Humahumanukanu-kaapuaa: Kauai Travel Diary
Aloha, welcome to my Kauai travel diary! So after traveling all around Europe, I seem to have been bit by the travel bug. Amanda asked if I would be down to go to Hawaii and I said HELL YA.
Traveling with Amanda and Erin is much different than traveling with my European friends. Everything I did abroad was pretty much last minute or like let’s go to this city andddd we will figure out the rest when we get there. Oh no. That’s not the way these two OCD girls roll. We had excel sheets and plans out the wahoo.
But in the words of Amanda, ” If you are going to do it you might as well do it right.” Also, If anyone wants the PDF version of these feel free to call Amanda for it. I’m just kidding I have the link here. Somehow the food excel sheet got deleted but I have where we ate written out HERE. Or you can google the places above lol. I’m so helpful. She even packed me some snacks for the plane ride. Basically all I did was show up. Alright, let’s get this Kauai travel diary started!
Kauai Travel Diary: Off to Kauai
After our 5 hour flight, we did what we do best… we went to Taco Bell… Once we checked into our hotel we were ready to PAAAAAAAARTAYYYYY.
But we were still on CA time so we went to bed at 8.
Day One: 4th of July
We woke up and had a nice 7am sunrise yoga session (a free hotel activity) out on the back lawn by the beach. Our yoga instructor/ part-time concierge was dressed in head to toe Lululemon and took his yoga very seriously. The picture below was taken right before he asked Erin if she was in a working pose or a resting pose. She was like BITCH I’M IN A VACATION POSE. He clearly wanted us to work hard. But we were more like we did this for the insta, sir. #yogaonthebeach #hawaiianwarriorpose #namaste
Exploring
After our yoga class, we explored the cute little town of Kapa’a down the street from our hotel. It had a bunch of cute shops and restaurants.
We spent the rest of the day chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool and getting drunk layin’ out by the pool.
Day 2: The Barf Boat
If you memorized the schedule posted above, you would know that on Tuesday we went on a 7-hour snorkeling tour. Now for those of you who have been on a snorkeling boat tour you are aware that it isn’t a yacht ride. Erin, however, did not. She expected a nice, relaxing yacht ride while drinking champagne in a big floppy hat.
After the 7 hour tour, Erin described it as more of 7 hours of Coast Guard training. The boat left from the southwest side of the Island at 7am and headed for the north Napali coast. During the ride to the coast, they served us breakfast. It was great. It was just hard to drink coffee out of a mug while traveling at 30 knots.
Napali Coast
It’s so prettaaaayyyyyyy
Snorkeling
After the cruise of the North coast, we boated over to the island of Niihau to snorkel. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of us snorkeling. The coolest thing we saw underwater was a seal! It was pretty rad. We also saw dolphins, turtles, a mermaid and lots of tropical fish.
Barf Boat
After lunch, we headed back towards the mainland and that’s when the captain announced that everyone should use the restroom and find a comfy seat because the ride back might be rough. And rough it was. I decided now would be a good time to feed the fishes. The AMAZING staff of this tour were at my side with barf buckets and ice chips. Getting seasick, while having sea mist blown at your face and flying off your seat as the captain went FLYING over waves, was not enjoyable at all. Erin and Amanda spent the ride back pep talking to themselves saying you’re ok, don’t get sick, you can do this, don’t vom. And luckily they didn’t. All in all, we liked the tour and the staff. However, we wish that the boat didn’t travel so fast causing half the boat to hurl. It really felt like coast guard training. Sorry if this is the most disgusting part of my Kauai Travel Diary.
Back at the Hotel
In the evening we enjoyed a nice hula show and free mai tais at our hotel.
Day 3: Beach of Death
On Wednesday we were all fired up and ready for a day of adventure.
We rented bikes and went biking through a jungle to a waterfall. The guy we rented bikes from warned us that it was going to be preeeettttyyyy muddy. And we were like shhh we’re adventurous, we can handle it.
Biking Through the Mud
This was my fav day of my Kauai Travel Diary!
And we took off! And then we stopped about 3 minutes later to take pictures.
Enjoy all these neat nature photos. Nature is Neat. NEATURE!
And then we parked our bikes and walked to the waterfall!
Waterfall Pit Stop
End of Biking Adventure
On the ride back Amanda and I were already pretty muddy so we just embraced it and went as fast as we could through all the puddles. While Erin, still all clean, biked everrrr sooooo carefully back. In the end, Amanda and I ended up looking like this…
I would like to take this moment to point out my shoes in the picture above. Amanda’s too. These are straight-up nerd shoes. BUT they were amazing. I highly recommend these shoes for Hawaii. They are perfect for the wet, muddy terrain. We both got ours from Amazon because that’s where they were the cheapest. I got the mint/grey ones because I wanted the #chic ones. But fun fact, once they are muddy you can’t tell the colors. Amanda got the ones with the velcro back instead of the slip-on. Velcro!! How nerdy. And Erin, being Erin, thought the Keen’s were too nerdy so she got just a cheap pair of waterproof shoes. Which by the way she had to throw away because they are ruined. Our keens, however, are still in tip-top shape.
Ok back to my story.
The bike shop owner told us that there was a secret beach down the street we could drive to and rinse off.
You think this is where our adventurous day ended??? WRONGOOOOOOO
Secret Beach aka Beach of Death
I don’t have many pictures of the last half of our day because I thought I was going to die. So I’ll just have to explain it.
This “secret beach” was all over the blogs, and it said, “The hike down is a little tough but the beach is worth it.” A LITTLE TOUGH??? It was a straight-up vertical slip and slide!! More like a SLIP AND DIE! We had to remove our beloved keen shoes (that were made for this type of terrain), so we could dig our toes into the muck to try to find any sort of grip. It was like walking on snot. For starters, I made the mistake of starting the death hike with a pineapple frosty in my hand. I immediately fell and slid a good 5 feet on my ass. I saved my frosty though so that was the good news. The bad news was that we were supposed to be hiking to this beach to RINSE OFF. I was now COVERED in even more mud.
After I fell, Erin was like AHHHH HELL NAHHH. She turned around and went back to the car. BYE!
Amanda and I continued down to the beach as we were slipping and sliding around grabbing onto whatever branches and shrubbery along the path that would aid us. We passed a couple of people going the other way telling us words of encouragement and giving us “it’s worth it” speeches. Like oookaaaayy.
AND THEN WE MADE IT!!!! ALIVE!!
Secret Beach
We pretty much had this entire secret beach to ourselves. Eventually Erin, feeling left out, made her way down too. And let me tell ya, she was deffffff not happy about the hike of death. I feel like Kim K. gifs best explain her opinion of the hike.
Dinner
After our crazy biking trip and hike of death we figured tonight was the night for some frickin hula pie and a few drinks.
Emphasis on the HULA pie.
Day 4: Embrace the Mud
The fun continues. On Thursday we signed up for a kayak/ hiking trip to a secret waterfall. As long as it wasn’t a secret beach… we were chillen. #toosoon. Our tour guide was pretty funny and entertaining. It was another muddy hike (sigh) to the waterfall but he taught us how to properly walk in the mud.
- Step in flat spots and holes
- Most flat spots are at the bottom of a puddle, so step in puddles
- Embrace the mud And guess what? We embraced it. AND NO ONE FELL!
Just like the day before, we tried to squeeze as many activities into one day as possible. After our kayak tour, we stopped for a quick shaved ice and headed up to Queen’s Bath.
I think Queen’s Bath was one of my favorite locations. The hike down was easypeasylemonsqueezy because by this point we were pros at hiking in the mud. We were like step aside you slow tourists. We know what we are doing. FLAT SPOTS AND HOLES BITCH!!
It was so refreshing and nice. I could have stayed there forever. But a crab pinched Erin’s behind and she freaked out so we left. It was hilarious.
Day 5: Hobo Shower
Our last day WAHHHHHHH. We wanted to have a nice, relaxing last day at the beach. I really wanted to snorkel. I had bought a snorkel from target and hauled it to Hawaii and gosh darn it, I wanted to use it!! But first, coffee. And what better place to get coffee than at the Kauai Coffee Plantation???
Coffee Plantation
The plantation was great. The free samples were greater.
Off to the beach!
Beach Day!
I was finally able to snorkel. It was pretty sweet. Once I got out of the water, I didn’t realize that it was super windy and Amanda and Erin were getting sandblasted up on the beach. It was painful instead of relaxing so we decided to relocate back to the hotel pool.
jk Pool Day!
Since we had a night flight we figured we could finish off the afternoon lounging by the pool with a few drinks. After our pool day, we had already checked out of our room that morning (we couldn’t do a late checkout) so we basically had to take a hobo shower using the outside pool showers. You know the ones you rinse off in? Ya, we pretty much shampooed and all outside in our bathing suits. We were smart and stole the mini toiletries from the hotel that morning in preparation for our hobo shower that afternoon. Hey, girls gotta do what a girls gotta do so we weren’t all sandy and gross on the plane. Sadly, we grabbed our last meal and headed to the airport. I wasn’t ready to leave! I had embraced my inner aloha.
End of Kauai Travel Diary: Back Home
We landed at LAX at 5 am tired and hangry. Ubered home went to bed and slept for the rest of the morning. All in all, we had a FABBBB time. We had great adventures, experiences, and food.
So in conclusion, these are my tips for anyone who wants to go to Hawaii: invest in Keens! The ugliest shoe in the world? YES ( sorry Uncle Jeff. I know this is your daily shoe of choice). BUT THE BEST FOR HAWAII. Mud, rain, water, sand, rocks, dirt, you name it! They can do it. Yes, you will look nerdy. But if you want to embrace the mud, you need to embrace the nerd. Secondly, make an Excel sheet with all your activities and food recommendations. Or have someone else you are traveling with do it for you like I did. Lastly, eat as much fresh fish, poke, acai bowls, fruit, shaved ice and hula pie as you possibly can.
The End…
Thanks for reading my Kauai Travel Diary! If you are planning your own trip and want to do all the cool things we did, check out my Guide on Kauai! So what now? I’m now back home in good ol’ Shangle Sprangs. The good news? I’m no longer unemployed!!!
I am a Design Assistant at a small start-up sign design company in El Dorado Hills. I’m working part-time for now. I only started this past week so it’s all still new and I don’t have much to say about it. I’m pretty much just learning the software right now. The bad news? Part time= living at home.
Here’s to praying that I will be full time soon. In the meantime I will enjoy the free rent, food, and laundry. Thanks for reading all of my Kauai Travel Diary! I know it was loooooong.
Mahalo.
