Tag Archives: Hawaii

#traveltipstuesday – Tubing in Kauai

January 27, 2015 by dustinthewind Travel Tips

Back in 1993, my friends and I used to drive up to the end of the Wailua River where there was a deep pool to swim in and have fun. It’s also where one of the canals for the sugar cane water system starts. This canal diverts water from the river into the canal right there and goes around the corner of the mountain into a cave and comes out the other side back into the canal. It was real scary but we wanted to try to float through the cave and come out the other side. We thought a lot about how we could do it without drowning. So we floated a tennis ball at the mouth of the cave and had our friends look for it on the other side. When it came out on the other side of the mountain, we floated a bigger ball to see if it would make it through. We put a soccer ball and a beach ball through, and they all made it. Once in a while the ball would have some dirt or slime on it, so we knew it was hitting the ceiling or the walls as it floated through the cave. The really scary part? Rain in Kauai would raise the river really quickly as it rushed down the mountains.

Finally, the day came when I put all my scuba gear on and tied a rope around my waist and went for it. I had an underwater light with me. We picked a day when there wasn’t much rain, and luckily I made it to the other side of the mountain and lived to tell the tale! We thought we could get rich selling this ride, but our business plan kept getting shot down. We made it through the cave, but were dead in the water as far as making some money sharing this awesome ride with other people.

We were daredevils back then. They were still growing sugar cane in Kauai and someone still owned those canals. It was too risky!

But since then, they quit growing sugar cane and someone else managed to get the idea approved and that person is making money off of this awesome tubing adventure. Now, you can float in peace with no worries of drowning. It is all kosher and insured as far as I know.

“Witness Kauai’s spectacular engineering feats as you float down the tropical waterway consisting of open ditches, tunnels and flumes all of which were engineered and hand dug around 1870.” See more at this discount ticket site. #traveltips

Hike Kauai with an Insider

January 19, 2015 by dustinthewind Travel Tips

If you like to hike (I like to hike and camp and all sorts of outdoor stuff, which is a good thing when you’ve got to travel over mountains and through jungles to assess damage after a cyclone—ha!), Hawaii is an amazing place for it. You probably know that much already.

An insider’s secret that I like to share is to take the back roads to the end of the Wailua River. The Wailua River was the subject of my last blog post. There you’ll find hundreds of stone mounds (known as cairns) left by early Hawaiians. You also find heiau—ancient structures—in this area.

But the best-kept secret is the hike that you find past the end of the Wailua River trail. You take this trail and it brings you inside of the crater formed by the volcano that made the island. This is where the river actually begins, formed by the water seeping from the ground and the walls of the crater.

As it sits at the bottom of the mountain, beneath the famous Wall of Tears (which is where some of the waterfalls are found), it is obviously a good source of water and is a trail that you have to try if you like nature and are interested in the ways that fresh water operates in this environment. #Hikekauai just for fun!

Swimming in the pools

Hanalei River Kayaking

January 13, 2015 by dustinthewind Travel Tips

Oh give me a home…

Hanalei River Kayaking is a very laid-back adventure. #traveltips Make sure you have some strong arms, because on the way up the river you will be paddling against the current, but it’s smooth kayaking on the way back, when you’re good and tired.

There are no rapids here, but one of the things you’ll see besides a lot of taro farms and birds along the way are dozens of buffalo. The biggest buffalo ranch in all of the islands is along the river here. The owner ships buffalo burger, steaks and jerky around the world from this farm. He is an awesome person! While you are paddling up the river, you will be passing by the buffalo farm and most of the time the buffalo will come down to the river’s edge to check you out just as much as you are checking them out. It’s a great photo opportunity if you have the right kind of water-resistant camera or camera case!

I found out about this ranch when I was in Kauai working and had been the inspector for the owner’s property after Hurricane Iniki (You can read more about my adventures in Iniki in my book). After I did my inspection, he invited me to come back to witness the birth of a buffalo calf. It was an awesome experience.

We were in a jeep only 20 or 30 feet from a mother giving birth to her calf and some of the other buffalo seemed to be guarding her. The rancher wanted to show me how protective the herd is, so he got just a little close and one of the males charged our jeep. Thank goodness the jeep was well outfitted with tubular bumpers all the way around so it didn’t do any damage to the jeep or to us, but the male buffalo let us know we were off limits.

Within minutes, the calf was up and walking around. Shortly after that we were turning to go back to the ranch house, when we startled the herd and damn if that new born calf wasn’t running with the herd. Wow—what a sight! I learned some interesting facts about buffalo, like the fact that a newborn calf must be able to run within only a few minutes of birth or else the wolves in the great plains of America would eat it.

Now, I don’t think you will get to experience something like that while you’re kayaking the Hanalei River, but you never know. Please stop by the HOKUKANO RANCH and buy some buffalo meat or jerky.

PS: Now that I’m figuring out more of this social media stuff, I’ve moved my Travel Tips to Tuesday. #traveltipstuesday

Kauai Adventures: Tips from an insider

November 12, 2014 by dustinthewind Travel Tips

In my book, Dust in the Wind: Real FEMA Disaster Stories, you get insider information about visiting the most beautiful of #Kauaidestinations, The Sleeping Giant. I share a little secret about that mountain… the cave, the small plateau, how to adventure to one of the most impressive views imaginable. Here on my website, I plan to share other adventures with you so that you can go and enjoy them yourselves! It is so important to do these things in life. If you’re going all the way to Kauai, you might as well get insider tips on seeing it all. (If you want to know the secret about The Sleeping Giant, you have to buy my book. Ha!)

Here, I’m going to tell you about two beautiful natural spots— you’ve seen them in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park, and now you get to see them in person yourselves!

Wailua River – The only navigable river in all of the Hawaiian Islands, this exists because of its fortuitous location at the base of a large mountain that happens to be the official wettest spot on earth. It rains on the mist-covered top of this peak every day, and those waters feed what are known as the Seven Sisters. These are the seven waterfalls that tumble down the sheer sides of the ridges and slopes. Several of them culminate in the Wailua. I spent many enjoyable hours waterskiing this pretty stretch of water, and when you take a boat ride up to Fern Grotto, you’ll recognize places captured in movies such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Jurassic Park among others. It also has a fantastic rope swing just past the Fern Grotto.

Fern Grotto – This is a naturally occurring amphitheater that is covered with a veil of native ferns. Dangling down from the ceiling and enhancing the acoustics of the grotto, this spot is popular with many visitors. Bill Gates got married there and the place is home to many feral cats as well as loads of wild chickens.

And speaking of chickens, here is another insider tidbit: Chickens – I know this sounds like an odd must see item in Kauai, but the island actually has more chickens per square mile than almost anywhere else on the entire planet. In my years of living there, I saw tens of thousands of chickens, and a lot of people are actually quite charmed by the mother hens that walk their cheeping little chicks up to strangers in order to get a handout.