Unlike Maui and the Big Island, the road ends at the Na Pali coastline nine miles from Hanalei. A life guard shack at Ke’e Beach will stop you on route 560.
People come here to swim and snorkel. But, the major activity is to walk the Kalalau Trail. It goes for 11 miles, but it is rugged. We did two miles of this trail back in 1998. There are some beautiful vistas but the trails in Kauai are very strenuous and only for the very experienced hiker. At each trail, the signs indicate that the trail is dangerous with steep drop-offs!!
The Na Pali coast is where many of the Hollywood pictures have been filmed like Jurassic Park and the classic, “Six days, Seven nights.” There are parts of these mountains that get over 400 inches of rain—the rainiest spot in the world allegedly.
A few miles from Princeville, across a one lane bridge, is a small village of Hanalei. The bridge has not changed for years. With the amount of traffic, the custom is to allow “five to seven” cars go through at a time. The system works, but we did see a few abuses of eight and ten cars at a time.
There are way too many trucks in Hawaii. Trucks of all types. You can tell the tourists because many of them—not us—drive jeeps and convertible mustangs.
Since our first visit in 1998, Hanalei has changed very little—and people want to keep it that way. It has a “hippie” motif. Let not the old buildings fool you. The homes are extremely expensive in the area. I liked the street named, “Mahi Mahi.”
We found the GMO issue to be very important to many Hawaiians. Much of the farming is done right here on Kauai. Many feel strongly against GMO.
Hanalei Bay, a block away from the village is a wonderful beach filled with incredible views.
Every Saturday morning there is a Hanalei farmers market. We came across Keoni Durant at the Saturday market. He is known for his wood carvings.
The first Saturday of every month is a “surfboard swap.” It is really neat to see all the surfboards and people looking at them. Surfing is the major sport here.
Andy Irons came from Hanalei. He was a famous surfer. He died in 2010. Andy is highly remembered in these parts.
We have met several interesting people. Kelly Confers has lived in the area for 22 years. He is a well-liked carpenter. We have seen his work at one of the restaurants. He was born in 1955—the same year as Steven Jobs and Bill Gates, and myself—and will turn 60 this year. Kelly refuses, though, to own a computer, and thus he will never see his picture.
It seems the Hanalei Gourmet Cafe is the place to meet people. We met Renza and Donald. Renza has a beauty salon in San Francisco. We connected to her immediately—as Kathie once owned a salon—but Renza actually once lived in Port St. Lucie, a community just north of us. It is a small, small world!
We ran into Ken and Cindy Johnson, not once, but four times. They live 30 miles north of Manhattan and both worked on Wall Street. They also own a home on Martha’s Vineyard which they rent out for 9K a week during summer season. They are right across from the ocean where the movie “Jaws” took place.
You may have seen the movie, “Descendants” with George Clooney which was partially filmed in Hanalei Bay area. There is a restaurant scene that took place at a restaurant named Tahiti Nui. The restaurant is known for its good pizza. Some people describe Tahiti Nui as a “dive bar.”
The bartender, Julia, actually had a small part in the movie. She lights up as she tells the story.
When it rains off the mountains, you can see “waterfalls” of white streaks coming down.
We met a lawyer from Nashville at Akaka Falls on the Big Island who said, “It’s an AFW.” “What do you mean by AFW,” we asked. “You see so many waterfalls in Hawaii, the experience becomes, as he states, “Another F…king Waterfall.” We have never felt that way. Just down the road we saw the beautiful Wailua Falls.
There is a reason why everything is so green, it does rain in the northern part of Kauai. We have been here when we have had plenty of sun. For the last 13 days, though, we have had rain every day. We see now why people vacation in a sunnier area of Kauai, known as Poipu. Every once in a while the sun does show itself and we caught another nice sunset over Hanalei Bay.
