Five 0

OK some people go to Paris, stay on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and do a cooking class, some go to to South Africa on a private safari ranch and rough it in luxury tents with the big animals, some go to Bali and surf every day, even to Byron Bay for the yoga. Marjan and I go to suburban Kekaha, stay in a lean-to in someone's backyard and turn the tap on for the local cat when it jumps in our sink. Is this travel or are we stupid?

By the way, why do local politicians (it is coming up elections here and the signs are everywhere) never mention party affiliations? Also why do locals queue for gasoline everywhere you go? More on this later.

We set off early for our helicopter flight. I did not sleep well because of the heat overnight so I was dozing through the spiel until I heard the words "in case of a water touchdown". The adrenalin kicked in right away. They apparently do the seating based on marital compatability and butt size. Marjan got seat 1, I got seat 7. Marjan got to sit next to Joffrey our pilot, I was being clipped in the behind by the tail rotor.

The weather was not great, with a little cloud about, particularly on the heights. As we took off we got the Hawai five oh theme...corny but fun. Through all that it was still a worthwhile and awe inspiring experience, particularly for Marjan in the front. Waimea Canyon and the Na'pali Coast were absolutely awesome from the air. A whole new perspective. 

Lower canyon with Waimea in the background

Three hundred metr drop

Spot the other helicopter

What we particularly liked though was the mystery of the cloud topped valley leading to Mount Wai'ale'ale. The highest point on Kaua'i and the 'wettest place on earth' ( a short digression....no it is not. I always thought it was in India and looked it up, various sources confirmed it. This is one of the wettest places on earth, or the wettest place in the USA but NOT on earth.....whew, just had to get those yanks off my back). The chooper could not make it up over the mountain to see the crater that is now a swamp as we hit the clouds and they became our ceiling. But the scenery was very King Kong (now we also saw that, yes that, King Kong mountain, it along with Jurassic Park and Hunger Games scenery is on Kaua'i). At any rate it was terrific and bugger the expense. The children will just have to do it harder.

So after the chopper we had a coffee and morning tea to get our land legs back. Bought some decent cheese (it was Manchego...say no more!) and headed off for a beach crawl. Ke'e beach to start. This is right on the edge of the Na'pali Coast and fringed by reef. No snorkles so we just swam, watched the other tourist doing the burning sand shuffle to the water, and checked out the chickens looking for scraps. We had a couple of swims in between a pleasant picnic in the shade. Marjan jumped me and splashed water in my eyes. As if the helicopter back row was not bad enough. That woman!

Then on to Lumaha'i beach where I swam in the river and we watched a couple of frigate birds hovering above us. A great kid's  beach with very calm river beach front and a wilder surf beach.

We then decided we would like to see more frigate birds but the Kilauea wildlife sanctuary was closing in 30 mintes so we decided not to stay ( County officials start work at 7:45 so they go home early too). Instead we went to Moloa'a Bay to stare at the shorefront real estate and have a swim without having to worry at the mortgage. Neat hey.

On the way back we stopped at the good supermarket again for some fish. It was crowded, I mean really crowded. A huge line in front of every register, people carting off huge loads of canned food and water. We decided to risk talking to a yank and asked if this was normal. After all who can tell? It's the storm he said. Some people are panicking he said. He personally had 24 bottles of water and one bottle of whiskey. Be OK he said, no need to overreact, I am just here because I have the grand kids staying. That explained the whiskey.

So whilst everyone stocked up on emergency supplies we stocked on on two pieces of Mahi Mahi and a lime. 

When we got in the car we tried to find a news radio station. We could not find one so we settled for Alice Cooper playing our kind of musak. We were immediately calmed and felt much better about dying on Kaua'i. We got back to our lean-to and hijacked the internet from the people who live in a house. It told us that we have Hurricane Iselle bearing down on us Thursday and if we survive that on Sunday Tropical Storm Julio is going to sing up a ....well you get it. By the way I am due to go out in a rubber dinghie on Thursday and we have a flight booked over a volcano on Sunday. People who live in lean-tos should not throw cats out at night.

Marie Anne and I have begun to take this seriously, we are practicing being mean to other people. Luckily for us it all comes naturally. We were made to feel much better when the owner of the lean-to came to tell us we were all in this together, and if absolutely necessary she would let us doss in her garage........all jokes aside, Danii our host has made sure we are aware that her house will be ours if needed and that we are part of her family's emergency plan.

Having said all that we still plan to go kayaking tomorrow. Apparently waterfalls in the river are part of the plan....walking to said waterfalls I hope and not kayaking over them. Still with us, who knows?

A couple of late extras. The mahi mahi and lime was delicious but we have nothing left to eat after the hurricane. Also, people point at laugh at our little car. A little girl waved, when I waved back her Mum said she thought it must be full of munchkins. One bloke hung his camera phone out his window to take our picture. Small cars amuse yanks. Yanks amuse me. We all win.

No photos till tomorrow as we are planning on skyping some of the soon to be poor but bereft.