I woke up kind of cranky on the last day. I hated the Kauai Beach House and I didn't want to stay there another night. I barely slept the night before and we had to get up early to meet the helicopter. I knew if we stayed at KBH one more night it would make it very easy to leave Kauai and I didn't really want be that eager to go home. Still, I was kind of sick of changing plans and hotels every day, not to mention spending so much money.
We got to the helicopter with plenty of time to spare. In spite of Lihue airport being so small, it wasn't that easy to find the helipad. We kept following a tiny sign that appeared to be pointing to the right, when the helipad is on the left. We used Island Helicopters. They were very nice, though not every seat is a window seat, and it's rather cramped inside. The helicopter had leather seats that were very comfortable, and they give you headphones to wear and a microphone so you can talk to the pilot or each other if you want to. The helicopter seats 3 people in the front, including the pilot, and 4 in back.
They flew us around the island for about 45 minutes to an hour. It made it so much more obvious that the vast majority of Kauai is undeveloped. There are only the few towns around the perimeter and the whole rest of the island is greenery. It was amazing. I took a bunch of pictures, but of course it's hard to really capture the hugeness of it, and the color is a bit washed out being behind helicopter glass.
When we flew over the ocean, some people said they could see a whale, but I missed it.
After the ride we went to have breakfast and met a very funny Japanese man who was running the restaurant and complaining about the taxes. He asked me to marry him.
During breakfast I looked in our guidebook for a new hotel. We had seen a Best Western down the road and finally decided to stop at that one later on. We wanted to get some kayaking done first, and the island was advertising a fern grotto that you could get to by boat, and we wanted to see that too. We went back to our horrible room and changed into swimsuits. The manager/owner/whatever was working on the house outside our room and blasting Pink Floyd while he did it. Like I said, KBH is not the most comfortable place to stay. I packed while I was changing.
We went to take a fern grotto tour and that's when we found out the fern grotto is closed. It was damaged 10 months ago during a storm and they don't allow tourists to go in there now. You can take a boat ride up and down the river, though, but we decided we'd rather kayak it.
Mike went to the kayak ramp to talk to one of the staff members. They were talking for so long I finally walked over to see what was going on. This guy was so funny. He was exactly like Mike. If we lived on Kauai that guy would be Mike's best friend. Anyway, he had lived on the island for only one year, and lots of dirt to spill. Like, how HI just implemented a car seat law for the first time ever. Or how the age of consent was just raised to 16. From 14. And other stuff about how the primitive folk live. It was fascinating. I had been bugging Mike about moving to HI when he's an R.N., but now I would not want to do that. Unless maybe it was Maui. Ok not really.
We found a place that would rent us a kayak and let us go out by ourselves. We went up and down the Wailua River. It was very peaceful. The water is very calm so it's easy to paddle. But sometimes I rested and Mike did all the paddling. He's also very good at steering which I can't do. We paddled past a cow pasture. The cows and the roosters were calling to each other. Very bizarre, and certainly not sounds I'd expect to hear on Kauai. Blogger stopped doing audioblog, which is too bad because it's something I would have recorded if I could. Anyway, we had a nice day on the river.
After we brought the kayak back, we stopped at the Best Western Plantation Hale, and they had a place at a very reasonable rate. This is another apartment-style hotel, and again, it was fantastic. So clean and comfortable. Everyone was very friendly. The concierge told us she'd lived in Hawaii all of her life. I asked Mike if he wanted me to go with him to the hostel to get our bags, and he said no. So while he went to get the bags, I walked over to the shopping center which is right next to the hotel. It's called Coconut Grove and it has very good shopping. Lots of unique aloha wear and jewelry and souvenirs. Really unique, not the typical touristy aloha wear or the same old Maui Divers jewelry. Maui Divers is the chain that is like the Starbucks of jewelry, it's on every corner everywhere you look in HI. Also, no pressure sales. It was like shopping in Montrose. Each shop owner was on the phone or in the back room and completely ignored me. Somewhat annoying but also a relief at the same time.
I got back to the hotel at the same time as Mike. He told me that changing hotels was the best decision to make. Apparently when he got back to our room, our previously locked room was wide open. The handyman was outside and Mike asked him what the heck was going on...Handyman said not to worry, no one would go in there...Mike asked him if he was aware that homeless folk spend the night at the hostel and he said yes...I'm just wondering what if I had wanted to go back and take a nap?
I highly recommend Best Western Plantation Hale. It was wonderful and very relaxing for our last night in Hawaii.
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