Our trip to Hawaii in 2011 was prior to starting our blog. But I often get asked or I just want to share the amazing places in Hawaii, so I have decided to go back and blog about it. Thankfully Dustin suggested on this trip we should keep a journal of what we did. His parents always did that when they went on vacation. It’s funny to look back at our habits in 2011, our diet has drastically improved and we aren’t quite as cheap! Then we were in lots of student loan debt and were thankful for my parents giving us some timeshare weeks to make this trip a reality.
We arrived in Lihue, Hawaii on Island of Kauai at 4:30 PM HST (10:30PM EST) on May 31st. We got our rental car, checked in at the resort in Poipu, got a quesadilla from the bar, and went to bed! We were exhausted after 14 hours of traveling. Dustin awoke the next day at 3:00 AM HST (9:00 AM EST), thankfully I was able to sleep until 6 AM HST. We took a walk over to the Hyatt grounds and Shipwreck Beach for about an hour until the grocery store opened. We then got groceries at “Big Save” which by the Ohio dollar was not a big save, more of a big rip off.
We came back and ate roast beef wraps and spent the morning at the pool. After some time at the pool we headed out to find a beach. We took the road past the Hyatt to an unpaved road.There we followed it for a few miles and came to Mahaulepu Beach. We were able to hike back towards the Hyatt and our resort and we saw a cave. It was a beautiful beach and the cave was cool.
Then we headed off to a farmers market where we purchased fresh apple-bananas, organic broccoli, papaya, pineapple, and mangoes, yummy! Way better options than the Big Save! 🙂 On the way back we saw the signs for Opaekaa Falls and we drove up above the Wailua River Valley, boy was that beautiful! When it’s shrimp mating season these falls turn red.
We stumbled upon a Shaved Ice place called ONO ONO’s Shaved Ice in Kapaa. It was super yummy and Dustin’s tongue was blue afterwards. (I’m pretty sure in 2015 we wouldn’t consider a blue dye snow cone a viable snack option, ha!). We stopped at Walmart on the way home in Lihue for a few hiking supplies. Then we headed back to cook dinner.
The next day Dustin was able to sleep a bit longer, he slept until around 5 AM. We went on an open house/tour of the property AKA timeshare presentation. We said no a few times and got a great price for Captain Andy’s boating along the NaPali Coast for later in the week. After the presentation we headed off to check out some more sights, we drove West of Poipu where we are staying and saw the Spouting Horn. Then we headed to Waimea, we stopped at Salt Pond Beach & the Waimea visitors center.
Then we headed to one of the most beautiful beaches we’ve ever seen. Unfortunately it was a 5 mile journey on dirt roads, that we weren’t supposed to take our rental car on. The risk was well worth it. Polihale beach was beautiful! We walked up and down the beach then tried to find what our book called “Queen’s Pond” thinking it was some sort of pond or water pool. We had to look for the monkey pod tree and turn left. We found what we thought was the only Monkey Pod Tree 3.5 miles in and turned. We climbed the sand dunes just like the book said and we didn’t see what we would call a pond but a beautiful almost private beach! Again amazing! After the bumpy ride back we went north to Walmart one more time to get hiking back packs with water pouches. We were gearing up to hike on Friday. The book I’ve been referencing was called “Hawaii Off the Beaten Path.” Highly recommend!
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