Kauai Post #2: Kayak Tour!

After a good nights sleep in our upgraded hotel room, Jason and I were up and at 'em first thing on Friday morning to go on our Kayaking adventure!

Due to my current condition (being pregnant!) we weren't able to do some of the more strenuous kayak tours we normally would have jumped at doing! Instead, we opted to do a low impact tour that consisted of paddling down stream with a guide, "parking" our kayaks after 2 miles and then taking a brief hike/walk through the rain-forest to a picnic location, and then we would be pulled back to our starting point via a boat!



Our tour guide was a funny fellow who's name I have already forgotten, he seemed to take on that Island Lifestyle and pairing that with the crazy tattoos on his back, both Jas and I assumed he was a native Hawaiian, when we asked him if he was, he surprisingly said no and instead told us he was from Colorado. I leaned over to Jason and whispered "I bet he's from Boulder..." sure enough, later on in the hike I asked him where he was from, and he said he spent a lot of his time in Boulder and even went to University of Colorado at Boulder for his Undergraduate Degree (BOOO!). Those of you from Colorado will know why I thought he was from Boulder...those who aren't, well, let's just say he's probably an expert in Hackey Sack and his cologne is of the pachouli variety!

Mr. Tour Guide was great and told us a lot about the Hule'ia River- a few Polynesian legends, discussed the plants that grew along the river (Humongous bushes that are not native to Hawaii, but came from somewhere else and had to survive in the open water for weeks before making it to the island to plant themselves! Very impressive!), and even some Hollywood artifacts- the rope swing that Indiana Jones swings from in Raiders of the Lost Arc to catch a ride on the sea plane is still hanging above the Hule'ia River!

The kayak ride was great- Jason sat in the back and was in charge of steering and getting us going in the right direction. For a few minutes, he tried to rock the boat a bit too much for my liking! The river was calm, so it was nice to take a break every once in a while and let the current take us down stream.

Once we got to the end of our kayak tour, it was time to go on a "hike"...which was really just a walk in the rain forest! Our tour guide would stop every once in awhile and tell us about the plant life surrounding us, what foods are made from certain plants, what plants were native and what plants were brought to the islands by others and why. We stopped after about 10 minutes of walking to have lunch. The tour we chose provided a picnic lunch for all of the kayakers that day, and it was a great lunch! Definitely needed for Little Mama over here! As we all sat down to enjoy our meal, we were invaded by a gang of Chickens! 1 rooster (The obvious leader) and his 3 lady hens were after our food and they were going to Cockadoodle Doo until we gave in and fed them! Luckily, we were spared a lot of damage because one of our fellow group members gave them a huge hunk of bread (Idiots) which they enjoyed. It was pretty funny to see these chickens travel down the hillside and then coming right next to our group NO FEAR!

After lunch, we stopped by a little swimming hole and 3 members of our group took a ride on the rope swing (A different rope swing than the Indiana Jones one)- neither Jason or I partook in the adventure- and we're very ok with that. Everyone that went in the water looked EXTREMELY cold on their way out!

As promised, our ride back was very laid back and easy! We just sat in a boat while Captain Ben drove us "home", it was great!

Such a fun way to spend the day and see another side of Hawaii!