My itinerary for Thursday didn't work out as planned. The scheduled helicopter flight was canceled due to rain in Lihue. I rescheduled for Friday afternoon in the sincere hope that the rain would be over by the. So I went back to the hotel to have another Loco Moco dish for breakfast. Sitting outside in the 'almost' rain climate was like a Turkish steam bath. After about an hour just drinking coffee, I was soaked through with sweat.
After another shower I got in the car and started driving north to explore the windward side of the Kauai. As expected the weather cleared up after 11 am and it got really hot. My first scheduled stop was Kilauea lighthouse at the very north tip of Kauai. The area around the lighthouse is a national wildlife refuge especially for birds. Those include the signature bird of Hawaii, Nene as well as the great frigate bird, the Laysan albatross and the red-footed booby. Of course lot's of the Kauai wild chicken were present as well, although they are in no way endangered.
Watching all those gracious seabirds fly in the steady breeze was very relaxing. So I sat there in the shade and had a very nice talk to an oder couple from Oregon.
After a brief stop in Hanalei to buy a souvenir I drove on towards Wainiha. The day was so hot that the view down to a cosy little bay urged me to stop for a little swim in the pacific ocean at last.
The beach on the food of the cliff is called Lumahai beach and is not only brilliantly white but also very very hot. So i wasted not much time stripping down and getting into the water. The water here on the north coast of Kauai was extremely clear and pleasantly cool. Swimming between the lava rocks was glorious. No risk encountering the often very strong currents.
After I got reasonably dry I went back to my car and started on the way back stopping occasionally in and around Hanalei valley to take the pictures one can see at the bottom of this post.
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