dtdesola
Registered
Because I was given so much assistance from SB members that helped me enjoy my recent trip to Kauai so much, I thought I'd try to do a little to return the favor.
Diving: I didn't do much as I was with non-diving family members and kids. My brother in law and I went out with Aquatic Adventures on a two tank shore dive from Koloa landing with Anthony from the shop leading our dive. Having visited Bonaire, Cozumel, and St. Croix, I have experienced some amazing visibility and abundant sea life. While neither the visibility nor the overall abundance of sea-life on this dive was equal to the sites I dove in these other locations, I was very impressed with Anthony in terms of his knowledge and passion for the animals we saw, and his calm, helpful, and instructive demeanor. With the exception of the two sea-turtles we saw, one absolutely massive that decided to play a game of chicken with me, coming within inches of my face from an initial distance of 5 yards or so, there were fairly few large or numerous animals to be seen. FYI Turtles are seemingly pretty common around Kauai--we saw several while walking along the beach just bobbling in the water apparently eating some plants off the rocks while being tossed about by the small breaking inner reef waves at Poipu, also while snorkeling, and aso while on a sailing tour to the Na Pali coast (more on this later): You shouldn't have too hard a time finding a turtle if that is one of your goals.
In some regards the Koloa Landing reef seemed rather barren compared to the stock piles of colorful fish I have become used to in previous dives and snorkeling outings. Due to having two young children, I haven't been diving for a few years. I do not have recent benchmarks to say whether or not the relative paucity of fish on the reef is common, or localized. An acquaintance on the island related to me a story of recently having snorkeled near the tunnels area on the north shore of Kauai and seeing just two or three fish the entire time. He said that when he first began snorkeling there in the 70's there was a magnificent abundance of sea life in the same area. He equated the change with overfishing by the locals. I have no expertise on the matter, so I can just say I was a bit surprised not to have seen more fish. On the other hand, the animals we did see were both beautiful and in some cases relatively rare. We saw, for example, a harlequin shrimp, several highly figured moray eels that Anthony spotted deep in the coral, a very cool little cleaner shrimp (looked just like the little critter Finding Nemo, but I couldn't make out his accent). We apparently got quite close to a pod of dolphins based on the audible sonar clicks around us while we were in about 45 feet of water, and more convincingly, Anthony's excited scribbling on his magnet board to that effect "Dolphins VERY Near!!". We never saw one, however. Visibility, by the way, was about 35 to 40 feet. There was also some excitement as we saw a school of silvery colored fish about 12 to 16 inches darting past us, apparently pursued by something big and hungry. Anthony suggested perhaps a jack was chasing them, which he said reportedly get into the hundreds of pounds.
One of the reasons we ended up taking a shore dive as opposed to a boat dive is that by brother-in-law, while an experienced diver, had mis-placed his C-card and efforts to find a record of it were not successful. We were constrained, therefore, to the parameters of a guided resort dive. Here again Aquatic Adventures impressed me. They provided a brief refresher course to us at no additional cost, and did a very nice job of reviewing the basics--in my rusty state I found this to be extremely helpful-- as well as passing along some breathing tips to help conserve air. Additionally, I discovered that the shop that had serviced my Apex 200 regulator--I successfully managed to bring with me in my carry-on bag--had forgotten to replace the battery in my dive computer. Anthony, who was in the shop when I brought it in to Aquatic Adventures to see if they might have a suitable battery, overheard the conversation and not only gave me a new battery and gaskets from his personal belongings, but helped me install and test it as well. Anthony also made some specific suggestions about where to go diving the next time we had an opportunity if we were inclined to find some larger specimens, Eagle Rays, sharks, etc.
Apparently AA has designs on boat dives in the near future. I wish them good luck and speed in achieving this goal. I would recommend them without reservation, and Anthony in particular, especially if you are a relatively new or rusty diver and would benefit from some calm, expert, and reassuring assistance.
As for the rest of our stay, we spent the majority of our time on Poipu beach and the swimming pool on the property where we stayed. This was great for the kids. My seven year old who began the week a bit tentative in the water felt safe learning to snorkel just off the beach, and was rewarded with lots of fish to see. Initially he and his cousin of about the same age would strap on their masks and kick and wave there hands about frenetically as they formed a u shaped bath of about six feet per leg, all in the sandy bottomed water, ripping off there masks and gasping for air as if they'd just finished a 90 foot free dive. By the end of the week they were each converts, breathing through the snorkel confidently and venturing out a bit into the reef. My son even began snapping pictures of fish with a disposable underwater camera I gave him. Obviously this is very rewarding to witness, and I have no idea how I'd get him so excited about the activity near Boston where we live. I believe the fish around the beaches along Poipu are very well fed, not necessarily naturally, and that's likely what keeps their populations high and proximal in that area. Doesn't bother me a bit, although I'm sure there are some who may be irritated by this.
We did not do a lot of touring, but we did go on Captain Andy's Na Pali coast catamaran tour. For those unfamiliar with Kauai, the Napali coast is the western corner of the island inaccessible by road vehicles. You can see it by hiking along a rugged 22 mile trail that apparently has a section about 10" wide with a sheer drop, or by boat. With our kids, we chose the latter. The tour is rather expensive--$129 adult, $99 kids in our case. They did offer us a $10 / pp discount which helped ease the pain. The tour goes from Port Allen along the southern coast nearly all the way to the last possible road stop if you approached it from the north, KEE beach, which we visited in another day's trip to Hanalei beach and beyond (also worth doing). Along the return trip the boat stops for approximately an hour on a reef where the well trained local fish wait for the boat and it's attendant riches of bread crumbs from the on-board buffet lunch. Along the journey, in addition to the absolutely amazing, otherworldly landscape of the coast--living green spires formed from ancient volcanic events, lava tunnels and tubes, waterfalls, sheer rising cliffs--just stunning--we also had the fortune of happening upon several pods of spinner dolphins who enjoyed racing along with us in the bow waves, just a few feet from where we lay in the trampoline section of the Catermaran's bow looking down at them, just about close enough to touch. This was a wonderful tour, well managed, safe, with lots of informed narration on the history of specific locations, but in my opinion simply too expensive, even with the discount, about $460 for my family of 4. I reasoned that it would be potentially a very long time before I could return to these parts with my family, and that for this reason I'd be willing to pay the steep price. I imagine many reason similarly and that's how they sustain this profitable price level. The trip is not in my opinion a good value in terms of the likely costs of operating the service to the cost of the tour--huge profit margin--but I'd probably do it again if put in the same situation.
The other things I can recommend are a trip to the Waimea Canyon. I had no idea that this even existed until the penultimate day of our trip. We wandered up the long Canyon road on advice from the Cat tour captain not knowing what to expect. I won't ruin it for those of you who haven't seen it, I'll just say, "go"!
Prices are obviously high on Kauai, though with the economy in shambles there are good deals to be had, particularly for accommodations. I have visited Hawaii three times, all in May, and so I do not have a good barometer for what other times of the year are like. I can say that all of our May visits have been graced with incredible weather, and that the islands seem lightly touristed around this time. I'd probably plan my next trip for the same time period.
Well I hope someone finds this helpful. Feel free to send PM or post with questions. God Bless.
-D.
Diving: I didn't do much as I was with non-diving family members and kids. My brother in law and I went out with Aquatic Adventures on a two tank shore dive from Koloa landing with Anthony from the shop leading our dive. Having visited Bonaire, Cozumel, and St. Croix, I have experienced some amazing visibility and abundant sea life. While neither the visibility nor the overall abundance of sea-life on this dive was equal to the sites I dove in these other locations, I was very impressed with Anthony in terms of his knowledge and passion for the animals we saw, and his calm, helpful, and instructive demeanor. With the exception of the two sea-turtles we saw, one absolutely massive that decided to play a game of chicken with me, coming within inches of my face from an initial distance of 5 yards or so, there were fairly few large or numerous animals to be seen. FYI Turtles are seemingly pretty common around Kauai--we saw several while walking along the beach just bobbling in the water apparently eating some plants off the rocks while being tossed about by the small breaking inner reef waves at Poipu, also while snorkeling, and aso while on a sailing tour to the Na Pali coast (more on this later): You shouldn't have too hard a time finding a turtle if that is one of your goals.
In some regards the Koloa Landing reef seemed rather barren compared to the stock piles of colorful fish I have become used to in previous dives and snorkeling outings. Due to having two young children, I haven't been diving for a few years. I do not have recent benchmarks to say whether or not the relative paucity of fish on the reef is common, or localized. An acquaintance on the island related to me a story of recently having snorkeled near the tunnels area on the north shore of Kauai and seeing just two or three fish the entire time. He said that when he first began snorkeling there in the 70's there was a magnificent abundance of sea life in the same area. He equated the change with overfishing by the locals. I have no expertise on the matter, so I can just say I was a bit surprised not to have seen more fish. On the other hand, the animals we did see were both beautiful and in some cases relatively rare. We saw, for example, a harlequin shrimp, several highly figured moray eels that Anthony spotted deep in the coral, a very cool little cleaner shrimp (looked just like the little critter Finding Nemo, but I couldn't make out his accent). We apparently got quite close to a pod of dolphins based on the audible sonar clicks around us while we were in about 45 feet of water, and more convincingly, Anthony's excited scribbling on his magnet board to that effect "Dolphins VERY Near!!". We never saw one, however. Visibility, by the way, was about 35 to 40 feet. There was also some excitement as we saw a school of silvery colored fish about 12 to 16 inches darting past us, apparently pursued by something big and hungry. Anthony suggested perhaps a jack was chasing them, which he said reportedly get into the hundreds of pounds.
One of the reasons we ended up taking a shore dive as opposed to a boat dive is that by brother-in-law, while an experienced diver, had mis-placed his C-card and efforts to find a record of it were not successful. We were constrained, therefore, to the parameters of a guided resort dive. Here again Aquatic Adventures impressed me. They provided a brief refresher course to us at no additional cost, and did a very nice job of reviewing the basics--in my rusty state I found this to be extremely helpful-- as well as passing along some breathing tips to help conserve air. Additionally, I discovered that the shop that had serviced my Apex 200 regulator--I successfully managed to bring with me in my carry-on bag--had forgotten to replace the battery in my dive computer. Anthony, who was in the shop when I brought it in to Aquatic Adventures to see if they might have a suitable battery, overheard the conversation and not only gave me a new battery and gaskets from his personal belongings, but helped me install and test it as well. Anthony also made some specific suggestions about where to go diving the next time we had an opportunity if we were inclined to find some larger specimens, Eagle Rays, sharks, etc.
Apparently AA has designs on boat dives in the near future. I wish them good luck and speed in achieving this goal. I would recommend them without reservation, and Anthony in particular, especially if you are a relatively new or rusty diver and would benefit from some calm, expert, and reassuring assistance.
As for the rest of our stay, we spent the majority of our time on Poipu beach and the swimming pool on the property where we stayed. This was great for the kids. My seven year old who began the week a bit tentative in the water felt safe learning to snorkel just off the beach, and was rewarded with lots of fish to see. Initially he and his cousin of about the same age would strap on their masks and kick and wave there hands about frenetically as they formed a u shaped bath of about six feet per leg, all in the sandy bottomed water, ripping off there masks and gasping for air as if they'd just finished a 90 foot free dive. By the end of the week they were each converts, breathing through the snorkel confidently and venturing out a bit into the reef. My son even began snapping pictures of fish with a disposable underwater camera I gave him. Obviously this is very rewarding to witness, and I have no idea how I'd get him so excited about the activity near Boston where we live. I believe the fish around the beaches along Poipu are very well fed, not necessarily naturally, and that's likely what keeps their populations high and proximal in that area. Doesn't bother me a bit, although I'm sure there are some who may be irritated by this.
We did not do a lot of touring, but we did go on Captain Andy's Na Pali coast catamaran tour. For those unfamiliar with Kauai, the Napali coast is the western corner of the island inaccessible by road vehicles. You can see it by hiking along a rugged 22 mile trail that apparently has a section about 10" wide with a sheer drop, or by boat. With our kids, we chose the latter. The tour is rather expensive--$129 adult, $99 kids in our case. They did offer us a $10 / pp discount which helped ease the pain. The tour goes from Port Allen along the southern coast nearly all the way to the last possible road stop if you approached it from the north, KEE beach, which we visited in another day's trip to Hanalei beach and beyond (also worth doing). Along the return trip the boat stops for approximately an hour on a reef where the well trained local fish wait for the boat and it's attendant riches of bread crumbs from the on-board buffet lunch. Along the journey, in addition to the absolutely amazing, otherworldly landscape of the coast--living green spires formed from ancient volcanic events, lava tunnels and tubes, waterfalls, sheer rising cliffs--just stunning--we also had the fortune of happening upon several pods of spinner dolphins who enjoyed racing along with us in the bow waves, just a few feet from where we lay in the trampoline section of the Catermaran's bow looking down at them, just about close enough to touch. This was a wonderful tour, well managed, safe, with lots of informed narration on the history of specific locations, but in my opinion simply too expensive, even with the discount, about $460 for my family of 4. I reasoned that it would be potentially a very long time before I could return to these parts with my family, and that for this reason I'd be willing to pay the steep price. I imagine many reason similarly and that's how they sustain this profitable price level. The trip is not in my opinion a good value in terms of the likely costs of operating the service to the cost of the tour--huge profit margin--but I'd probably do it again if put in the same situation.
The other things I can recommend are a trip to the Waimea Canyon. I had no idea that this even existed until the penultimate day of our trip. We wandered up the long Canyon road on advice from the Cat tour captain not knowing what to expect. I won't ruin it for those of you who haven't seen it, I'll just say, "go"!
Prices are obviously high on Kauai, though with the economy in shambles there are good deals to be had, particularly for accommodations. I have visited Hawaii three times, all in May, and so I do not have a good barometer for what other times of the year are like. I can say that all of our May visits have been graced with incredible weather, and that the islands seem lightly touristed around this time. I'd probably plan my next trip for the same time period.
Well I hope someone finds this helpful. Feel free to send PM or post with questions. God Bless.
-D.
