Mud and Fish on the North Shore

We decided this was going to be our most active day. There is a side of the island that is unreachable by car called the Na Pali Coast. We had heard it described as one of the most beautiful places in all of Hawaii. There are lots of ways to see it, by helicopter, dinner/snorkeling cruise or on foot by hiking. My brother told me about a beautiful hike to Hanakapiai falls which is along the Na Pali coast. Our hotel was in Poipu beach on the south shore so to get to our hike we basically drove around the entire island toward the North shore until the highway stopped. The streets became increasingly narrow and we encountered about six tiny little one car bridges. Here we found a wonderful beach recommended for snorkeling and the entrance to our hike just across the way. The north shore is very beautiful and part of the reason why has to do with the amount of rain it gets compared to other areas of the island. Midway through our hike we found it to be VERY muddy so we decided to take a 2 mile one way hike to Hanakapaia beach (the falls would have been 4 miles, one way) instead of hiking all the way to the falls. The hike was so much fun but we got very very dirty! And we probably should have worn better shoes, our tevas were getting a lot of attention from other hikers as we made our way through the mud. The lookouts of the Na Pali shore and the many waterfalls that we saw made it all worthwhile.


After our hike, we took our muddy selves over to the beach to snorkel. This was the most amazing snorkel spot, right along the coral. The water was very calm. We saw so many kinds of fish. It blew my mind! Here are some of the fish I saw during this trip: Ornate Butterfly, Ornate Wrasse, Yellow-tail Wrasse, Bluestripe Butterfly, Yellowstriped goatfish. We bought a guide to Hawaiian reef fish which is why I know all of these fish names! As we were packing up to go, some guy told us he saw a 4 sea turtles. We didn’t see any which was too bad. I hear there are a lot along the Kauai shoreline.

From one viewpoint along the hike we could see our snorkel spot:

Not even halfway there!

A nice view of the The Na Pali Coast from our hike:

Hanakapaia beach is not for swimming:

We finally made it to the beach!




This picture doesn't really capture just how muddy it was:

We stopped at Bubbas for burgers on the way home. I guess this is a very popular burger place. I got a taro burger and it was really tasty. Taro is the staple of the Hawaiian diet and it is used to make poi.

BTW, later in the week I learned that a helicopter touring the Na Pali coast crashed into the ocean killing two people just two days after our hike. Another helicopter encountered dangerous flying conditions and did an emergency landing on Hanakapaia beach right where we were. I’m so sad for those people that were killed in that helicopter crash. My dad said that there was also a helicopter crash in Hawaii while we were there several years ago. I'm glad we decided not to try it. It seems very dangerous.