We have to be at Outfitters Kauai at 7:45 this morning so it's a quick breakfast of Apple-banana Macadamia nut pancakes and some fresh mango before we head out.
We are both a little nervous about trying stand up paddling for the first time. We did see a bunch of people doing it in Kalapaki bay yesterday and they had waves to deal with. We are going on the Hule'ia river so there really won't be any waves to worry about. Still it's hard for me to get the visions of log rolling out of my head.
We meet Lucas our guide for the day, load everything into dry bags and are off for the quick drive to the river mouth where we link up with our 2nd guide and instructor Matt.
He helps us size our paddles and gives us an overview of how to kneel and how to stand on the paddle board plus how to get back on if you fall into the drink.
Matt & Lucas help us launch and to our surprise and relief the paddleboards are actually quite stable.
Once everyone is in the water we head inland and actually stand up.
We pass the Menehune Fish pond and the entire group is doing very well. Nobody falls in and before we even seem to break a sweat we have completed the 1.5 mile journey and are crossing the river to land about where the Indiana Jones swing is located. For the landing they have us kneel or sit down as we approach and then the guides help make sure you're safe.
This is a very pretty spot.
We strap on our backpacks for a short hike to a swimming hole.
Along the way we pass some good photo opportunities.
We take a few moments to help each other get couples photos and then we press on.
We arrive at the swimming hole and there is a short zip line to drop into the water and a platform that's maybe 12 feet off the surface.
Cori grabs the zipline
Showing no fear she leaves the platform and hangs on to the bar until the optimum moment.
Splash!!! Into the drink and swimming back to the ladder to do it all again.
This was good fun and while some folks needed a little encouragement to leave the platform everybody had a good time.
Once we had our fun in the water and finished our lunch we threw our packs back over our shoulders for the hike back to the river.
Due to the wind being against you at this point they don't have you paddling back so when we get to the river we board a motor launch for a 10 minute ride back to the marina.
This was a lot of fun but I found myself wishing that the paddle upriver was longer. I guess Outfitters has to do a one size fits all tour but I wanted it to be a little more physical.
I can't wait to try SUP again it is a lot of fun and it is also a good workout. Lucas drives us back to the Outfitters shop and we walk home to sample our homemade Hula pie.
The pie is great. Roselani chocolate macadamia nut ice cream in an Oreo cookie pie shell topped with caramel and chocolate sauce a layer of chopped macadamias and then topped with whipped cream. Ahhhh life is good.
We decide to go for a dip in the pool and then we have some additional Turtle time.
Ordinarily the turtles are soaking up the sun/sleeping or lazily swimming in the cover feeding by the stream outlet but this afternoon Love was in the air, or is that water.
WARNING!!! The following Turtle Porn should only be viewed by people of appropriate age.
Shocking and in broad daylight no less. Anyway once they go under water I can't tell them from the other turtles so I can't check to see if either has lit a cigarette.
Still this was pretty cool to see and while I felt a little dirty taking the photos I hoped they wouldn't mind.
We then walked over to the Beachhouse lawn to watch the sunset.
The sun is hidden behind clouds this evening but the red and orange colors are brilliant.
We strolled over to Da Crack to pick up dinner.
We got a couple of different Burrito bowls and some nachos. The food was ok for a balcony laid back dinner but what they called Guacamole was maybe less than 1/4 cup. The chips are freshly made and are good. I think the nachos with pork was the best thing we had.
Before bed we break into the Right Slice Mango Lilikoi pie. So tasty, packed full of fresh mango, the crust is perfect as well, nice job Right Slice.
What the heck we're on vacation.
Another excellent day.
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