginning at the Ninini Point Lighthouse we visited on Monday and past the Kalapaki Beach area where we had just been watching surfers about an hour earlier. We followed the scenic coast along some areas that are mostly privately owned land with beaches only accessible by boat.
Before long we passed by more familiar areas like Brennecke’s Beach and Poipu Beach, where we had seen Monk Seals and Sea Turtles on the shore on Saturday afternoon. We also had an overhead view of the yet unvisited Spouting Horn area, which we planned to maybe see on Friday before we leave the island. A little beyond that area, the plane began turning inland around the town of Hanapepe so we could fly through much of Waimea Canyon, which we had visited from the ground on Saturday.
The central part of the island still had a lot of cloud cover making it impossible to see some of the mountain peaks there. The pilot also explained it wasn’t safe for him to fly too low or too close to some areas of the canyon where more turbulence would be likely, but it was still an incredible view of a beautiful place. Though the much of the area seemed uninhabited, from the air we could see there were a few remote houses or cabins that looked like amazing secluded places to be. On the western side we could also see several satellite dishes and what looked like radar towers or telescopes. Apparently, NASA has a research center here called the Kōkeʻe Park Geophysical Observatory (KPGO) that was established in the 1960s as a tracking station for manned space flight.
Eventually, we came through the canyon out to the beautiful western coast of Kauai. Known as the “Na Pali” (i.e. – “many hills or cliffs”) and described as a place of “awe-inspiring natural beauty”, this area definitely lives up to its reputation and is impossible to fully capture with a camera. That didn’t stop us from trying though and the pictures and videos we got from this part of the tour (and our entire trip) will mostly serve to remind us of the in person experience. (Kim mostly took pictures – these are all unfiltered or adjusted.) Many of the most rugged “peaks” were called cathedrals and seeing them from the air puts into perspective how vast and remote the area was!!!
Though the weather of the day (and the week) would not have been described as “perfect”, the clouds only added to the beauty and the rain probably further enhanced many of the waterfalls. We were even treated to a full circle rainbow! Not much else to say about the Na Pali coast rather than let the video speak for itself.
The beautiful Na Pali Coast and it’s rugged coastline…can you see why there isn’t a road connecting the north shore to the western side?
This next picture shows the beach where we started our hike from Tuesday, Ha’ena State Park, and the incredibly steep hike. It was memorable and one of our highlights from the week.
Officially, the hike is “only” 11 miles from the beach above to the west side where the canyon is located.
Coming off the west coast and moving more towards the north shore, we came past Ke’e Beach and the Ha’ena State Park that we had visited on Tuesday. The tour continued past Tunnels Beach and Hanalei Bay over Princeville, where we attempted to spot our resort (next picture). Around this area the pilot again left the coast and turned inland for some better views of the valley and mountains. He shared that this area was where some iconic scenes from the first Jurassic Park movie was filmed, including the gate entrance and the field where the T-Rex attacks the flock of smaller dinosaurs
As our flight approached the east coast of the island and its conclusion we were treated to a great view of Wailua Falls which was near where our pilot grew up. Then passed over the area north of Lihue before landing at the airport. Overall, the air tour was definitely a fun experience and great way to mostly conclude a fun week.
After we landed, we ended up buying a couple of photos from a local photographer who had setup a small booth on the desk of the air tour company. Then we drove back up to meet up with our friends for a final dinner before they left for their flight home later that evening. Haley and Kelly Wherry were great people to spend the week with and we’re thankful not only for their generosity in inviting us to join them for the week, but also all the fun memories we made together.
