Nawiliwili (pronounced Navilivili - The "w" in the middle of a word is "v") The Island of Kauai

And so much for the lesson.

The island of Kauai is the oldest in the Hawaiian chain, which is actually traveling north at the rate of 3 inches a year. New islands, currently still submerged, are forming to the south of the group. Unfortunately we went north from Hilo. If we had gone south we could have seen lava from one of the active volcanos spilling into the sea making great clouds of steam. We are fortunate. We saw it last time we were cruising these waters in 2008. How lucky are we?                                                     Here at last was another snorkel tour for the Hopster. We had forty minutes on a bus before arriving at the embarkation site. There we were told what was happening and had to sign the usual waiver forms. All 26 climbed aboard our 28 foot Zodiac which was licensed for 42. The places immediately in the shade under a small canopy were soon taken but where we sat I thought wouldn’t be too bad. As we went out, of course, the dynamics/sun changed and we ended up quite sheltered – yeah! We weren’t allowed to move once we were under way but there’s always some, especially since the number of US citz. has increased.  Our guides did not mince their words!! The 15 mile long Na Pali coast of Kauai is the side of a massive volcano which ends abruptly at the sea and is only accessible by sea or air. There are helicopter flights over what they call the Grand Canyon of Hawaii but we did that also last time. The cliffs have been eroded by the wind and sea but are still unbelievably high. Even from 100 metres out people on the beach are the size of ants in comparison. There used to be beautiful waterfalls too but now only a few smaller ones remain. The others were redirected to water the sugar fields to the landward side of the canyons. Sugar is no longer grown here but the cost is too inhibitive to direct them back to the cliffs. The locals aren’t too worried as the falls brought contaminants with them. Now the reef is cleaner although the flora and fish would have had to change back to more salty water instead of brackish one would think. They are very tough on pollution and litter too. Nothing goes overboard, except your lunch if you can’t eat it all, to feed the fish. We went through a huge school of flying fish and found several large pods of spinner dolphin, three with pups. It’s the first time I have seen the work of the Cookie Cutter Shark. They’re quite small, maybe 50 cm. long with a disproportionately sized jaw. They attach themselves to the sides of the dolphins who then spin to get rid of them. In so doing they detach the shark which has meantime sunk its teeth, which are just like and the same size as a cookie cutter, into its side and the “cookie” comes out of the dolphin. Ouch!!!!!!!! We saw a few green turtles. They reckon numbers have increased since the hunting ban and will soon be back on the menu. I hope not. We thumped and bumped our way to the top of the coast with occasional stops for stories, histories and legends, then back again. Two hours to the cliff proper, one hour seeing the sites and an hour back to the snorkel site. The coral was scarce to non-existent; the fish maybe up to 50cm and very friendly; the water beautifully warm. Forty minutes swimming then out for lunch, followed by the bouncing trip back to the harbour with two young men jumping with the waves in the front of the boat, and thinking they were well worth admiring. They would have been except for that particular trait. Back to the bus and back to the ship.

Time for shopping!! We caught the bus to Wal-Mart!!!! It was 3.pm. Last bus at 4 pm. Hop found some thumb sticks; I found some tops for $5. And some for $3 but they’re a bit big unfortunately. Ahhhh bliss. We just missed the 3.30 bus but were ready for  4pm.

Now 5 sea days to Pago Pago (pronounced Pango Pango) American Samoa.