After a full nights sleep we woke refreshed. Greg threw together a breakfast of eggs and healthy smoothie for us to start our day. Today’s adventure was tubing with Kauai Backcountry and we got to learn all about the location as we rode in their company shuttle bus up to our mountain waterway.
The creator of America Online (AOL), an island native, purchased an old sugar cane plantation that his grandfather was the treasure for. He only paid $26million for the 17,000 acres of mountain jungle, which came out to ~$600/acre. This was an extremely low price for the land, and he was able to get it because he promised that for 100 years he would not improve the land in any way. This meant no permanent structures or road improvements. As we bounced our way up the mountainside on the bumpy dirt/gravel road to our put in they told us more bout the sugar cane industry.
The sugar cane industry in Kauai eventually ran out of money and had to shut down. Prior to Hawaii becoming a state, there were no labor laws. This allowed the plantations to hire workers from all over the world for $0.49/day, working 14hrs/day. The plantations were rolling in money as they over worked and under paid their people. Then after becoming a state, it became to expensive to stay in business, so they shut down.
Our tubing waterway was through the irrigation tunnels and canals created to water the sugar cane. It was pretty amazing to see the ingenuity they had back in the 1800s. The canals we were in had 2.5miles of under ground tunnels that we passed through. They was also enough of a drop in elevation that we were always moving. A couple of minor ripples many things exciting and the constant pinball action of bumping against others and the banks, while we were spinning out of control kept us from boredom and enjoying the ride. A fun time was had by all.
On the way to the tubing, we saw a swinging bridge and decided to stop for a walk across it. It was pretty amazing that they put as much effort as they did into making this bridge, as it did not seem to have much of a purpose going over a small stream connecting a catholic church on one side and a Buddhist temple on the other. As we were walking off the bridge we found a sign with some of the history for it. The information told us that the bridge was created to link the people of the two religions in friendship. It allowed everyone an easy path over the small stream and was a symbol of peace between all the people.
We also got the chance to go see Waimea Falls, which turned out to be just a couple minutes up the road from where our tubing adventure occurred. Waimea Falls is a beautiful waterfall, where several movies and tv shows have been filmed. In fact much of Kauai is in the movies and there are tours to take you to all the film sites. We saw the T-Rex enclosure scene from Jurassic Park enroute to go tubing. As we were looking at Waimea Falls, I was telling Hosanna how if we had our ropes we could rappel through the middle of the falls. As I was wondering if it would be allowed or not, one of the local roadside Hawaiian vendors starts screaming, “NO DRONES!!! NO DRONES!!!”. Someone had launched a drone and was filming the waterfall. The local was going ballistic over the issue, so we decided he probably would not have appreciated us hanging off his waterfall to rappel through it either.
To finish off the day, we went to Shipwreck cove, near the Hyatt. The beach was beautiful with big waves that crashed hard on the beach. Greg and Kerry had told us not to swim there as the currents in that area had hurt many people. We listened and stayed on the shore, but there were plenty of people getting pounded by the waves. We watched one guy that kept getting sucked back into the ocean as he tried to swim to shore. I was wondering if we might need to help, when he finally made it to land.
After Shipwreck cove we went over to Poipu Bay again and saw another turtle and seal sunning themselves on the beach. While we were swimming Hosanna saw a lot of people on the other side of the beach, so we went to check out what they were looking at. What we found was a whole herd of turtles. There were probably 30 turtles snoring away, and others still slowly inching their way up on to the sand to visit their dream land.
Back at home, Hosanna got to taste her first sushi! It turns out she likes it too! I had some as well and it was very good. There was no fishy taste to it at all. If more fish tasted like that we would become official fish eaters.
Hosanna’s Take:
We headed out to go tubing today. On the way we stopped at a swinging bridge. They put it there to bring about unity between the two religions catholic and buddhism. Then we stopped by Waimea Falls.
(NO DRONES) but Daddy wants to rappel. Then we went tubing. There were five tunnels and it was three hours they had lunch for us. It was a lot of fun.
Then we headed to Shipwreck cove we saw the fish at the grand hotel. I wanted to go down the slide but we weren’t allowed. Then we went to Poipu Bay we saw the same turtle we think, and a seal with the turtle. Then there was a seal by itself. I went swimming while I took photos. Then we wanted to see a lot of turtles come sleep so we waited, but they were not coming. I was getting cold because I was wet, so we started leaving then I thought I saw cones (that is were animals are because they gate them off) and I was right there were like 30 turtles. Then we went home and Mrs.Kerry gave me some Sushi for my 1st time.
