September 26

Day 13

We are meeting at the Outfitters office at 7:00 this morning for Ocean Kayaking. No breakfast since I don't want to chance it.
We meet our guides for the trip Adam & Tina as we load up our gear into dry bags. It is a pretty morning and there are two other couples going out with us today. One of the couples decides to split up and each joins forces with one of our guides so we have four kayaks going out.

Cori is ready to go!

Adam explains that we will be doing our trip in three segments.
The first paddle from our starting point in Poipu to Lawai Kai beach which is 1.5 miles west. We will stop at Lawai Kai for breakfast and a swim break.
We will continue west on the second leg of the paddle for  6 - 6.5 miles where will we beach again for lunch.
The final leg will be another half mile paddle west to our pick up point near glass beach/Port Allen. Seems simple enough.
We paddle out into the small harbor area and get the rudder adjusted and we are off heading south.

 This is a different view of Spouting horn than we've had before. It is kind of cool observing sites from a totally different angle

 The paddling is a tad more difficult than river kayaking but we are doing pretty well.

 As we begin the turn into our first landing point Adam goes over the hand signals he will use to guide us into the beach. He must time the wave cycles and he will tell us when to paddle like hell and when to stop so we can stay on top of the waves coming in.

Adam is a very experienced Kayaker but I have to say this first beach landing was a little disconcerting. At one point we were riding the crest of a wave and as a result you loose sight of land. Following the cues from Adam we make it to the beach without any real difficulty.

We are now on Lawai Kai beach. This is the same beach we saw from above when taking the bus in for the Allerton Gardens tour.

Lawai Kai from above

Lawai Kai from below

 Allerton house & Queen Emma cottage

Adam and Tina get a breakfast of banana bread, juice, coffee, and cliff bars ready while we busy off taking photos and just plain gawking at this lovely beach.

It really is a very pretty and peaceful place without another soul around. The property is owned so we can't go explore up by the Allerton house but we are allowed on the beach itself.

 That first paddle was easy, notice we are still smiling

 There are the remains of turtle nests here and there

Fueled and rested we once again get back into the water for the 6+ mile paddle.
This paddle is a little more effort. The waves are sometimes helping and sometimes hurting our progress but I think we are getting better as we go. the group separates a bit as some get a little tired. We do a decent job trying to keep up with Adam but we are still probably 4 boat lengths behind him for most of the trip. We get some excellent views of the shoreline before we group up again for the landing at the second beach.  This beach doesn't have the waves breaking as close to shore so all we need to do here is follow Adam in.  This is another beautiful beach and once again Adam and Tina get our lunches out for us.

After our lunch of the now very familiar turkey wrap and veggie wrap we explore the beach, while Adam takes a couple of folks snorkeling and Tina sacks out.
Cori looks for shells and find some nice ones

Our stay here is probably a little over an hour as everyone needs a little rest. While I am not tired I do appreciate the opportunity to walk and go up the hill towards the coffee field and snap some photos of the beach below.

Soon we are getting our life vests on for the short final half mile paddle of the trip. The paddle is easy but the channel to get to the beach is narrow so we have to paddle fast and hard to ensure that we keep the line for the landing and soon enough our kayak is scrapping the beach. This was a great trip we both enjoyed it very much.
We relax in the van on the way back to the Outfitters shop and munch on some Kauai Kookies.
On the walk back to the house we decide that we've earned a treat so we detour into Lapperts for some gelato.
We do some souvenir shopping and some daydreaming about photos we might purchase before taking our newly acquired treasures back home.

After we get cleaned up we decide to head towards Shipwreck beach for short hike

I just love this coastline. On the hike back we see someone jump off the rock into the water by the Hyatt. I would do this if I was a better swimmer.  These waters scare me so I am staying on terra firma. We talk about what to do for dinner and we decide that we are going to give Josselins another try. Our first visit here was hampered by the fact that we didn't know how were going to get into the rental that first night so we were tired and a bit cranky. We wanted to give Josselins a chance for a positive memory. Ordinarily I don't like to repeat on vacation but this just seemed right.

A much more relaxed night at Josselins, not worried about where and when we might get to sleep!!

Oven roasted AHI belly

Roasted Lamb meatballs

These ribs were outstanding

36 hour pork belly, so tasty yet so bad for us

Slow cooked butterfish

This was a meal to remember. The ribs, butterfish and pork belly were all standouts. I am glad we decided to come back and give Josselins the chance for a better memory. I really enjoyed his food back in the days of "A Pacific Cafe" and he is still working some magic.

After dinner we look at more photos we more than likely won't buy but that doesn't mean we don't admire the art. Nearly everything in my home is nature art so why not something from Kauai?  I suppose I first want to determine if anything I've taken myself could suffice?

Now it's back for a dip in the hot tub before going to bed. We've decided our last full day on Kauai will be a dog day...