Our first full day in Kaua'i was nothing short of amazing, to be honest! This morning, after I rose early at 6 to 'watch the sunrise with Andrew,' we all met for breakfast in the Ilima Terrace restaurant. This breakfast buffet has and omelet bar too (not sure if I mentioned the one on the Big Island) and I thought I'd take my chances and ask for an egg over easy with cheese on top just like my lovely Andrew makes for me at home.
Well, it isn't Andrew's, but it made me feel very close to him today!
After breakfast, we had a few hours to kill before we needed to leave for our helicopter ride (!) so we went to the beach. It was a bit chilly, and the shore is lined with rocks, so we didn't do any swimming there, but we did see a couple of surfers out on the waves.
We were due at Island Helicopters at 11:15, and it took us about a half hour to get back to the airport where their pad was located. The helicopter held six passengers all together, so it was the four of us - Mom, Becky, Doug and me - and another couple here on their honeymoon. Our pilot's name was Isaac and he was fantastic! He seemed to gauge our responses to what we were seeing and allow us more time at certain places because he knew we'd liked them. He also created his own playlist for the ride and the music was great! I even found a new song I liked so much, I may have to buy it.
The sites were fantastic too. We flew up the Na Pali Coast, which is only accessible via helicopter... or 12 mile hike - take your pick. We flew over many of the vistas that were used in movies like James Bond, Jurassic Park and Tropic Thunder and they were amazing! The pilot must get sort of sick of it, but when he named Jurassic Park (we saw both the cliff that everyone recognizes as the island from the first one and the beach where the opening of the second movie was filmed, he's like "ooooh yeah - JUUUUUURASSIC PAAAARK!!!" :)
We even saw a few whales from the air!
After we were back on solid ground, we had a short wait until we needed to leave for the Smith's Kaua'i Family Luau this evening.
The Luau is located in Kapaa which is about a 35-40 minute drive from Koloa, where our hotel is located. They start you out with a tram tour of their botanical gardens, which also have many fruits, vegetables, and animals native to Hawai'i and the Islands of Polynesia. It seems, in fact, that they are pretty self-sustaining, but I'm not sure about that.
Next is the Imu Ceremony, where the Pua'a Kalua (a pig, cooked with the Kalua method of wrapping in banana leaves and roasting with hot rocks) is extracted from the underground oven.
Dinner was great, lots of traditional and modern Hawaiian classic cuisine including Poi, mac salad, sweet bread, the pork of course, beef teriyaki and really good "Guava Lava" dressing for the salad. There was also and open bar with Mai Tais and any other drink you'd like!
After dinner, we went to a show which traveled around the Islands of Polynesia in the same way the show at PCC does, however it seemed they focused on their family's heritage rather then covering all the islands. Though, this was cool because we saw dances from China and Japan as well as the ones you'd expect and that was something new. Overall, the Luau was very well done and we all enjoyed it.
We made it back to the hotel around 9:30 and I actually fell asleep while typing this post (I'm finishing this Saturday morning...) Today is going to be a fun day too - so I'd better go get ready! :)
Aloha!
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