In September 2010, Jen and I returned to Kauai. This time the goal was to kayak some rivers on the north shore, in the Hanalei area. We had five days and four nights available.
KAYAKING
Kayak Rental Companies
We started shopping for a kayak to rent at Kayak Kauai in Hanalei. The woman at the counter appeared to be generally unhappy with life.
Their rentals were 50% more expensive than the other places. I initially rented a kayak, and then changed my mind before driving away. The store wanted to charge $54 for a run-down, no-frills, two-person Ocean Kayak Malibu with no dry bag; when other places charge $40 for a better kayak with all the accoutrements, save for rudders.
We went across the street to Na Pali Kayak Tours, but it was closed, and there was no indication of when they might open. The folks in the store that shares their building said that Na Pali Kayak Tours charges $40 a day for a double-seated kayak, and $20 for a single-seater. Their kayaks looked of much better quality than those rented by Kayak Kauai.
Peddle and Paddle of Hanalei is where we ended up renting. They were open on time, and nice and easy to deal with. Their rate was $40 a day for a double-seater, and $20 for a single. They don’t do tours. They only have about five kayaks, but they are in good shape. I liked doing business with these folks.
We didn’t check Kayak Hanalei, which is another rental place in the area.
The Hanalei River
We paddled three and a quarter miles up the Honalei River, which is a mile up from the bridge where Highway 560 crosses the river.
It’s a pleasant enough paddle, but nothing particularly unique. It’s paralleled by Highway 560 for much of its length, and bordered by farm land for much of the rest.
After we returned to the mouth of the river, Jen saw a sign warning against swimming due to sewage. Nice foreshadowing of things to come.
The Lumahai River
We managed to make it about a mile up this river, much of that requires you to do the limbo to negotiate an obstacle course of mangrove.
We ran into a woman who was coming downstream on a single-seat kayak after losing her paddle. She said that we were on private property; but I am not sure she was correct, as we saw no postings. Nonetheless, it’s something to bear in mind should you ever want to give it a go.
Overall, this is not a river I would recommend.
The Kalihiwai River
We managed to get a bit over two miles up this river by finding passages through and under brush, followed by some wading upstream with the kayak in tow.
Of the three, we enjoyed this river the most. It felt the most isolated once you got under the bridge, the brush wasn’t as much of an obstacle as the mangrove on the Lumahai River, and it was a bit rainy while we were paddling (which gave everything a nice feel).
PADDLE BOARDING
Jen wanting to try paddle boarding. So, after dropping off the kayak at Peddle and Paddle, we rented a couple of their paddle boards and headed to Hanalei Bay.
Getting up on the boards and paddling around isn’t hard to master. I even tried surfing some small (OK, very small) waves, and managed not to fall. But I gotta tell you I don’t get the attraction to this activity.
For those who have not paddle boarded, you can simulate the experience at home. Place a board of some sort on the ground. Now stand on it and make a paddling motion (you can use a broom to represent the paddle). Keep doing this until you are bored to death. The simulation is now complete.
POSTCARDS CAFE
During our previous trip to Kauai, we had not managed to check out Postcards Café in Honalei. It advertises itself as an upscale restaurant with vegetarian options. This trip, we made a point of trying it out.
It was a disappointment.
There were no dedicated vegan entrees – only a salad, a taro fritter appetizer, and a hummus and bread appetizer. We ordered all three of these. For a main course, Jen ordered a pasta dish that had to be modified to be vegan, and I decided to forego vegan and went with an ahi dish.
Well, the food quality was mediocre. The ahi was way overcooked. The pasta was unremarkable – “blah” was the word used to describe it. For this, and a couple beers, we were charged $90. We could have done better with $5 plate lunches at a roadside stand.
The service was interesting. It’s obvious the restaurant is trying to portray itself as fine dining, yet the service people were terrible on basic etiquette (constantly reaching across plates to pour water, and disruptive retrieval of empty plates, for instance), and the waitress completely forgot the bread and hummus we ordered. At your average eatery I wouldn’t much care about this kind of thing, but given the obvious efforts of Postcards Café to appear upscale, and the expense of the place, I found it irritating.
I like beer, and this place only has four beers on the menu – no, make that three beers, as one is Michelob Light. Yet there are pages of wines from which to choose. This perplexes me.
Overall, we found Postcards Café to be unimpressive and too expensive for what it is.
After this, we bought food at a local store and cooked for ourselves.
LODGING
For this trip, we snagged a vacation rental house off VRBO.com. This is always a bit of a risky option – you can never be fully sure of what you are getting until you show up – but I like having a house to myself, with all the privacy and space and independence that comes with it, especially when it can all be had at less cost than a hotel room. Overall, I have been more pleased than disappointed with my vacation rental experiments.
Well, this particular rental is a cautionary tale. It worked out, but it could have been a disaster.
The first problem came when we pulled up, only to discover that we were getting the top floor of the house – not the whole house – and that there was a young couple who lived in the bottom floor and acted as caretakers. Arghhhh! I value privacy, and having someone else in the same house ain’t exactly the privacy I seek when I rent a house. We were just about to bag the whole thing and run to a Princeville hotel, when we learned that the downstairs couple was heading off island the next day. So, it worked out, but only by luck…not by plan. And no, the owners had not disclosed at all in their listing that the house was shared.
A second issue was the upper floor rooms had no ceilings of their own, only walls that separate each other from view. Imagine twenty foot ceilings in a big open space, with ten-foot cubicle walls to divide it into rooms, and you’ll get the idea. As you can imagine, every sounds carries throughout the entire floor. No big deal if you are a couple travelling alone, but a family or multi-couple group? It would likely take a chunk of romance out of any hopes for a romantic vacation, if you know what I mean.
The third issue was the mini-commune in the lot next door – folks living in tents, cooking in an open air kitchen, tarp shelters, etc. The constant and close activity significantly reduced the sense of privacy.
Fourth, there was a group of dogs that lived on the same street as the rental, and they barked at everything that even thought about moving. This made for a good bit of extra noise. Add in the breakfast cooking in the commune next door, and any chance of sleeping in was shot.
The lesson learned? Interrogate the hell out of anyone from whom you rent a vacation property. Is it a stand-alone house? Is anyone else staying on the property? How close are any neighbors? What’s the noise level? Is the house constructed with ceilings over the rooms (wouldn’t previously have thought to ask this one, but now it’s on the list)? Don’t assume that the property listing is accurate, or that the owners are making a full disclosure.
LEPTOSPIROSIS
If you have been to pools at the bottom of Hawaiian waterfalls, you have probably seen those signs warning you of the leptospirosis risk that comes with taking a dip.
Leptosiprosis is a bacterial infection that results from exposure to water contaminated by the urine of infected animals – animals like pigs and cows and horses, which are pretty much what you find in the forests and pastures near the streams of Hawaii.
It normally takes two days to four weeks for symptoms to show after receiving this little gift. The symptoms are said to usually begin abruptly, and are generally described as flu-like, including such joys as fever, chills, headache, muscle aches, vomiting, and diarrhea. One of the symptoms listed by some sources is eye pain when exposed to bright lights. Someone who gets this thing can appear to get better without treatment, only to have the illness return for a second round, this one being more severe with the added risks of kidney or liver failure or meningitis.
Well, a week after we returned from Kauai, Jen went for a morning run all full of energy and feeling good. A few hours later, she was in bed and sick to the point of barely communicative. I found her with all the lights off, because they hurt her eyes. She had severe muscle pain, as well as all the classic flu symptoms. In just a few hours, she had gone from 100% to negative numbers. I reckon that qualifies as an abrupt onset of symptoms.
Off to the hospital we went, where she was given a multi-day course of antibiotics. It still took a few weeks for her to fully recover her strength.
Remember that sign Jen saw on the Honalei River? The one warning against swimming due to sewage (we never swam, but you still get wet with a sit-on-top kayak). Like I said, a nice foreshadowing of things to come.
STOP YOUR WHINING
I imagine it seems that I do a lot of complaining in my postings. Well, I do…mostly because I don’t like being told I am getting X, only to discover that I am really getting Y. I certainly don’t like paying a premium rate for crappy service or a crappy product. And I really don’t like it when someone charges me an excessive rate for a piece of crap, and then acts like they are doing me a favor.
For illustration, let’s take a look at dining…
If I eat at a Waffle House in rural Mississippi, I expect there is going to be some roughness to the service, given that I’ll get out of there for under $10 for those hashbrowns and that coffee (and I love Waffle House hashbrowns, by the way). But if I am paying $100 for a meal at a place that puts on airs, I expect my butt to get a little kissing, and the food to be exceptional.
And this is where I have a bit of angst with hotels and restaurants and services in areas that feed off tourism. My experience is that most of them could give a shit if you walk away a satisfied customer or not, as repeat business is not part of the math. It’s all about squeezing as much money out of you for the least overhead in the shortest amount of time. If the woman who rents you the kayak is a complete bitch, or if that $26 pasta dish tastes like it came out of a can, it really doesn’t matter. You probably won’t be coming back again, anyway.
I don’t like being treated like a walking ATM.
But, of course, not every establishment is like this. Take Peddle and Paddle in Hanalei. They did good service for a competitive price, and did it with an attitude that made me want to keep giving them my business. They are the stars of this trip.