Dave & Meredith's Travel Blog

Kauai is a gorgeous island.  It’s the oldest of the major Hawaiian islands, so its mountains are eroded by water and wind, and covered by a carpet of lush green plants.

During our stay, we saw the two major landscape attractions, the Na Pali Coast and Waimea Canyon.

The Na Pali Coast looks like this:

View of the Na Pali Coast from the air 

View of the Na Pali Coast from the water 

The coast is not accessible by car, so to view it, there are several options: a 5-hour round-trip boat ride across choppy water, an all-day kayak tour (one-way; get picked up by support vehicle on the other side), a 22-mile roundtrip hike over very difficult/steep/slippery terrain, and a helicopter tour.  We did a boat ride and a helicopter tour.

The Waimea Canyon looks like this:

View of the Waimea Canyon from the air

The canyon is accessible by car, which we did on a somewhat rainy day, so the incredible views were mostly hidden from us that day.  But the helicopter tour we took was on a nicer day, so we got to see the canyon from above.  There are also miles and miles of hiking trails in the park, which we didn’t venture onto because of the rain, and because my ankle still isn’t 100%.  One of many reasons to come back to Hawaii.

We also visited some of the island’s many waterfalls and scenic beach vistas.  Here are some pictures from our relaxing week in Kauai:

Dave and Meredith on our Na Pali Coast boat ride

One of Kauai’s many beautiful beaches

Kauai is full of waterfalls

Dave and Meredith after our helicopter tour; notice the stupid grins on our faces, as well as the Hughes 500 helicopter with no doors! 

– Meredith

P.S. We have some video of the helicopter tour.  We’ll post it as soon as we edit it down.